A Writer's Moment: 'As sweet as a dance'

A Writer's Moment: 'As sweet as a dance':   “Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking.” – John Barrington Wain  Born in England in March of 1925, Wain was a prolific poet, nove...

'As sweet as a dance'

 

“Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking.” – John Barrington Wain 

Born in England in March of 1925, Wain was a prolific poet, novelist and journalist, associated with the post-WWII literary group known as "The Movement.”  Led by the award-winning Hurry On Down and Young Shoulders, he wrote 14 novels, 3 short story collections and 9 collections of poetry, including the much-lauded Letters To Five Artists.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Wain’s,

                                Outside, gulls squabbled in the empty street

                                       Outside, gulls squabbled in the empty street.  Criticism

                                       and name-calling.  Salt air scrubbed the gleaming

                                       Sunday morning walls.  Gutter-split stalks, leaves, fueled the

                                       squalling

                                       and wheeling.  Feet, motors, slept. The inured citizens

                                       turned over to snore again.  Beside me, my darling

 

                                       slept in a deeper peace, like a princess in a fable

                                       all through the sea-clean, gull-torn dawn, slept below

                                       dreaming,

                                       stunned by those hours of outrageous bliss, bliss upon bliss,

                                       when love leapt higher than even the fiercest lovers were able.

                                          Patient, I lay, expecting tea and her morning kiss.

A Writer's Moment: 'The need to share responsibility'

A Writer's Moment: 'The need to share responsibility':   “Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people.” – Fred Roge...

'The need to share responsibility'

 

“Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people.” – Fred Rogers

 

Probably no other person had as much impact on children’s television as Fred McFeely Rogers, born on March 20, 1928 and famous, of course, for creating and hosting “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” on PBS.  Initially planning to be a minister, Rogers found himself displeased with how television addressed children and made an effort to write things that could cause change.  In the process he became an indelible icon of children’s entertainment and education, as well as a symbol of compassion and morality. 

 

At the time of his death (from cancer in 2003) he had been honored with some 40 honorary degrees, a Peabody Award for his writing, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  He also was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame, the first “Children’s Advocate” so named.    Subsequently honored with two Congressional resolutions, he is ranked among the 35 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.

 

The author of 31 books for kids and a dozen more for adults, he also was a great musician, recording a number of songs and writing several song books. The 2019 drama film "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” tells the story of Rogers and his television series, with Rogers' distant relative Tom Hanks giving a lasting portrayal of his legacy – which lives on.

 

“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility,” he said.  “It's easy to say, ‘It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes”.

A Writer's Moment: 'It's every novelist's obsession'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's every novelist's obsession':   “The novelist's obsession, moment by moment, is with language: finding the right next word. “ – Philip Roth   Born in Newark, NJ on...

'It's every novelist's obsession'

 

“The novelist's obsession, moment by moment, is with language: finding the right next word. “ – Philip Roth
 

Born in Newark, NJ on this date in 1933, Roth jumped into a writing career with a bang, his first book, Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories, winning the National Book Award.

  

It was the first of two National Book Awards and two Book Critics Circle Awards for Roth.  One of America’s most honored writers, he also won the Man Booker International Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award (three times), and the Pulitzer Prize (for his novel American Pastoral).

 

Roth's fiction, regularly set in his native Newark, is known for its intensely autobiographical character, and for philosophically and formally blurring the distinction between reality and fiction.  “Literature isn't a moral beauty contest,” Roth said.  “Its power arises from the authority and audacity with which the impersonation is pulled off; the belief it inspires is what counts.”  

 

Roth, who died in 2018, wrote 4 collections of short stories and 29 novels, including Portnoy’s Complaint, The Human Stain and The Plot Against America.  Eight of his works were adapted into movies.

                        

“It was my great problem to solve: 'How to write a book,' you know?” he said.   “And after you write one, you have to write another to prove to yourself you can do it again.”

A Writer's Moment: Absorbing the rhythms of the world

A Writer's Moment: Absorbing the rhythms of the world:   “What makes me write is the rhythm of the world around me - the rhythms of the language, of course, but also of the land, the wind, the sk...