A Writer's Moment: Reflecting on 'The Truly Great'

A Writer's Moment: Reflecting on 'The Truly Great':   “Great poetry is always written by somebody straining to go beyond what he can do.” – Stephen Spender Spender, bor...

Reflecting on 'The Truly Great'

 

“Great poetry is always written by somebody straining to go beyond what he can do.” – Stephen Spender

Spender, born on this date in 1909, was an English poet, novelist and essayist who concentrated on themes of social justice.  A frequent lecturer and visiting professor at U.S. colleges and universities, he became the first non-U.S. poet (from 1965-68) to serve as Poet Laureate Consultant to the United States Library of Congress.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Spender’s,

 

                                                The Truly Great

 

I think continually of those who were truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul's history
Through corridors of light where the hours are suns
Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire,
Should tell of the Spirit clothed from head to foot in song.
And who hoarded from the Spring branches
The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.

What is precious is never to forget
The essential delight of the blood drawn from ageless springs
Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth.
Never to deny its pleasure in the morning simple light
Nor its grave evening demand for love.
Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother
With noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.

Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields
See how these names are feted by the waving grass
And by the streamers of white cloud
And whispers of wind in the listening sky.
The names of those who in their lives fought for life
Who wore at their hearts the fire's centre.
Born of the sun they travelled a short while towards the sun,
And left the vivid air signed with their honour. 

A Writer's Moment: 'Music for those who listen'

A Writer's Moment: 'Music for those who listen':   “Knowledge is recognition of something absent; it is a salutation, not an embrace.” – George Santayana   Santayana, born in Spain in ...

'Music for those who listen'

 

“Knowledge is recognition of something absent; it is a salutation, not an embrace.” – George Santayana

 

Santayana, born in Spain in 1863 (and who died 71 years ago this month), is perhaps better known for his quote: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”   

 He spent almost as much time in America as in his native Spain and often referred to himself as a “dual” citizen.  In fact, he authored his main philosophical book, The Sense of Beauty, while living in the U.S.   It’s often cited as the first major work on aesthetics written in this country. 

      Santayana loved the beauty of the world around him and left us with many eloquent notes and quotes on nature, fodder for anyone who aspires to be a writer.  One which nicely illustrates the beautiful autumn colors is one of my favorites: 

“The earth,” Santayana said,  “has music for those who listen.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'Read and reflect on writers you admire'

A Writer's Moment: 'Read and reflect on writers you admire':   “My writing improved the more I wrote - and the more I read good writing, from Shakespeare on down.” – Dick Schaap Born on this date ...

'Read and reflect on writers you admire'

 

“My writing improved the more I wrote - and the more I read good writing, from Shakespeare on down.” – Dick Schaap

Born on this date in 1934, sportswriter, broadcaster and author Schaap was one of my early writing heroes.   I always thought it would be cool to write sports stories like he did and that he must have been a natural at it from the get-go.

But Schaap said he struggled to learn the profession just like the rest of us, even though, unlike the “rest” of us, he began his career at the ripe old age of 14 at the New York City-based Nassau Daily Review-Star while working for famed writer and editor Jimmy Breslin.  He would later follow Breslin to the Long Island Press and New York Herald Tribune.

After earning degrees from Cornell and the Columbia School of Journalism, he was assistant sports editor for Newsweek, and then moved to television, doing both news and sports for NBC, ABC and ESPN and earning 5 Emmys in the process.  In between he broke into the book world co-authoring the wonderful Instant Replay with Green Bay Packer all-pro guard Jerry Kramer (one of my all-time favorite sports books).  

 

As a young sportswriter, I had the chance attend a talk by Schaap and afterward ask him for a bit of writing advice.   

“Read and reflect on writers you admire,” he told me.  “And then model your writing after theirs.  If writing captures your attention, then don’t you want to write that way yourself?” 

A Writer's Moment: 'Mastering his imagination'

A Writer's Moment: 'Mastering his imagination': “From a good book, I want to be taken to the very edge. I want a glimpse into that outer darkness.” – Mark Haddon    Born in England on ...

'Mastering his imagination'

“From a good book, I want to be taken to the very edge. I want a glimpse into that outer darkness.” – Mark Haddon 

 

Born in England on this date in 1962, Haddon is best known for his amazing book and play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – a story of a 15-year-old boy with Asperger’s syndrome – for which he won the Whitbread Award, Guardian Prize, and a Commonwealth Writers Prize.                   

                          

 The author of nearly 30 books and many short stories, Haddon said it was his “late” discovery of the joy of reading that took him off a path toward mathematics and onto one in the writing world.   “When I was 13 or 14, I started devouring novels; literature took quite a while to take me over, but it caught up just in time to save me from becoming a mathematician.”

Haddon likes to use a combination of humor, sensitivity and adventure in his writing and advises beginning writers to, “Use your imagination and you'll see that even the most narrow, humdrum lives are infinite in scope if you examine them with enough care.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Have Notebook, Will Write'

A Writer's Moment: 'Have Notebook, Will Write':   “Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to ...

'Have Notebook, Will Write'

 

“Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea forever.” – Will Self

Born in London on Sept. 26, 1961 Self is a novelist, journalist, political commentator, television personality and author of 12 novels, 6 collections of shorter fiction, and 9 collections of non-fiction writing that includes his newest best-seller Why Read.   Fiction, though, is his forte’ and he said. “I always wanted to write fiction. Always. As far back as I can remember it's been integral to my sense of myself - everything else was always a displacement activity.”

He is a graduate of Oxford University and first got interested in writing at age 10, greatly influenced by science fiction writers like Frank Herbert.  Self’s first published book, a 1991 collection of his short stories called The Quantity Theory of Insanity, thrust him into the public eye and since then he’s been nominated for many awards, in particular for his novels Umbrella and Dorian.

“The writing life is essentially one of solitary confinement," the aptly named Self said.  "If you can't deal with this, you needn't apply.”

A Writer's Moment: 'The Power to Read'

A Writer's Moment: 'The Power to Read': “I could name you a dozen superheroes whose powers I'd like to have. But if I could have any power in the world, it wo...

'The Power to Read'

“I could name you a dozen superheroes whose powers I'd like to have. But if I could have any power in the world, it would be the power to read or watch a creative work and absorb the technical skill of the people who made it.  Because then I could have even more fun writing. That's my core identity. I'm a writer. I just love telling stories.” – Kurt Busieck 

A Writer's Moment: 'The powers of observing'

A Writer's Moment: 'The powers of observing':   “I love the line of Flaubert about observing things very intensely. I think our duty as writers begins not with our own...

'The powers of observing'

 

“I love the line of Flaubert about observing things very intensely. I think our duty as writers begins not with our own feelings, but with the powers of observing.” – Mary Oliver

Born this date in 1935, Oliver won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for her poetic stylings, and The New York Times described her as "far and away, [America's] best-selling poet.”   She began writing poetry at the age of 14 never really stopped until her death in 2019. 

 

Oliver's poetry turns towards nature for its inspiration and describes the sense of wonder it instills in her. "When it's over," she says, "I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement.  I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms."  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Oliver’s,

 

A Dream of Trees

There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees,
A quiet house, some green and modest acres
A little way from every troubling town,
A little way from factories, schools, laments.
I would have time, I thought, and time to spare,
With only streams and birds for company,
To build out of my life a few wild stanzas.
And then it came to me, that so was death,
A little way away from everywhere.

There is a thing in me still dreams of trees.
But let it go. Homesick for moderation,
Half the world's artists shrink or fall away.
If any find solution, let him tell it.
Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation
Where, as the times implore our true involvement,
The blades of every crisis point the way.

I would it were not so, but so it is.
Who ever made music of a mild day?

A Writer's Moment: 'Read a lot; write a lot"

A Writer's Moment: 'Read a lot; write a lot":   "As a writer, one of the things that I've always been interested in doing is actually invading your comfort space.  Because th...

'Read a lot; write a lot"

 

"As a writer, one of the things that I've always been interested in doing is actually invading your comfort space.  Because that's what we're supposed to do.  Get under your skin, and make you react." 

 -  Stephen King

 

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone in America and perhaps the world who has not heard of or read Stephen King.  His books have sold upward of 400 million copies; many movies have been made from his works; and he’s won dozens of major writing awards.  Among them are the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, and the National Book Award Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Born on Sept. 21, 1947 King continues to reside in his home state of Maine and along with his wife Tabitha is one of Maine’s greatest philanthropists.  The Kings annually contribute some $3 million to charitable causes.   

 

And, he has been unafraid to share his writing talents with others, including authoring the book On Writing, one of the best books written on the craft of writing.  

 

         

 

 His advice to would-be writers:  “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.   If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write.”

A Writer's Moment: 'A license to observe and share'

A Writer's Moment: 'A license to observe and share':   “A journalist enjoys a privileged position. In exchange for not being able to participate in the rough-and-tumble issues of a community,...

'A license to observe and share'

 

“A journalist enjoys a privileged position. In exchange for not being able to participate in the rough-and-tumble issues of a community, we are given license to observe it all, based on the understanding that we'll tell everyone what happens fairly and squarely. That's harder than it sounds.” – Bill Kurtis

If you’re a fan of NPR's  “Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” then you know that Bill Kurtis’s voice is one of the most recognizable on the air.  There, he is the announcer and scorekeeper (yes, they really have a scorekeeper) on the show.

The longtime broadcaster at WBBM-TV in Chicago, where he anchored “CBS Morning News,”  Kurtis also was the host of a number of the A&E Network’s crime and news documentary shows, including Investigative Reports, American Justice, and Cold Case Files. 

 

Born in Florida on this date in 1940, Kurtis began broadcasting at age 16 and continued doing it part-time while working his way through college and then law school in Kansas.  After finishing his law degree he was weighing options in the legal field while working part time at a Topeka station when one of the nation’s biggest storms struck the region.  He ended up on air for 24 straight hours, an effort lauded across the nation and leading to an offer from WBBM where he spent 30 years at the CBS affiliate before going to CBS nationally.

While many are lamenting that today’s youth seem ambivalent about journalism, he said he believes young people are looking for answers to the big questions and there's a bright opportunity ahead in the news business. 
 

“Think of it: television producers joining with newspapers to tell stories. It's journalism of the future.”

A Writer's Moment: Historical accuracy in fact, and words

A Writer's Moment: Historical accuracy in fact, and words:   “I write novels, mostly historical ones, and I try hard to keep them accurate as to historical facts, milieu and flavor.” – Gary Jenning...

Historical accuracy in fact, and words

 

“I write novels, mostly historical ones, and I try hard to keep them accurate as to historical facts, milieu and flavor.” – Gary Jennings

Born on this date in 1928, Jennings wrote the bestselling historical book Aztec and had a stellar career as a writer of historical fiction.   A native of Virginia, he began writing as a war correspondent in the Korean War (awarded a Bronze Star for heroism in the process).   

His thoroughly researched – and sometimes massive – novels are known for their detail.   He spent 12 years in Mexico researching Aztec and its sequel Aztec Autumn and joined 9 different circus troupes to write his bestseller Spangle. 

 

 In the course of his writing Jennings learned that many words modern writers take for granted simply didn’t exist in the time periods he wanted to represent – something he said all writers, especially of historical fiction, should be prepared to deal with.   He suggested that a writer looking for a project might consider  “. . . a good, thick, complete-as-possible dictionary of 'What People Used to Call Things.'

 

 “I could list hundreds of words I've come up against in the course of my work that did not exist in the era of which I was writing and for which I never could find a suitably old-time, archaic or obsolete substitute.“

A Writer's Moment: Elevating the national conscious

A Writer's Moment: Elevating the national conscious:   “I never went to a John Wayne movie to find a philosophy to live by or to absorb a profound message. I went for the simple pleasure of sp...

Elevating the national conscious

 

“I never went to a John Wayne movie to find a philosophy to live by or to absorb a profound message. I went for the simple pleasure of spending a couple of hours seeing the bad guys lose.” – Mike Royko

Born on this date in 1932, Royko wrote over 7,500 columns for the Chicago Daily News, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Chicago Tribune, beginning as a humorist focused on daily life in Chicago before authoring Boss, a scathing negative biography of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley in 1971.  In 1972 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

Royko, who grew up in poverty and was a decorated military veteran, wrote his first columns for his Air Force Base newspaper, beginning in 1955.  Ultimately, his columns were syndicated in more than 600 newspapers and he also wrote or compiled dozens of "That's Outrageous!" columns for Reader's Digest.      

                                       

His stories touched on everything from politics to sports to the movies and many were compiled into a dozen books, including three published posthumously.  The National Press Club honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award shortly before his death in 1997.

Royko said that while he love writing he also loved writing put into action on the movie screen.  "A good and strong movie," he said, "can have a more powerful social impact than any and all political speeches or newspaper editorials and columns."

A Writer's Moment: Mining that 'believability' factor

A Writer's Moment: Mining that 'believability' factor:   “Family legends confirm that I've been a storyteller pretty much from the moment I learned to talk. I quickly learn...

Mining that 'believability' factor

 

“Family legends confirm that I've been a storyteller pretty much from the moment I learned to talk. I quickly learned that character, pacing and plot were important to any work of fiction, but that nothing was more important than believability.” – Lynn Abbey 

 

Abbey, born on this date in 1948 in Upstate New York, brings a unique combination to her writing – being first a computer programmer, historian and astrophysicist, then a writer.   With her background in history, she said, “I love to curl up with a book about some dusty corner of history.”

 

In spite of that, her own writing began and mostly remains in fantasy fiction.  She broke into the field in 1979 with her novel Daughter of the Bright Moon and the short story "The Face of Chaos," part of a Thieves World shared world anthology.  She said she’s a big fan of anthologies because editors are interested in all comers, and you have a great chance to be included even if you’re a beginning writer.

 

Thus, In 2002, she not only returned to Thieves World with the novel Sanctuary, but she also began editing new short story anthologies, beginning with Turning Points.                                    

 

“For me,” she said, “writing a short story is much, much harder than writing a novel.  Short-story writing requires an exquisite sense of balance. Novelists, frankly, can get away with more. A novel can have a dull spot or two, because the reader has made a different commitment.”

A Writer's Moment: Star gazing

A Writer's Moment: Star gazing:   “A poet should always be 'collaborating' with his public, but this public, in the mass, cannot make itself hear...

Star gazing

 

“A poet should always be 'collaborating' with his public, but this public, in the mass, cannot make itself heard, and he has to guess at its requirements and its criticisms.” –  Louis MacNeice

Irish poet MacNeice was widely appreciated by the public during his lifetime (1907-63) due in part to his relaxed, but socially and emotionally aware style.   He was part of the generation called the Auden Group, sometimes known as the "Thirties Poets,” that included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis (father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis).   For Saturday’s Poem here is MacNeice’s,

 

Star-Gazer

Forty-two years ago (to me if to no one else
The number is of some interest) it was a brilliant starry night
And the westward train was empty and had no corridors
So darting from side to side I could catch the unwonted sight
Of those almost intolerably bright
Holes, punched in the sky, which excited me partly because
Of their Latin names and partly because I had read in the textbooks
How very far off they were, it seemed their light
Had left them (some at least) long years before I was.

And this remembering now I mark that what
Light was leaving some of them at least then,
Forty-two years ago, will never arrive
In time for me to catch it, which light when
It does get here may find that there is not
Anyone left alive
To run from side to side in a late night train
Admiring it and adding thoughts in vain.

A Writer's Moment: Making way for a children's book classic

A Writer's Moment: Making way for a children's book classic:   “I lived with them in my studio in New York. And of course if I were doing that book today . . .  I would have gone to where the wild duc...

Making way for a children's book classic

 

“I lived with them in my studio in New York. And of course if I were doing that book today . . .  I would have gone to where the wild ducks were and where I could study them - I would have gone to the country somewhere.” – Robert McCloskey

The “they” McCloskey refers to are several mallard ducks he purchased and took home in order to study their movements, sounds and actions.  The result was one of the world's most well-known children's books, Make Way for Ducklings.

McCloskey, born on this date in 1914, wrote and illustrated many children’s books that remain as classics.  Make Way was one of two to win the prestigious Caldecott Medal awarded in recognition of best-illustrated picture book.   McCloskey also won for Time of Wonder becoming the first writer/artist to win more than once.   Three of his other books, including the wonderful Blueberries for Sal, were finalists. 

Make Way features a mallard pair that nests on an island in Boston’s Charles River.   After raising 8 ducklings, the mother leads them to the Public Garden in downtown Boston.  Famously, a friendly policeman stops traffic for them to cross a busy street. The beloved story has become a Boston institution and "official" childen's book of Massachusetts.

In 1987, renowned sculptor Nancy Schön created a bronze version of Mrs. Mallard and the ducklings, installing them near a downtown Boston park where thousands of children climb them and many more people photograph them annually.  The park is also the site of an annual Make Way for Ducklings Mother's Day parade, featuring hundreds of children dressed in the costumes of their favorite characters.                             

McCloskey, who died in 2003, said “I get a lot of letters, not only from children but from adults, too. Almost every week, every month, clippings come in from some part of the world where ducks are crossing the street.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Each new day demands new ideas'

A Writer's Moment: 'Each new day demands new ideas':   “A writer of fiction lives in fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or ...

'Each new day demands new ideas'

 

“A writer of fiction lives in fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not.”  – Roald Dahl

Dahl rose to writing prominence during WWII with works for both children and adults, ultimately becoming one of the world's best-selling authors.   His first books, written for adults, were about his wartime adventures, but his first big splash came with his tale Gremlins, the start of his terrific career in writing for children.

Born on this date in 1916, Dahl has been referred to as "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century,” earning the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1983, and Children's Author of the Year from the British Book Awards in 1990. 

Dahl's adult stories, like Tales of the Unexpected, were adapted into movies and a television series.  But it's his works for children that are among the world’s most beloved, especially James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Matilda.  The “Charlie” book grew out of a childhood fantasy that he might someday work for the famed Cadbury chocolate company.

 

 

“When you're writing a book, with people in it as opposed to animals, it is no good having people who are ordinary, because they are not going to interest your readers at all,” Dahl said about his writing style.  “Every writer in the world has to use the characters that have something interesting about them.”