A Writer's Moment: 'The power and danger of words'

A Writer's Moment: 'The power and danger of words':   “The more articulate one is, the more dangerous words become.”  – May Sarton   Born in Belgium on this date in 1912, Sarton has been c...

'The power and danger of words'

 

“The more articulate one is, the more dangerous words become.” – May Sarton

 

Born in Belgium on this date in 1912, Sarton has been called “a poet's poet.”   Over a 70-year career, began when she was a teen, she authored 17 books of poetry, 19 novels, 15 nonfiction works, 2 children's books, and several screenplays, writing right up to her death in 1995 at her U.S. home in New England (her family emigrated to the U.S. in 1914 and she grew up in Boston). 

 

 Her award-winning poem “Now I Become Myself” was written on her birthday in 1947 – also the day on which I was born.  It was an easy selection for my choice as this week’s Saturday’s Poem.  Here is Sarton's,

 

                            Now I Become Myself

                             Now I become myself. It's taken
                             Time, many years and places;
                             I have been dissolved and shaken,
                             Worn other people's faces,
                             Run madly, as if Time were there,
                             Terribly old, crying a warning,
                             'Hurry, you will be dead before-'
                             (What? Before you reach the morning?
                             Or the end of the poem is clear?
                             Or love safe in the walled city?)

                           Now to stand still, to be here,
                           Feel my own weight and density!
                           The black shadow on the paper
                           Is my hand; the shadow of a word
                           Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
                           All fuses now, falls into place
                           From wish to action, word to silence,
                           My work, my love, my time, my face
                           Gathered into one intense
                           Gesture of growing like a plant.
                           As slowly as the ripening fruit
                           Fertile, detached, and always spent,
                           Falls but does not exhaust the root,
                           So all the poem is, can give,
                           Grows in me to become the song,
                           Made so and rooted by love.
                           Now there is time and Time is young.

                            O, in this single hour I live
                            All of myself and do not move.
                            I, the pursued, who madly ran,
                            Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!

  

A Writer's Moment: 'Watching your characters in action'

A Writer's Moment: 'Watching your characters in action':   “Writing a mystery is more difficult than other kinds of books because a mystery has a certain framework that must be superimposed over th...

'Watching your characters in action'

 

“Writing a mystery is more difficult than other kinds of books because a mystery has a certain framework that must be superimposed over the story.” – Martha Grimes

 

Grimes was born in Pittsburgh, PA, on this date in 1931, a fact that sometimes shocks her readers – not that she was born in Pittsburgh, but that she was born in America.  That’s because her best-known mysteries feature Scotland Yard detective Richard Jury and many of her readers thought she was British.  Her first novel – and also the first of 25 to feature Jury – was 1981’s The Man With a Load of Mischief.   Her latest Jury book, The Old Success, came out in 2019.

 

Each of her “Jury” mysteries is named after a pub.  She didn’t intend to have her hero do a story in the U.S., but when she saw a pub in Baltimore called The Horse You Came In On, she couldn’t resist setting a book by the same name in that location.  

 

Named “Grand Master” by the Mystery Writers of America, Grimes also has written a dozen other books, including several set in Maryland where she grew up and where her mother ran a hotel.  Her “Emma Graham” series of novels is set in a Maryland hotel similar to her mother’s. 

 

“I don't think I could have just kept writing the 'Richard Jury' books.  It wasn't that I was bored or dissatisfied. I just had to write something else,” she said.  “I just enjoy telling stories and watching what these characters do.”

A Writer's Moment: A very successful 'Catch'

A Writer's Moment: A very successful 'Catch':   “Every writer I know has trouble writing.”  –  Joseph Heller   Born in New York City on May Day, 1923 Heller was an unknown writer when ...

A very successful 'Catch'

 

“Every writer I know has trouble writing.” –  Joseph Heller

 

Born in New York City on May Day, 1923 Heller was an unknown writer when he pitched his idea for Catch-22 to Simon & Schuster and editor Joseph Gottlieb decided to take a chance.  The rest, of course, is history.  The novel, published in 1961, became one of the all-time best sellers and a successful movie, its title embedded in our language.

Originally, he intended for his book's title to be Catch-18, and the first chapter was actually published as a short magazine article with that name.  But famed author Leon Uris had a new book called Milas 18, so to avoid confusion Heller changed his to Catch-22.   Ultimately, the book catapulted Heller into a highly successful career writing books, plays and movie scripts.

Besides his famous book title, Heller (who died in 1999) coined a couple of other phrases that have become part of the world’s lexicon.  “Some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity, and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them,” he said.  And “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.”   

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing stories for all the ages'

A Writer's Moment: 'Writing stories for all the ages':   “It's a wonderful thing to write for children.   I move between the two: I write an adult novel, and then I write a children's boo...