A Writer's Moment: 'The true interpreters of the mind . . . and heart'

A Writer's Moment: 'The true interpreters of the mind . . . and heart':   “Writers, not psychiatrists, are the true interpreters of the human mind and heart, and we have been at it for a very long time.” – Floren...

'The true interpreters of the mind . . . and heart'

 

“Writers, not psychiatrists, are the true interpreters of the human mind and heart, and we have been at it for a very long time.” – Florence King

 

Born in Washington, D.C. on this date in 1936, King was a longtime National Review essayist and columnist, where her column “The Misanthrope’s Corner” not only served up a smorgasbord of curmudgeonly critiques but also earned her the title “The Queen of Mean.”  She wrote the column right up to her death (just one day after her 80^th birthday) in 2016.

 

King started her journalism career for The Raleigh News and Observer, where she won the North Carolina Press Woman Award for Reporting.  That led to the job offer and nearly lifelong tenure at The National Review.  She also wrote a couple of romance novels and penned Southern Ladies and Gentlemen, a humorous "Guide to the South for Yankees.”  Her most popular book is Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady, a semi-autobiographical work focused on, among other things, her grandmother's, mother's, and father's construct of what it meant to “be a lady.”   

 

 “Write clearly, succinctly and with purpose," she advised.  "Writers who have nothing to say always strain for metaphors to say it in.”

A Writer's Moment: Avoiding average, creating masterpieces

A Writer's Moment: Avoiding average, creating masterpieces: “If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's just going to be average.” – Derek Walcott   Born in ...

Avoiding average, creating masterpieces

“If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's just going to be average.” – Derek Walcott

 

Born in Saint Lucian-Trinidad in January of 1930, Walcott won the Nobel Prize in Literature, an Obie Award for his play Dream on Monkey Mountain; a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award; a Royal Society of Literature Award; the Queen's Medal for Poetry; and the T. S. Eliot Prize for his remarkable book of poetry White Egrets.  Walcott died in 2017.

 

 For powerful and poignant reads, check out his “A City’s Death by Fire” or “A Far Cry From Africa.”  For Saturday’s Poem, here is,

                                             Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the universal language'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the universal language':   “Language is an inadequate form of communication. If you've ever picked up an instrument, it's because you don't feel you are ...

'It's the universal language'

 

“Language is an inadequate form of communication. If you've ever picked up an instrument, it's because you don't feel you are communicating sufficiently.” – Stephen Stills

 

Best known as part of two Rock and Roll Hall of Fame groups – Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Stills was born on Jan. 3, 1945, a literal “rolling stone.”  The son of military parents, he traveled the world in his growing up years and didn’t quite know where to call home as he and his family moved from place to place.

 

Those experiences combined with his amazing musical talent led him into professional performance before he was out of his teen years and ultimately into the Hall of Fame.  Both his musicianship (he performed on multiple instruments) and his writing (most of the songs of the two groups noted above plus a longstanding solo list) made him an American musical icon.

 

Ranked as Rolling Stone magazine’s 28^th All Time Greatest guitarist, Stills’ writing compliments his wide range of lyrics addressing everything from the American scene to politics to love.  His “Love The One You’re With” is ranked one of the 100 all-time greatest rock songs.   

 

He also has written many songs for and about other singers, including Judy Collins with whom he had a longstanding on-again, off-again relationship, fostering the award-winning album “Suite:  Judy Blue Eyes.”   His soft rock ballad “Teach Your Children” is also listed among many “greatest hits” lists.

 

“Mostly retired,” he still does occasional guest appearances, especially to support causes that help those in need.  “Music,” said Stills, “is the universal language of mankind.”

A Writer's Moment: 'When's the best time to read?'

A Writer's Moment: 'When's the best time to read?':   “The time to read is any time: no apparatus, no appointment of time and place, is necessary. It is the only art which can be practiced at ...