Category Archives: writing

on writing, rewriting, & taking notes

A thousand flowers in my mailbox

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pink flowersby

Pink Flowers by Salvatore Vuono/freedigitalphotos.net

I subscribe to Poetry Chaikana, which emails me daily poetry of a spiritual bent.  This recent one especially struck me:

Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn

By Wu Men (Hui-k’ai)
(1183 – 1260)

English version by Stephen Mitchell

Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.

 

colorful umbrella in the rain by sektorda/patiobeachumbrellas.com

colorful umbrella in the rain by sektorda

 

Still revising.  Far from done.

There’s a song, Four Seasons In One day by Crowded House which is in my head.   Here it is:\”Four Seasons in One Day by Crowded House\”

Stumbling through my eyes

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La Vase Paille, Oil on canvas, 73 x 60 cm - The Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania

La Vase Paille

 

 

 

That’s what I read, but the sentence I read really said “Istanbul” not “Stumbling.”  What I thought it said sounds like a song by Gilbert O’Sullivan (Stumblin’ thru my eyes/  what a big surprise/ I thought I knew but what I knew I never really knew/Alone Again/ Natur’ly.)

 

 

Speaking of Istanbul, my brilliant friend and poet, Lillias Bever is the author of Bellini in Istanbul, from Tupelo Press.  It is a beautiful book!

It was Cezanne’s birthday a few weeks back. It’s Saturday, and once again, I’m rewriting.  The book is not done. The next time I finish the book, finish this revision, I’m keeping quiet.  I spent some of the afternoon listening to Colson Whitehead‘s lecture on How to Write at a Chicago Humanities Festival on the web.  Toni Morrison, with her wonderfully rich voice is also on the site, and it felt good to recognize her voice.

All this stumbling through the mind today.

after done

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Ossian's Cave front door at The Hermitage, Sco...

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What does one do after the project is done?  I think you start a new one.  It’s like making a habit of reading books at bedtime.  If you find yourself without, you look woefully at the seed catalogues and magazines, but they just leave your mind more awake.  What you need is a good novel.

My next book of fiction.  I think the way to do it is write in the morning, steadily, until an idea pops out.  Usually, my best ideas come while I’m washing the dishes.  I’ve got an inkling, a young heroine and a mysterious cave.

If I were to cluster “cave” I’d get:

dark                      bats                       riches                    clouds, lack of

paths                              cave magic

wings fluttering              entrance             hidden            mysterious        protagonist

Of course the problem in clustering on a public medium is the degree of self-consciousness that enters the game.  That is why blogging is different from composing a novel.  The latter needs, what? Many many drafts and no one looking.  The former requires instantaneous verve.