RSS

Observation of everything around him takes the entire poem, the observation of self only takes one line. A classic by James Wright.

This generation of writers.

Why is it? that whole colleges are popping up to educate writers, there are more conferences, workshops, books on craft, resources and awareness for writers now than ever before. And yet, we bitch about how hard it is to write, how difficult it is to juggle our jobs, our family, our writing time, our social lives… “I just don’t have the time to write the next ‘great American novel.” Well, fuck you. Do you think Hemingway, and Steinbeck, and Fitzgerald, had an MFA program? The convenience of student loans/federal aid, supportive families, peers and advisors to look over their work? Online social networks to expose their writing? Categorized lists of publishers, dates, addresses, genres, and guidelines for submission? They had World Wars, The Great Depression, type-writers, post-mail, wall-mounted telephones.

Sit down and write your book.

Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider, watching the “normal people” as they go about their automatic existences. For every time you say club passwords like “Have a nice day” and “Weather’s awful today, eh?”, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like “Tell me something that makes you cry” or “What do you think deja vu is for?

- Timothy Leary   (via justagirlcalledjess)

(Source: riverbones)

To be a writer you should read, write and talk to people, hear their knowledge, hear their problems. Be a good listener. The rest will come.

- Jean Craighead George (via thelifeguardlibrarian)

(Source: jeancraigheadgeorge.com)

Perfect

Perfect

Apr 1

I felt like a wild balloon in the wind / filled with secrets.

- “Elysium” by James Tate

When a woman tells the truth she is creating the possibility for more truth around her.

- Adrienne Rich (via thelifeguardlibrarian)

Poet Adrienne Rich, 82, has died

“Adrienne Rich, a pioneering feminist poet and essayist who challenged what she considered to be the myths of the American dream, has died. She was 82.

The recipient of such literary awards as the Yale Young Poets prize, the National Book Award, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and the Dorothea Tanning Award given by the Academy of American Poets, Rich died Tuesday at her home in Santa Cruz of complications from long-term rheumatoid arthritis, said a son, Pablo Conrad….”

Read more here…

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/03/adrienne-rich.html

Wonderful piece by colleague Hollie Loveless

I don’t repost entire articles very often so Please take the time to read this one.