The Writing Life
Every so often, I’m asked about how long a particular type of content should be. It isn’t an absurd question; it’s one I’ve googled when I need to know how many characters I’m allowed in a subject line and how many words in a headline. Such is the way of things when writing marketing copy or an article for an online publication or print newspaper.
It’s the noticing that cracks us open, lets something in.
Shows we’re in use.
Uses us.
Right now. Right this minute.
Lia Purpura’s “Recurrences/Concurrences”
Therefore, my dear friend, I know of no other advice than this: Go within and scale the depths of your being from which your very life springs forth…For the creative artist must be a world of his own and must find everything within himself and in nature, to which he has betrothed himself.
– “The First Letter,” Rainer Maria Rilke
It’s said that you don’t forget how to ride a bike. It’s a somewhat true statement. If you have ridden a bike in the past and decide to start riding again, you have a slight advantage over the person who has never ridden one. Then again, maybe you don’t have an advantage. You rode in the past, but your final ride was horrific. You had to stop riding, not because you chose to, but because you were physically incapable of riding due to an injury. For you, the challenge is not in the pedaling but in the images and memories that fill your mind.
…a fragile music tuned by borrowed contents,
each narrow flute enriched by what it holds
the song provisional, the precise note
inspiring thirst, but altered by a sip.
April Lindner’s “Crystal”
To ‘sit with’ you have to look into the gap in your understanding, not drive the conversation, not know where it’s going. Not know beforehand at all where it’s heading. – Lia Purpura, “On Looking Away: A Panoramic”