Annie Dillard on Writing
6 of 7 parts
PART SIX
Why are we reading if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize our days, will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom, courage, and the possibility of meaningfulness, and will press upon our minds the deepest mysteries, so we may feel again their majesty and power? What do we ever know that is higher than that power which, from time to time, seizes our lives, and reveals us startlingly to ourselves as creatures set down here bewildered? Why does death so catch us by surprise, and why love? We still and always want waking.
The sensation of writing a book is the sensation of spinning, blinded by love and daring.
At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you look for it. You search, you break your heart, your back, your brain, and then — and only then — it is handed to you.
“…this gift is one to share, not to keep.”
I often feel that my poetry is given to me, channeled through me if you will. It is a blessing. It is grace.
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Exactly. For you it is grace. I refer to mine as my Muse. Same difference – just coming from where we are.
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“t its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you look for it. You search, you break your heart, your back, your brain, and then — and only then — it is handed to you.”
~~~~~~~
And in response another quotation I read today:
“No one escapes the wilderness on the way to the promised land.”
– Annie Dillard.
It seems serendipitously felicitous.
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DUES
What exposure art
Whim or translations of life
Lived grasping for breath
Between relaxing moments
Finding All is within you
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Mirrors.
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STREAMING/SCREAMING
Reflecting pool
Writing inside
What one perceives
Outside is transparent
Inside is for-ever
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And there is SO much of it !
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