Writers on Writing: "Every good book..."

"Every good book suggests that the writer, however painful his subject, has arrived at some inward peace about it, some inner resolution, even of anger and despair, even though this peace and resolution is purely temporary."

V. S. Naipul

Rat's Country: Sometimes I make it hard

Sometimes I make it hard by saying to myself, "I'll be there in a minute."

Sooner or Later You Are Going to Have a Cormac McCarthy quote...

This is one of my favorites:

All my life, he said, I been witness to people showin’ up where they was supposed to be at various times after they’d said they’d be there.  I never heard one yet that didn’t have a reason for it.

Yessir

But there ain’t but one reason.

Yessir.

You know what it is?

No sir.

It’s that their word’s no good.  That’s the only reason there ever was or ever will be.

Yessir.

From The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy

Rat's Country: It's just me and paper, dammit...

I'm not demanding an airplane, taking a town hostage to hear my needs.

"It's the phrase "without regret" that gets to me...

“One becomes sharply aware, but without regret, of the limits of mutual understanding and consonance with other people.”

                        Albert Einstein

High Mountain Haiku

          High Mountain Haiku

            Aspen in autumn
            A  shimmer of golden coins
            Soon black and then gone.

Rat's Country: I see myself on a desert island...

I see myself on a desert island waving to the search and rescue plane, shouting, "I'm here!  I survived!"

I'm Reading Anna Karenina

I’m reading Anna Karenina…

Levin says this after Kitty rejects his marriage proposal:

“When he saw it all, he was overcome by a momentary doubt of the possibility of setting up that new life he had dreamed of ...  All these traces  of his life seemed to seize hold of him and say to him: ‘No, you won’t escape us and be different, you’ll be the same as you were:  with doubts, an eternal dissatisfaction with yourself, vain attempts to improve, and failures, and an eternal expectation of the happiness that has eluded you and is not possible for you.’”

                                    Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

"Alienation from others, which results in loneliness...

"Alienation from others, which results in loneliness, is actually a projection of alienation from the self.  When you end the alienation from the self, then joy enters, and the sense of alienation just evaporates.  Because after all, alienation from others is not just a matter of leading a lonely life and not being very social.  At the heart of alienation is the feeling of unconnectedness and separateness."

from Waling in Beauty by Richard Olney

Whimsical Weather Report

Cloudy
 with
 a
 slight
chance
 of
 flowers.

"Plato use the expression "techne tou biou"...

 “Plato used the expression techne tou biou, which means “the craft of life.”  When techne is defined with sufficient depth, it refers not just to mechanical skills and instruments but to all kinds of artful managing and careful shaping…we can say that care of the soul requires a special crafting of life itself, with an artist’s sensitivity to the way things are done.  Soul doesn’t pour into life automatically.  It requires our skill and attention.”

                                    From The Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore

"Gravity Keeps Us from Floating Up"

“Gravity Keeps Us from Floating Up”

            Angus McLelland, age 5

Be grateful today

that your  coffee cup

stays on the table.

 Take cheer when you hear

the sound of one shoe dropping.

You know it will hit the floor.

When the shoe will fall

or the cradle with baby and all,

you  will never  know,

and if the suspense is killing you,

never fear.  Here’s what to  do:

(at least this time of year).

Be Newtonian.

Go sit beneath the nearest apple tree

and contemplate

the  thumps on the ground around you.

Should you get bonked

by a nice green  Pippin,

laugh and be glad

for the gravity of your situation.

Quotes about Writers or Writing: The Writer's Dilemma

"The writer's dilemma is this:  are you more talented than you think you are?  Do you think you are more talented than you are?"          

                                                   Nancy McLelland

Car Wreck, New Year's Eve

      

    
Car Wreck, New Year's Eve
         for Persephone,  the one who lived

Look at the low light through leafless oaks.
Read the trees to know the time of year.
Persephone's descent is complete.
Her mother mourns.

Distraught Demeter waits in the ER
 the ambulance speeding toward her
skimming  the wet highway,
among its cargo
the damaged daughter
who stood in the winter road
blinded by oncoming lights.

Stunned Persephone
in the cold sarcophagus
driven back to her mother
out of season
bearing a mournful message
from her dead sisters
bearing her wounded life.

quotes about Writers or Writing: "I've never written a book...

“I’ve never written a book, except my first, without at some point considering that I might die before it was completed. This is all part of the superstition, the folklore, the mania of the business, the fetishistic fuss. The right pencils, felt-tips, biros, notebooks, paper, typewriter: necessities which are also objective correlatives for the proper state of mind. This is created by putting aside all that might harmfully impinge, narrowing the focus until only what’s important remains: me, you, the world, and the book—and how to make it as good as it can possibly be.”

Julian Barnes, Nothing to Be Frightened Of

Fall Moon

Fall Moon

Membranous, warm, full,

a palpable throb

in the midst

of those cold shards,

the stars.

Full as an udder,

translucent, a sac

Full, I tell you, like a drip.

And I thought about that--

the moon suddenly dropping

Kerplunk gone.

Quotes about Writers or Writing: Every narrative arises

"Every narrative arises from one of two situations: someone goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town."

Saved on a yellow post-it, but I can't remember where I found the quote.

Rat's Country: The Dali Lama isn't the only one...

...to speak about compassion.

"Compassion directed to oneself is humility.

Simone Weil, First and Last Notebooks

Rat's Country: What if God sets your happiness thermostat...

What if God sets your happiness thermostat and even babies can't be tickled beyond their set point? What if the truly chosen are those born to die laughing?

Orison: Sotto Voce

Orison: Sotto Voce

Vestal virgin nightgowned in white

demurely kissed two foreheads goodnight,

tiptoed the stairs to her moon-made bed,

whispher-wished her gown were red.

I wrote this little poem when I was in college. Last night I remembered it.

Rat's Country: My friend is grieving

My friend is grieving. She doesn't know when to bare her feelings or how to clothe them.

Rat's Country: I feel like I am earning a Girl Scout badge

I feel like I am earning a Girl Scout badge, taking care of an elderly mother, more self-righteous than sincere.