why write?
My latest online writing class called VerbTribe just ended. To celebrate an amazing journey, I’m posting the work of writers in the group as they’ve responded to some of the prompts during this class. This beautiful piece by Carol Sanders considers why we write. My thanks, Carol, for this strong offer. (One of Carol’s compelling essays is also included in my latest book, What I Wish For You.)
Why write?
-Carol Sanders
We have so few opportunities for our voices to be heard, to choose the subject, the tone, the occasion, to choose the exact right word or phrase, to craft something to endure. The words don’t have to be fancy. One of our greatest living poets Mary Oliver uses the simplest of words, but puts them together in a way that resonates: “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?” Perhaps you are called to capture the morning sunlight glinting off a black truck full of furniture speeding down the highway or the gentle way the multicolored parachute drifts to the earth. Perhaps you are called to write a blessing of loving kindness. Perhaps it is the story of your grandparents enduring the Depression or your father’s bravery as a young World War II sailor. With your magic pen you can pluck those stories from the air and hold those moments up to the light, a sliver of reflection, a small rest stop in this hectic journey we are making.
The world needs opportunities to see the morning sun, the joy of gentle descent, the blessing of loving kindness and stories of courage. Why would you not use your talent to tell your truth? We write not only to find out what we think, but also to etch those stories and ideas into the landscape of our hearts and those who may read it. As surely as any painter with a brush, a writer can evoke a mood, a scene, the spoken and unspoken words, the action and the people and capture those fleeting moments of time that will never come again as we sail through space on this great planet. We can capture what has been, what is, and what may be.
Even a few lines can make a difference. I have my grandmother’s 5 year diary from the Thirties. With only four lines a day, she has let me see her life through her eyes–the dark days of no money and no job with 6 children, baking two devil’s food cakes for birthdays, sewing doll clothes to scrape by at Christmas and then the joy when my grandfather found a job. She could not possibly have known that one day her young daughter’s daughter would read her writings and marvel at her courage. What a gift–those writings from some 80 years ago.
One of my favorite quotes is from Rilke: “If your everyday life appears to be unworthy subject matter, do not complain to life. Complain to yourself. Lament that you are not poet enough to call up its wealth. For the creative artist, there is no poverty–nothing insignificant or unimportant. “For me, capturing life is the most important part of my writing–to hold up and capture with the butterfly net of my words those magical instances when the angels visit and we see the divine in the ordinary days of our time here on earth.
