A Working Life

Painting Is the Sky

That’s not a new thought
& every single thing u
Built is a perch
6 black crow
And one tiny bird
On a wire says whatever
We own the sky
And half of us
Cat our blackness
Over there
The orange & pink
& yellow where the road
Ends and it doesn’t
End. Mountains
Fill the view & disappear
When night falls
What’s that word
About gathering the future
It means this
p.161 a “Working Life” by Eileen Myles

- from prolific poet, activist and writer Eileen Myles, a “Working Life” unerringly captures the measure of life. Whether alone or in relationship, on city sidewalks or in the country, their lyrics always engage with permanence and mortality, danger and safety, fear and wonder.

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg

p. 8 - First Thoughts (An Exercise)

1.Keep your hand moving. (Don’t pause to reread the line you have just written. That’s stalling and trying to get control of what you’re saying.)
2. Don’t cross out. (This is editing as you write. Even if you write something you didn’t mean to write, leave it.)
3.Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar. (Don’t even care about staying within the margins and lines on the page.)
4.Lose control.
5.Don’t think. Don’t get logical.
6.Go for the jugular. (If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it. It probably has lots of energy.)

These are the rules. It is important to adhere to them because the aim is to burn through to first thoughts, to the place where energy is unobstructed by social politeness or the internal censor, to the place where you are writing what your mind actually sees and feels, not what it thinks it should see or feel. Explore the rugged edge or thought. Like grating a carrot, give the paper the colorful coleslaw of your consciousness.

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

In this classic essay, Woolf takes on the establishment, using her gift of language to dissect the world around her and give voice to those who are without. Her message is a simple one: women must have a steady income and a room of their own in order to have the freedom to create.

Let me know what you are reading in the comments!

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