by Christine Swint
In her classic book, Writing Down the Bones (Shambala, 1986), Natalie Goldberg talks about “first thoughts,” those fleeting images, feelings, and ideas that cross one’s mind before the censor of the super ego swoops in and cleans things up for polite society. Those first thoughts form the primordial soup of authentic writing, and are the gold nuggets most gritty writers dive deep to find.
Interested? Wonder where Christine goes from here as she considers Louisa Adjoa Parker’s Salt-sweat and Tears? Go here to read more.
We’re trying something new at Read Write Poem. We’ll be excerpting many of our contributor’s articles and leading you back to their blogs for the full post. We hope it will build community, simplify Read Write Poem site maintenance and give you the opportunity to travel a little further afield and see what you discover. Of course we hope you come back again and again. But we really are a network, aren’t we?
What a liberating experience it was when I read Natalie’s book two decades ago. I had been struggling, trying to write ‘academically’ proper poetry — raising the form above the function.
I was beginning to hate writing. It felt forced, pretentious, awkward — and it was, because I was suppressing my ‘true’ voice.
Then I read the passage below from “Writing Down The Bones” and I was set free. I found the ‘jazz’ of writing that I’d been searching for. I through away the form and convention, and I’ve never looked back.
I may not write great poetry, but by and large, it is my authentic voice, the voice that speaks to me in the real-time moment of the creative act of writing – and it is fulfilling as hell…
“Once you have learned to trust your own voice and allowed that creative force inside you to come out, you can direct it to write short stories, novels, and poetry, do revisions, and so on. You have the basic tool to fulfill your writing dreams.”
Oops! I meant “threw”
That’s great how Goldberg’s book influenced you in such a positive way, Rob, and that you’ve benefited so much from it throughout the years. I hope you get a chance to read Adjoa Parker’s poems too. She is one of those gifted writers who seems born to dive into the deep stuff.
I enjoyed watching the interview of Natalie Goldberg at a Boulder, CO bookstore.
Oh sure… now I will find more tempting websites and struggle to hide my internet addiction from my co-workers.
R Is for . . . Remembering, at NICKERS and INK