DavioTheOne
Sit Down and Write
This lovely image speaks to me directly today, as I sit down to compose my first Front Page.
The act of writing must become a discipline, if you want to do it well. All the greats say that, or some version of it. Back in University a visiting poet once told me, Girl, you have to show up for work. And since I was young and rebellious and fancied myself some sort of poetic revolutionary, I didn’t buy it. How can it ever really come from the heart, I thought, when you have to march it out of your head?
Now I’m a few decades older, and probably not much wiser. My hair is streaked with grey, and my bones mumble. Many of those revolutionary urges have softened, or at least take up a little less space than they used to; they’re no longer so big that my guts can’t contain them.
But oh, there is still so much to say.
The soft leather beckons in that soft, dreamy light; I can almost feel it on my fingertips. The grain of that handsome wood will feel so solid in my hand when I pull back the chair. I already know the sound my teacup will make on the surface of that table as I set it down. Through a nearby window, as seasons turn, I’ll see snow and rain and sun and falling leaves. I’ll write about fire and ice and sweet and sour — anything in me that demands, politely or not, to be heard.
I’ll forgive my younger self for her reluctance to listen.
And I’ll thank her, too, because she managed to learn the lesson anyway.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, Jenn Wilson and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
