Blue Pastures by Mary Oliver

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          Writers should be perspicacious; poets have to be. The job description requires discernment and perception when choosing which moments to capture as well as the essential words to create true poetry.

          Among the very best is Mary Oliver, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, who publishes both poems and prose. I highly recommend her poems “The Summer Day” on page 60 of House of Light; “Wild Geese” on page 14 of Dream Work; and “This World” on page 27 of Why I Wake Early among many, many others. I wrote about her book, Dog Songs: Thirty-five Dog Songs and One Essay, in a post dated 4/28/14.

           From the title, I thought Blue Pastures would be more luminous writings about nature, her favorite topic, and it is, but it’s also her story of becoming a poet and writer.

          These are only a few of my favorite lines and passages:

                    …at my desk…I am deep in the machinery of my wits.

                    (p. 1)

In truth, the work itself is the adventure. And no artist could go about this work, or would want to, with less than extraordinary energy and concentration. The extraordinary is what art is about. (p. 5)

The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave it neither power nor time. (p. 7)

I never met any of my friends, of course, in a usual way—they were strangers, and lived only in their writings. But if they were only shadow-companions, still they were constant, and powerful, and amazing. That is, they said amazing things, and for me it changed the world. (p. 13)

Art: hope, vision, the soul’s need to speak. (p. 49)

Poetry, after all, is not a miracle. It is an effort to formalize (ritualize) individual moments and the transcending effects of these moments into a music that all can use. It is the song of our species. (page 59)

It takes about

seventy hours to drag

a poem into

the light.

(p.59)

…the blank piece of paper, and my own energy…(p. 70)

Look for verbs of muscle, adjectives of exactitude. (p. 89)

[I have this taped to my computer monitor.]

Each of us brings to the poem, to the moving pen, a world of echoes.

(p. 109)

We react, we imitate, we imagine, we invent. (p. 111)

          While I’ve been reading Mary Oliver’s work for over a decade, I somehow missed Blue Pastures until recently, much to my dismay. Now it’s one of my top recommendations for writers as part of learning to give their creative work power and time, muscle and exactitude.

A Word I Love

By Kate Phillips

          Last week I reviewed One Word: Contemporary Writers on the Words They Love or Loathe edited by Molly McQuade. This week I wrote about a word I love.

          My favorite word is perspicacious, an adjective based on the noun perspicacity. I would have picked perspicacity, but it’s too harsh sounding when pronounced. Perspicacious rolls off the tongue.

          I think being perspicacious—acutely perceptive, discerning—is like having a super power. It makes you an excellent judge of character, intuitive, wise, and a better writer as words like perspicacious reinforce the importance of finding the right word instead of dragging your writing down with explanatory phrases.

          When I looked up perspicacious in The American Heritage Dictionary to double check the definition, I discovered perspicuity, defined as the quality of being perspicuous, with the sentence example “He was at pains to insist on the perspicuity of what he wrote.” Perspicuous is defined as clearly expressed or presented.

Professional writers are required to clearly express themselves by using the right words—to be exact. To find the right words, I recommend referring to The Synonym Finder by J. I. Rodale and the Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus. They will help you become a perspicacious writer.

         

          For more information, I wrote about these two books in a post dated 6/9/14.

One Word: Contemporary Writers on the Words They Love or Loathe edited by Molly McQuade

By Kate Phillips 

          If you want a few laughs or points to ponder, read One Word: Contemporary Writers on the Words They Love or Loathe edited by Molly McQuade. It’s a perfect book to open at random although starting with words you love or loathe works as well.

          There are essays on familiar words like blog, dive, and verb. Unfamiliar words to me: darb, floccinaucinihilipilification, and solmizate. Unbelievable words—who has strong feelings about as, line, or pants? (Brenda Hillman, Eleanor Wilner, and Nathaniel Taylor with good reasons.) And hilarious choices like eek, ickybicky, and sweetie.

          The essays on prefer and riff are filled with literary references. Echo and half-light are poetically described. Eye and topsoil are scientifically discussed. And word origins are sometimes included. A great deal is learned by reading these essays besides whether a word is loved or loathed.

          What word do you love or loathe enough to write an essay about?

          I’ll share my essay about a word I love or loathe next week.

The Readers of Broken Wheel by Katarina Bivald

By Kate Phillips

As a reader, I always love finding books that appeal to me. As a writer, I am twice as pleased when the authors also provide masterclasses within their books.

          Masterclasses take place when performance artists and musicians work one-on-one with students. Writers don’t generally have this option, but I have found some books to be masterclasses for characters, backstories, plots, settings, voice and/or creativity.

          The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald is a book about books. Two avid readers, Amy Harris from Broken Wheel, Iowa, and Sara Lindqvist from Sweden, become pen pals and trade novels.

In one letter, Amy writes: “Books or people, you ask…I’ve loved maybe a handful of people in my entire life, compared with tens or maybe even hundreds of books (and here I’m counting only those books I’ve really loved, the kind that make you happy just to look at them, that make you smile regardless of what else is happening in your life, that you always turn back to like an old friend and can remember exactly where you first “met” them—I’m sure you know just what I’m talking about). But that handful of people you love…they’re surely worth just as much as all those books.” (page 145) [A kindred spirit!]

Amy, a retired teacher who never left her home town, invites Sara to visit her when the bookstore she worked at for a decade, her first real job, goes out of business. Sara, who hasn’t much of a life outside of books, decides to travel to Iowa despite her parents’ misgivings. She lands in a small town much different than she imagined waiting over two hours for Amy to pick her up where the bus dropped her off. Luckily, she has a book to bury her nose in while time passes.

Sadly, her vacation adventure begins on the day of Amy’s funeral. However, friends and family described in her pen pals’ letters rally around Sara, a tourist in their midst, making her feel welcome. So welcome, she isn’t allowed to pay for anything.

Troubled by this, Sara looks around for a way to pay the town back. She decides to open a book shop filled with Amy’s collection and the ripples of transformation begin as books new to you are “…Unread adventures. Friends you haven’t met yet, hours of magical escapism awaiting you.” (page 303)

          While I enjoyed the story, I loved Sara recommending 56 real books to her customers as I’m always looking for recommendations. I loved her shelf titles like For Friday Nights and Lazy Sundays, Reliable Authors Guaranteed, and Happy Endings When You Need Them. With sections like those, I’d love to visit the Oak Tree Bookstore, too.  

I also loved Katarina Bivald’s outlook and the answers she gave in “A Conversation with the Author” section on pages 391-394 about her first novel. Helpful for future authors.

November 9 by Colleen Hoover

By Kate Phillips

          I love to read novels where one of the characters is a writer because it gives me another perspective into a writer’s life. Knowing this, one of my friends recommended November 9 by Colleen Hoover to me.

It’s classified as a New Adult book explained a librarian friend when I asked if she had read it. She hadn’t, but she liked some other books by Colleen Hoover.

Whether you are a new adult (ages roughly 18-23) or not, Colleen Hoover is a terrific writer who shares many insightful asides in her books. I’m going to concentrate my review on those lines as I don’t want to include any plot spoilers.

In November 9, Ben and Fallon are the main characters who meet when they are 18. He’s a writer. She’s an actress. For several reasons, they have an unconventional relationship seeing each other only once a year on November 9^th. The chapters alternate from Fallon’s perspective to Ben’s.

Here are some of my favorite lines and insightful asides:

…The man [Fallons’ father] has absolutely zero remorse. I both hate and envy it. In a way, I wish I were more like him and less like my mother. He’s oblivious to his many flaws, whereas mine are the focal point of my life. My flaws are what wake me in the morning and what keep me awake every night. (page 5)

…It’s the worst time in the world for me to get emotional, but I guess tears aren’t known for their impeccable timing. (pp. 48-49)

“Don’t push your luck.”

He laughs. “Why the hell does luck exist if I’m not supposed not to push it?” (page 52)

          …But this apartment is too comfortable, and comfort can sometimes be a crutch when it comes to figuring out your life. Goals are achieved through discomfort and hard work. They aren’t achieved when you hide out in a place where you are nice and cozy. (page 68)

Actually, I don’t even think I showed [my poem] to anyone. My mother found it in my room, which is how I came to respect the beauty of privacy. She showed everyone in my entire family and it made me never want to share my work again. (page 84)

“…When you find love, you take it. You grab it with both hands and do everything in your power not to let it go. You can’t just walk away from it and expect it to linger until you’re ready for it.” (page 168)

…It’s funny how a grown adult can just forget how to function properly in the presence of someone else. But I feel like my insides are so hot, they’re beginning to scorch my bones… (page 199)

          I found Colleen Hoover’s writing and insightful asides engaging. Her plot is twisty and wrenching—just like love so I’m recommending it in honor of Valentine’s Day.

The Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

By Kate Phillips

          In The Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, Elizabeth Gilbert writes about courage, enchantment, permission, persistence, trust, and divinity. Under these categories, she shares her own stories as well as stories told to her by friends and strangers. One of my favorites is about a costume party that could have gone badly awry, but courage and trust saved the evening. (“Walk Proudly” on page 260.)

          I saw Gilbert discussing this book on Well Read on PBS. During the interview, Gilbert was funny, warm, and encouraging anyone who wanted to live a creative life to live one. She states: I’m talking about living a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than fear. (page 9)

          Gilbert who travels the world, speaks in front of crowds, and publishes books about her life, discusses how many fears she had while growing up—some legitimate and some hilarious—and how she decided to get over many of them thanks to her parents and the examples they set.

          She gives us words of wisdom like:

“…you have treasures hidden within you—extraordinary treasures—and so do I, and so does everyone around us. And bringing these treasures to light takes work and faith and focus and courage and hours of devotion, and the clock is ticking, and the world is spinning, and we simply do not have time anymore to think so small.” (page 27)

“You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your success or failures. You can battle your demons…instead of battling your gifts… You can believe that you are neither a slave to inspiration nor its master, but something far more interesting—its partner…” (page 41)

          I love Gilbert’s theory of ideas showcased in “How Ideas Work” on page 34, “An Idea Goes Away” on page 47 and “The Tiger’s Tale” on page 64. Her advice on finding ideas: “…Trust in the miraculous truth that new and marvelous ideas are looking for human collaborators every single day…Let them know you are available.” (page 49)

          She tells an enchanted tale of friendship with author Ann Patchett starting with “Wizardry” on page 49 through “Multiple Discovery” on page 61. It will amaze you.

          The Big Magic is not just for writers. It’s meant for anyone who wants to be creative, to follow their gifts, to find joy in their work and life.

“An Amplified Existence” on page 9 tells the story of a woman who loved ice skating as a girl, but gave it up when she wasn’t talented enough to be a champion. At 40, she took up skating again. “It was a revolution. A literal revolution, as she spun to life again on the ice.” (page 11)

“And while paths and outcomes of creative living will vary wildly from person to person, I can guarantee you this: A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. Living in this manner—continually and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels that are hidden within you—is a fine art, in and of itself.” (page 12)

Any creative person will find The Big Magic a tour de force.

Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes

By Kate Phillips

 

          How many of us say yes to every invitation and opportunity that scares us? Being writers—often introverts who need solitude to read, think, and work—I’m guessing very few of us. So who knows where the roads not taken would have led us?

          Shonda Rhimes knows the answer. After almost a decade of saying no, she chose yes as her word of the year in 2014. She said yes to every opportunity and invitation that scared her. As the creator, writer, and/or producer of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Private Practice, and How to Get Away with Murder, many, many opportunities and invitations that scared her came her way.

          In her book Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person, Rhimes shares her journeys behind the scenes and in the spotlight as she welcomed opportunities and faced her fears. The worst things she worried about never happened (passing out and fear snot among many others) while the best things she never considered happened (joy, new friends, playing more often, and losing over 100 pounds).

          Her words of hard won wisdom resonate:

 

Dreams are lovely. But they are just dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral. Pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It’s hard work that makes things happen. It’s hard work that creates change. (page 78)

 

                   “The rule is: there are no rules.

Happiness comes from living as you need to, as you want to. As your inner voice tells you to. Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be.” (page 286)

 

Her feelings are real and relatable when faced with scary situations like appearing on Jimmy Kimmel’s show live:

 

“You can die from the hiccups. For real. I’m a fake doctor who writes fake medicine for TV. So I know stuff. And I’m telling you, we killed Meredith’s stepmother with hiccups and that could happen to me. I could laugh until I hiccup and hiccup and die.” (page 48)

 

 “…I am afraid I may accidentally Janet Jackson Boob Jimmy. Or pee on his sofa like an excited puppy. Or fall on my face before I even make it to the sofa. Or die. I don’t say anything about any of that.

Because I’m a lady, damn it.” (page 50)

 

Her experiences are varied: sometimes funny, and sometimes, as her young daughter Emerson says, mazing. Her take on motherhood and how it evolved during this year is also shared. If you want to know more, say yes and read this book.

Yes is a powerful word. Rhimes’ life was transformed inside and out simply by saying yes.

Reading this book might make you choose yes as your word of 2015.

Rhimes also writes about writing in this book. And about her TV shows. And the actors on them. Who her hero is and why. It’s a book worth saying yes to for so many reasons.