| “Writing for me is no different than playing basketball, it’s my body moving among and pushing up against and being moved by other bodies of language and the energy of language,” says Natalie Diaz in an interview with Brandon Stosuy in the Creative Independent, in which she talks about the physicality of writing and how her experience as a professional athlete and her Mojave culture affect how she writes. “I don’t only feel with my body, I think with it. Even text is a physical space for me.” This week, write a short essay describing what your writing process feels like. How does articulating the way you write help focus your process? |
My writing follows a white-crested bird
diving into the bayou
then flying off into a tree and shaking its feathers out–
jumpjabfly
I write with tabs across my computer screen,
a cup of coffee growing cold,
and fingers jumping on a trampoline
of similes, images that come to my mind
and fly away as fast as the bayou bird.
Maybe I should open a tab and find out its name;
specificity is good to use in writing,
but then I’d have to stop, take a sip of water,
wash down the inspiration and start again.
Writing is no different from bird watching,
trying to name the thing that captures you
and takes you into a new space
of discovery. I didn’t even know I knew how to say that.
Margaret Simon, draft
Reflections on the Teche 
This is so, so beautiful. I love these lines the best:
fingers jumping on a trampoline
of similes, images that come to my mind
and fly away as fast as the bayou bird.
The comparison to the birds in your area is spot on and magic to read.
Thanks for sharing!!
Wow! that is wonderful. You captured the fleeting elusive inspiration of writing. Thank you for sharing. I like the picture of fingers jumping on a trampoline.
This is really good! I like how you compare writing to bird-watching. I can imagine your growing cold coffee and your tons of tabs. Well done!
This. Is. Beautiful. I struggle with changing my craft of writing, so reading this was a breath of inspiration.
Such a lovely poem even in draft form, I see your mind swooping and swirling even as the bird does in its hunt for food. No wonder you have so many tabs open!
Washing down the inspiration is a vivid image about the process!
Margaret, I love this! …wash down the inspiration and start again… I love the feelings of momentum and how the writing leads to the writing. Beautiful!
Kim
Love this romp through your writing life.
“jumpjabfly” is a wonderful verb for writing and birding.
Writing and birdwatching – I can’t even tell you how much I love this! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
So gorgeous, Margaret, all those images, every line – these lines reach out to me so:
Writing is no different from bird watching,
trying to name the thing that captures you
and takes you into a new space…
I understand, and live, and breathe this, too. I shall have to try this.