Still Point

[Cita]

"So do you ever start out to write a poem and it turns into a song or vice versa?"

"Well, sometimes it turns into a painting."

As he speaks of the still point the dabblers in writing sift out the door while those of us who are hard-core remember the song he wrote about if wishes were horses, beggars would ride, and "I want your body like I want your heart."

And then there was the morning before when someone read aloud Terry Tempest Williams' Why I Write.

He is no longer my guru, though I consider him my mentor, and I  mock him gently when he is pompous.

Still, he is who I think of as I stand in West Texas, in the lobby of the Holland Hotel at 2am, watching out the window as the deer walk down the railroad right-of-way through the middle of town.

[Bill Floyd]

Can't even count the number of times I've started out meaning to do one thing and then ended up doing another.  And that's just within the constraints of Story.  Lord help me if I ever develop any other usable skill.  

So much to digest in this piece, from the relationship with your guru/mentor to the "dabblers...sift(ing) out the door..." to the shift between story, song and painting.  And the deer, strolling through the night, probably for you specifically.  Do the work, and the world will give back.

[Cita]

In the creative process construct that I am currently working with (in flux, always), the still point refers to that moment of inspiration when we begin to see what the piece of art could possibly be.  The deer happened to be a still point for me.  Many people set out to write a song, poem, choreography, even a 6, with this agenda of what they want to say, the sermon they want to preach, the idea of what they want to get across, but they don't wait for the still point.  It becomes about the product rather than the process. I am soooooo guilty of this in some of my sixes.  And possibly in this ms I am writing.  So to be presented, in that moment, with a still point, a moment of spark and AH HA! was valuable.

[Gita]

Just the other day I was pondering the still point in a story and how hard it is to create them because the reader's eyes just keep going from left to right. You can create a still point in a play script by making the actors pause in silence. You can do the same in music with rests. But in prose, other than the ue of a long string of elipses, it is hard to make time stop.

Great post, A. As always.

[Edward Dean]

Excellent link. Thanks for sharing Cita.

[Mike Handley]

Lovely this, and the manifesto contains some real gems. My favorite: "I write because you can play on the page like a child left alone in sand."

[Jeanette Cheezum]

I loved this Cita.

Thanks for the beautiful. link

[Angela]

I enjoy the glimpses you give us of the things that move you.  I can see the deer being deer, regardless.  They are a fine symbol.

[Teresa]

Love the title and thank you for the link.  It's interesting that "the deer walk down the railroad right of way through the middle of town."  I think that's what we do when we write.  Only our railroad is invisible, maybe even illusory, so we have to guess which way is right and forward, let the gods guide us.  The middle of town is the zone we hope to write in.  I'm guessing this is what he meant by the "still point".  Maybe I just need to go to bed now...;-)

 

I'd love to follow you around on these adventures.  I'd take LOTS of notes.