Friday is Book Day

Even when I lived in Europe I'd get the New York Times Book Review, weeks late of course, but a mother-in-law desperate to please would send it on, with other important written words, to me faithfully.

This year I've read less than ever, spent fewer dollars on books and used the library frequently, but continue to read the Book Review.

In fact, when I was writing "Art of Convivium" to be published in a fortnight, I went back to old habits and read the reviews as if they were part of my thesis and studied sentence structure and word usage.

Today I read a piece by Dorothy Gallagher that moved me to the pen and reminded me of my passion for how it sounds. How it sounds is why I write poetry, prose and essays. This sort of writing often is more permissive of sound than other forms of the written word.

And Gallagher apparently understands in her reading and writing the importance of clarity.

Only yesterday, I was speaking with Nora Eisenberg about the art of writing, her writing in particular but I also shared some of my illustrated word concepts with her.

I hadn't realized she wrote about social issues, and she hadn't realized that I wrote at all, but then we barely know each other.

We also discovered we have mutual friends in Linda and Toby of Proprioceptive Writing fame now transplanted to the West Coast. I met them in Portland, ME and I'm not certain where Nora met them. I must ask the next time we meet.

Proprioceptive writing taught me to clear the air around my thoughts and then my words in ways no other course, class or workshop ever did. Often when I write, even random notes, the PW is present and at the forefront of my thoughts.

Now to pull myself away from distractions and gather together the authentic voice.

Writing it down, bones, bare, uncharted, passionately can be facilitated by all these new fountain pens.