Author and Inspired Writer

Na na na na na na!  Like I knew that I would!  Na na na na na na!

Thank you James Brown, godfather of soul for writing a song that so nicely expresses what I feel – I feel good!  Yes gentle readers, there has been a transformation of late that, while not exactly on the scale of the resurrection perhaps, has still infused me with new life.  I have energy!  EN-ER-GY!!  Been so long without it, I find it just a tad unsettling.  I can go through my day without feeling like I have anchors tied around my feet.  I don’t fall asleep in my chair in the late afternoon.  I can remember things and focus on my writing.  I’m sleeping wonderfully well, have a ravenous appetite, and am back to a full workout, although still at a lower intensity.  Mind you, I still ready for bed at 8:00 or 8:30 pm., which is sometimes a bit of an inconvenience, but hey, I can handle inconvenience!  I scoff at inconvenience!

And I’m looking forward to things that used to be simply overwhelming – like tomorrow I’m having lunch with a colleague in Windsor and on Friday I’m going to an art show at a Windsor gallery.  Just a few weeks ago I’d have had to refuse both events or worse, forced myself to go and then had to deal with the consequences.  Not pretty.

I’m getting my life back, friends, and I’m loving it!

I am a great believer in the timing of things.  Although I may not understand why things happen when they do, I don’t believe anything happens by accident.  And sometimes, more often of late for some reason, I actually get to see the wonderful timing of the universe.

For instance, I no sooner had finished yesterday’s post about what happens when books come to me, than I discovered I’d won a free book!  How cool is that!  (Long time readers know from past posts what a bibliophile I am, and how receiving free books is like winning the lottery for me – only better cuz I didn’t have to buy a ticket!)  Anyhoo, I was reading a blog I regularly peruse and the blogster said the first to comment on their writing mentors will receive a free book.  I commented, and got a reply this morning to “Expect mail!”  Woo hoo!  It’s a book on writing called Writing the Bones by Natalie Goldberg.

Gotta love that timing!

…good things happen!

So many times I’ve had a question or an interest in something, or I’m feeling stymied or stonewalled in my writing, and a book will come to me one way or another and I’m left breathless by its appropriateness and shockingly precise timing.

In the past week or so, I’ve started reading two books of poetry.  I happened to be watching Bill Moyers when he interviewed Christian Wiman , author of every riven thing, and I was transfixed by the poetry of this man living with a life threatening illness and how he has let that inform his brutal yet hopeful spirituality.  I read only a couple poems at a time and follow them into this man’s heart where God goes belonging to every riven thing he’s made. Here is strength and a terrible beauty.  And I leave his pages blessed.

And then there’s Barrows and Macy’s translation of Rilke’s Book of Hours, and oh my!  I don’t know what I was expecting or what inspired me to buy this classic now, but the verses left me badly shaken from the very first.  Rilke intended this work to be his “Love Poems to God,” but what do I hear but the voice of the Magdalene speaking clear and strong:  The hour is striking so close above me,/ so clear and sharp,/ that all my senses ring with it./  I feel it now: there’s a power in me/ to grasp and give shape to my world.

It was no accident that both these books came into my hands at precisely this moment.  Oh mercy no!  And both will help coax forth a deeper and richer Magdalene from my pen.

Oh mercy yes!

Rilke’s Book of Hours will tear me to shreds.  I know this from just the few samples I’ve read in the introduction.  His subtitle is Love Poems to God, but these are no sentimental musings.  They  pierce my skin and worm their way into my flesh.  I’ll never be rid of them, never be the same after I read them.  Change is coming, for good or ill, whether I like it or not.

I’m not ready for this.  Not strong enough yet.  And you know that.  But here is the book you’ve placed in my hands, and there you are, unmoved by my pleas and complaints.

Very well.  Let’s begin.