Wild Mind

know about impermanence, but it does not drive us into a hole. We dare in the face of it to stand up and become intimate and not just with human beings, which is hard enough, but also with the sky, water, chair, butter, cow and sidewalk. Is this not also the way of a writer?

that has followed me for years. It’s a black dog and I have no peace.

I got up and meditated this morning and then I ran. I came to the Galisteo Newsstand and had a grapefruit sparkler, then I—what I really want to say is I had a miserable dream last night. Something about Nazis and I can’t remember it. Before I went to sleep, I stuck my bubble gum on the nightstand and I don’t know how many more nights I can go without making love. It was a blue Sunday and I pretended I was happy watering my vegetable garden. I’m not happy. I’m lonely. Loneliness is a dog

AREA NOT WRITTEN about much—but which once thought of becomes a rich vein—is sleep

AREA NOT WRITTEN about much—but which once thought of becomes a rich vein—is sleep

“Sure,” I said. I scrunched up inside when she compared it to therapy. People do that. I didn’t say anything. It’s not therapy: it’s the root of literature, direct connection with your mind.

this:

RATHER THAN DAYDREAMING about what you’d like to write, sit down for fifteen minutes, keep your hand moving, begin with “I want to write about,” and go. Stay specific and concrete. Not “I want to write about truth, democracy, honesty,” but “I want to write about the time my father lied right to my face and I could taste it all through dinner. It tasted like hot gasoline.”

Writing is about community, even if you write alone.

Journal writing seems to be about thought, about rumination and self-analysis. One of the rules of writing practice is, Don’t think.

STUDENT IN A WORKSHOP asked, “What’s the difference between writing practice and journaling? I write in a journal every morning when I wake up.”

I nodded. I am often asked this. I told her that journal writing has a fascination with the self, with emotion and situation.