I write out of my anger and into my passion.
It is Tuesday on the eastern seaboard, so I can end my gruelling long Monday in PST with a reminder of why I write. I found old notes from an Asilomar conference session on Creative Nonfiction. The mentor text was Terry Tempest Williams, Why I Write. I lifted her line to start.
I’m culling lines from my 9/29/12 draft that seem true today.
I write to see what’s at my core. I write into molten memories and frozen silences.
I write to cope, to reclaim myself from loss.
I write because I mean it. I’m overly serious — too much thinking.
I write as a protection plan.
I write because I teach. I write to walk a mile in somebody’s mocassins.
I write to heal the anger all the way. I write to shut up my ancestors.
I write just because. To chase images around my psyche.
I write to say I’m here. That I matter.
Provocative and succinct. Two of my favorite sayings of yours here are (1) writing because you teach/writing to walk in someone else’s moccasins. (2) write to say I’m here, and I matter. #YouMatter is a wonderful paradigm started by Angela Maiers, an Iowa educator. Writing as empathy can battle critiques of essays as being too regional.
And hopefully you write to discover joy.
Thanks for sharing your reasons. I find that I write to know my own thoughts and to deepen and focus them. Your post will have me considering other reasons I write.
I’m replying to this post again–this time to cope. Brace yourself, L-Squared https://bohemiotx.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/lost-my-favorite-student-violence-in-black-america/
Wow, Tuesday already. Braced, ready to read.