What are you reading, watching, singing?
How are you sleeping? What are you eating?
Who whispers in your ear? What roars?
What’s influencing you?
We know that everything is grist for the mill of the mind. Everything is material. We read, read, read, write, write, write, muddle, miss the mark, toss, turn, and start again.
Who knows how the mind filters and files — what to keep, what to toss, and why?
“Your triggering subjects are those that ignite your need for words,” writes Richard Hugo in the seminal book The Triggering Town. “When you are honest to your feelings, that triggering town chooses you. Your words used your way will generate your meanings. Your obsessions lead you to your vocabulary. Your way of writing locates, even creates, your inner life.”
Ten years ago, I was struck by this poem by Olena Kalytiak Davis.
Two years ago, I snapped this photo while driving across eastern Oregon.
Earlier this month, a storm delivered days and days of heavy snow.
Two weeks ago, our writing group was prompted to write about the new year.
Holiday, weather, postcard, pandemic, darkness and light, pressure and pleasure — one influence after another. Experience forms feeling, words stir, a poem takes shape.
I don’t know how the mind sifts and sorts. I’m not trying to write anything; I’m trying to write something, everything. The mystery of writing keeps me trying.
What’s influencing you?
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The world turns on words, please read & write.