Write as if you are dying.

March 31, 2009

From The Writer’s Almanac, March 29, 2009:

Teaching Poetry to 3rd Graders

by Gary Short

At recess a boy ran to me
with a pink rubber ball and asked
if I would kick it to him. He handed me the ball,
then turned and ran
and ran and ran, not turning back
until he was far out in the field.
I wasn’t sure I could kick the ball
that far. But I tried,
launching a perfect and lucky kick.
The ball sailed in a beautiful arc
about eight stories high,
landed within a few feet of the the 3rd grader
and took a big bounce off the hard playground dirt.
Pleased, I turned to enter the school building.
And then (I don’t know where they came from
so quickly) I heard a rumbling behind me
full tilt. They were carrying pink balls and yellow balls
of different sizes, black and white checkered
soccer balls. They wanted to to kick for them.
And now this is a ritual—this is how we spend recess.
They stand in line, hand me the ball and run.
The balls rise like planets
and the 3rd graders
circle dizzily beneath the falling sky,
their arms outstretched

“Teaching Poetry to 3rd Graders” by Gary Short, from 10 Moons and 13 Horses. © University of Nevada Press, 2004. Reprinted with permission.

**(yes, that’s me, not Gary, in 3rd grade)

Teaching is wonderful. It’s enlightening. It’s exhausting. But mostly, after I’m done teaching, it’s a good exhaustion.

Last night in my CNF class we watched a short film, The Write Stuff: Essentials of Becoming a Writer, which interviewed writers such as Clair Messud, Vikram Seth, and Richard Ford about the personal qualities that writers depend upon to cope with the creative, emotional, and psychological demands of writing.

From the film:

Vikram Seth took 10 years to write A Suitable Boy.

A. Scott Berg researched his book on Lindberg for 4 1/2 years and began writing it in the 5th year.

You can’t wait for inspiration to write–force yourself!

Do it every day. Don’t wait to be inspired or struck by lightning.

You have to have a mission. Believe that without this work it’s impossible for you to live.

Write as if you are dying.