And yet sometimes
The wheel turns of its own weight, the rusty
Pump pumps over your sweating face the clear
Water, cold, so cold! you cup your hands
And gulp from them the dailiness of life.
Surely, it's that wheel turning of its own weight that makes it all worth while.
This is why my daily prompts have been proving so useful to me. Not because in themselves they are producing fantastic pieces of work - or at least not for me - but because they are all adding slowly, slowly to the weight behind my process. It's a bit like meeting up with a friend you haven't seen for a long time. Sometimes you get lucky and you click back together as if you were only with them five minutes before, but just as often, anticipation sets in beforehand and it feels as if you HAVE to make it a big occasion. At these times you find it's only five minutes before you have to go that the two of you start talking about what's really important. And then you have to wait six months until the next meeting.
I can get like this with writing. If I don't do it for several days, I'm aware of circling the page, almost afraid of it, because when I do finally sit down and write, then I should be producing a brilliant piece of work - a 'big occasion'.
No, much better for me to try to inject some dailiness in my writing. Little ordinary things that will let me take the page for granted, in the hope that when something that does matter sneaks in round the side, the ground will be well prepared.
So my writing prompt for today is ... I thought I was meeting a stranger ...
And on the subject of prompts, I have put a new blog up on the sidebar. Sarah Charsley, one of the Your Messages contributors has started a new blog, with regular postings. Definitely worth reading.
