Well, only my second contribution but I'm already looking forward to reading everyone else's. Not one of mine today, but in tribute to one of my writing heroes, Raymond Carver, whose birthday it would have been today, I'm going to suggest you read Loafing. It's also raining here and miserable and I feel like doing nothing, so it's the perfect poem for justifying that. Here are the last lines...
Malingerer! my uncle yelled at me
so long ago. He was right.
I've set aside time today,
same as every day,
for doing nothing at all.
How does Carver manage to get so much atmosphere in so few words? And so my writing prompt is this extract from Last Fragment, which always makes me cry:
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
(from 'Last Fragment')
3 comments:
Great reminder that we should all slow down and sometimes in "doing nothing" the most creative thoughts arise. I love Carver and had forgotten all about this; thanks for reminding me. Great post.
I've just got back from the library with an AS Byatt book to read - 'The Whistling Woman' and Margaret Forster's 'Memory Box.'I felt like reading some English writers ...and they are two of my favourire English writers. (I'd also like to read your work one day.)
But your prompt to read Raymond Carver has also whetted my appetite to read some more American literature as well. After I've read those two books, I am going to get me some Raymond Carver! (I've always got poetry books on hand - my shelves are full of it - so I usually go to the library for novels'n'such.)
I'm struggling with it though, Paris Parfait. Find it very difficult to do nothing when people might be watching! Interesting, chiefbiscuit, about the difference between English and US writers - would like to hear how you get on with the A S Byatt.
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