Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog

Travelling Companions: Anne Lamott / Jack Kornfield / & Mari Andrew

I was on the road last night and had downloaded three episodes of Sam Lamott’s How To Human podcast. I hadn’t heard of it until last week, but any conversation featuring Anne Lamott, or Jack Kornfield, or Brené Brown, is, in my experience, a conversation well worth listening to, and I wasn’t disappointed, listening, as I drove to:

Anne Lamott (23/11/17) – Creation: Starting and Doing (podcast here)

Jack Kornfield (26/02/18) – Inner Peace: Honoring Your Cargo (podcast here)

And

Mari Andrew (27/03/18) – Are We There Yet (podcast here)

I highly recommend these three. Have a listen via the webpage or however you’d normally listen to podcasts, and then, as I’ll be doing, have a listen to the others.

 

Rebecca Solnit — Falling Together

Rebecca Solnit (b. 1961), who has a birthday this month, is a gifted writer / thinker I regularly come across in my listening and reading, and along with Susan Sontag (and others, including Adrienne Rich, May Sarton, & Anne Lamott) are writers whose perspective I value greatly. They enrich, broaden, deepen, and indeed, modify my own thinking; my own ways of engaging with the world(s) in which I live. The only Solnit book I have is her Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories and Wild Possibilities (pub. 2004 with a third edition (with a new foreword and afterword) published by Haymarket Books in 2016). The essay mentioned in the following interview is wonderfully thoughtful and evocative. You can find it online. It was published in Harpers Magazine / October 2015 and is titled The Mother of All Questions (here).

“A singular writer and thinker, Rebecca Solnit celebrates the unpredictable and incalculable events that so often redeem our lives both solitary and public. She searches for the hidden, transformative histories inside events we chronicle merely as disasters, in places like post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. She writes that, so often, "when all the ordinary divides and patterns are shattered, people step up to become their brothers' keepers. And that purposefulness and connectedness bring joy even amidst death, chaos, fear, and loss."”

Rebecca Solnit is a contributing editor at Harper's Magazine and a regular writer for publications including The Guardian and The London Review of Books. Her books include A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster and Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities.

You’ll find the conversation here.

Two Fascinating Listens: Ben Okri and Tim Winton

Brilliant “Novelist and poet Ben Okri had his first novel, Flowers and Shadows, published when he was 21, and has devoted much of his work to describing the social and political chaos in Nigeria, where he was born.

His book The Famished Road won the Booker Prize and his most recent novel is called The Age of Magic. Okri, like Winton below, was at this years Auckland Writers Festival (12th - 17th May 2015). You will find a fascinating 22 min Radio New Zealand National (Sunday Morning) conversation with Okri here

_____ 

Writer Tim Winton has been named an Australian national treasure. His book, The Riders - now considered an Australian classic - was short-listed for the Man Booker prize for fiction, as was his 2002 book Dirt Music. Winton, one of my favorite Australian authors, was at this year Auckland Writers Festival. You will find a 23 min Radio New Zealand National (Sunday Mornings) conversation with Winton here

Also of interest to readers if Winton will be - Tim Winton: Critical Essays (UWAP, 2014 – 350 pages), edited by Lyn McCredden & Nathanael O’Reilly.

Parker J. Palmer on the Writing Life

“…Eventually, I managed to come to ground with a few moderately successful books, which confronted me with my next challenge as a writer. In this society, people who write passable books — and even books that aren’t — tend to get pegged as experts on their subjects. My ego loves to absorb and massage those projections of expertise. My soul knows it ain’t true: I’ve never written a book on something I’ve mastered. Once I master something, I get bored with it, and writing a book is way too hard to take on a subject that bores me.

I write about things that feel to me like bottomless mysteries — teaching, social change, spirituality, democracy, etc. — and I start writing from a place of “beginner’s mind.” For me, writing does not begin with reaching for expertise by gathering facts, wrapping them in lucid thoughts, then downloading all of that from my mind to the page. It begins with making a deep dive into something that baffles me — into my not-knowing — and dwelling in the dark long enough that “the eye begins to see” what’s down there. I want to make my own discoveries, think my own thoughts, and feel my own feelings before I explore what conventional wisdom says about the subject. That’s why I’m not so much a writer as a re-writer, most of whose scribbling goes through eight or ten drafts.

As a writer, my most critical inner work is to fend off projections of expertise — whether they come from without or within — that would allow my ego to trump beginner’s mind. The moment ego takes over, I lose the main gift I bring to my work, the fact that I was born baffled.

Novices are often advised to “write about what you know.” I wouldn’t call that bad advice, but I think it needs tweaking. Write about what you want to know because it intrigues and baffles you…”

~ Parker J. Palmer – from here. 

Abundance in a Small Space: the poetry of Clive James

I must say I’ve discovered Clive James – the poet – late in my life, and towards the end of his. My first encounter was by way of James’ translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. More latterly blogging friend Jason Goroncy has indirectly, by way of his excellent blog, provided some motivation to explore. This post (James’ sad and haunting poem “Sentenced to Life”) is a recent example. I also valued this audio podcast - Abundance in a Small Space: the poetry of Clive James, which aired on the 17^th May 2014.

Here’s the “promo” for the show. 

“Clive James has been writing poetry since the 1950s and his dedication to poetry has continued alongside his more high profile work as a TV host, critic and the writer of Unreliable Memoirs. In fact, James sees himself first and foremost as a poet. He has lived in the UK for five decades and has honorary degrees from the universities of Sydney and East Anglia. In this intimate program, James reads some of his favourite poems, and gives us a glimpse into his life, influences and writing practice. As he faces the biggest challenge of his life - battling two terminal illnesses, leukaemia and emphysema - the ABC’s foreign correspondent Mary Gearin recorded Clive James at his Cambridge house for this Poetica feature.” 

You’ll find the downloadable podcast here or you can listen online via the same link. This most recent story in the NZ Herald. 

Nick Cave and His Muse

“In 1996, following the success of his band's ninth studio album, Murder Ballads, word reached Nick Cave that he had been nominated for an MTV Award, as Best Male Artist. That nomination was soon withdrawn, however, as a result of the following rejection letter from Mr. Cave to the event's organisers.” ~ Shaun Usher. 

(Source: Nick Cave Online. The letter is included in the wonderful little collection of letters titled: Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience (384 pages) compiled by Shaun Usher. It can be pre-ordered via Amazon.uk. Due for publication this month (Oct. 2013). 

21 Oct [19]96 

To all those at MTV, 

I would like to start by thanking you all for the support you have given me over recent years and I am both grateful and flattered by the nominations that I have received for Best Male Artist. The air play given to both the Kylie Minogue and P. J. Harvey duets from my latest album Murder Ballads has not gone unnoticed and has been greatly appreciated. So again my sincere thanks. 

Having said that, I feel that it's necessary for me to request that my nomination for best male artist be withdrawn and furthermore any awards or nominations for such awards that may arise in later years be presented to those who feel more comfortable with the competitive nature of these award ceremonies. I myself, do not. I have always been of the opinion that my music is unique and individual and exists beyond the realms inhabited by those who would reduce things to mere measuring. I am in competition with no-one. 

My relationship with my muse is a delicate one at the best of times and I feel that it is my duty to protect her from influences that may offend her fragile nature. 

She comes to me with the gift of song and in return I treat her with the respect I feel she deserves — in this case this means not subjecting her to the indignities of judgement and competition. My muse is not a horse and I am in no horse race and if indeed she was, still I would not harness her to this tumbrel — this bloody cart of severed heads and glittering prizes. My muse may spook! May bolt! May abandon me completely! 

So once again, to the people at MTV, I appreciate the zeal and energy that was put behind my last record, I truly do and say thank you and again I say thank you but no...no thank you. 

Yours sincerely, 

Nick Cave. 

Thanks to Barry Taylor for bringing the book and Nick Cave letter to my attention. 

Writing as a Psychological and Spiritual Health Practice

“Tami Simon speaks with Christina Baldwin, an author, educator, speaker, and retreat leader. Christina has authored several books on journal writing, including the classic Life Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Practice. With Sounds True, she has created the audio learning course Lifelines: How Personal Writing Can Save Your Life. In this episode, Tami speaks with Christina about her insights from five decades of journal writing from both a creative and spiritual perspective, including the physiological benefits of writing from an embodied perspective. Christina also shares several of her favorite practices for jump-starting and nourishing your own journal writing practice. (56 minutes)” 

You’ll find the podcast here, and downloadable from iTunes. 

Mary Oliver: “I don’t know what a prayer is, but I do know how to pay attention.”

Roger Housden concludes his reflection on “Writing and the Inner Life” with the following paragraph: 

“…At the heart of writing and the inner life is the quest for truth and truthfulness; the spiraling down deeper and deeper into the subtleties of your experience so that the experience itself may surprise you with unimagined revelations and insights. A good place to start is with those images that have lived on in your mind and imagination for decades, and that unknown to you, may have helped to shape who you are. This is what I call a shimmering image, a phrase that I borrowed from the writer Lisa Dale Norton. And shimmering images are what I encourage people to recover in my classes, as part of the difficult and exhilarating process of bringing one’s interior life out onto the page.” 

You can read Housden's complete reflection here.

Writing Essays: A Few Thoughts by Scott Russell Sanders

I hadn’t heard of US author / teacher Scott Russell Sanders until the latest issue of the Englewood Review of Books (Lent 2012) arrived in my inbox. Now I find myself wanting to engage his thinking and the wisdom that bubbles out of the little I have now read. I want to read more of his essays, in the same way I’ve long read the likes of Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, Gary Snyder etc. From what I understand, Sanders reflects on the importance of place, rootedness, environment, what it means to be fully human and alive, what it means to live in a web of relationships etc. 

Here’s an excerpt – some thoughts on writing essays - from the all too brief interview with Sanders that ERB published: 

“…ERB: There are several superb essays in Earth Works that explore the craft of writing, particularly “The Singular First Person” and “Letter to a Reader.” What one or two pieces of essential advice would you give to someone who aspired to be a writer of essays? 

SRS: First, read widely, and read the best quality work you can find – not only essay, but also poetry, fiction, history, philosophy, and kind of literature that interests you, on any subject that interests you. But, again, seek out the best, because you train your ear for language primarily through reading. Secondly, keep a journal — not a diary, but a notebook in which you record ideas, images, vivid passages from your reading, overheard bits of conversation, interesting words, dreams, anything that might later become material for your writing. The notebook is also a good place to practice framing sentences and paragraphs, articulating themes, sketching scenes. Third, treasure your questions, because in pursuing them, you are likely to do your best writing. Think of the essay not as a way of delivering knowledge you already possess, but as a way of discovering new knowledge, a way of coming to understand something for the first time, a way of revealing connections and meanings that had been hidden. If you make discoveries, the writing will be fresh, and the reader will be attracted by the resulting energy…” 

You can find a copy of his essay Breaking the Spell of Money here. 

The Sea; its Waves and the Gifts of Distance, Reading and Writing.

From an English translation of a Spanish book I’m meditatively browsing. It’s a collection of brief, evocative prose pieces, many of them only one paragraph long, in which Puerto Rican-born Giannina Braschi, a professor of Spanish at the City University of New York, describes moments of experience and their contingencies: 

“…Sleeping. Writing while kneeling. Praying. But to write dreams as I’m doing now is to let the poetry-writer run and flood me with dreams and memories. I’ve never believed in time or dreams. What do people mean when they talk of existence? What is the basis for saying that I exist? 

… Has anyone gotten close enough to existence to be able to say that anyone who exists without a notion of death exists without a notion of life? A curious thing just occurred to me. I’ll let things swim over the waves of the sea for now. You shouldn’t force the movement of the waves of the sea. Be at the mercy of things. Do you mean to tell me that if a wave knocks me down and drags me away, I should let it? Yes, you should stay wherever it leaves you, so you’ll discover distance … [I thought here of this recent post featuring a reflection by Roger Housden on “Love”] 

… To be at the mercy of the waves is to be at the height of existence. To allow things to exist…  

…Do you know what I’m doing now? I’m floating. To float is to survive. Wait a minute. I don’t like this stuff about surviving. I don’t want to be above life. I want to be … with each moment of my life…

…By writing, I’m reading what I write. By writing, I used to read my past, my present, and in even my future in my writing. Even when I walked along the beach this summer, I felt that I was reading as I was contemplating the sea in the wandering of my eyes. It was as if the infinite were momentarily condensed. The infinite isn’t divine – it’s human – absolutely quotidian and real…

…I [have] to cry and I [have] to suffer in order to [feel and] write how the sea moves…”

Giannina Braschi, Empire of Dreams, pp. 217-218.