Rumi for Writers

There are times, as writers, when we feel stuck.

That's one of the reasons why National Novel Writing Month is such a good exercise. Focusing on a daily word count, rather than dreaming of book deals and prizes, means we're willing to explore wild tangents, follow characters who appear out of nowhere -- anything to get more words on the page.

I've been feeling stuck this week. A poem for my daughter, "Pomegranate," is in the pre-thinking stage. I'm not ready to write, but can't explain why not.

An old PBS program on the Sufi poet Rumi sent me searching my shelves for my copy of The Essential Rumi (Castle Books, 1995), with poems translated by Coleman Barks.

This afternoon, I let the book open in my hands, to see what might appear. Here is a gift, indeed, for anyone who is feeling stuck.

The Gift of Water

Rumi

Translation by Coleman Barks, with John Moyne

Someone who doesn't know the Tigris River exists

brings the caliph who lives near the river
a jar of fresh water. The caliph accepts, thanks him,
and gives in return a jar filled with gold coins.

"Since this man has come through the desert,
he should return by water." Taken out by another door,
the man steps into a waiting boat

and sees the wide freshwater of the Tigris.

He bows his head, "What wonderful kindness 

that he took my gift."

Every object and being in the universe is

a jar overfilled with wisdom and beauty,

a drop of the Tigris that cannot be contained

by any skin. Every jarful spills and makes the earth

more shining, as though covered in satin.
If the man had seen even a tributary

of the great river, he would not have brought

the innocence of his gift.

...

You knock at the door of reality,

shake your thought-wings, loosen

your shoulders,

                        and open.

This version of the poem is not available online -- at least not with Barks' permission -- so I've excerpted it here. You can find the entire poem in The Essential Rumi.

 

 

We are told so often to write what we know. What I love in "The Gift of Water" is this: what we don't know is a gift. Not knowing helps us shake those thought-wings loose.

If you'd like more guidance on getting past feeling "stuck," Pema Chodron has an audio lecture on the topic.

Poetry Friday: Talking to Kids about Money

Money is in the air. Not the physical stuff, but the concept.

While statistics are notoriously easy to manipulate, grouping U.S. Society into two wealth brackets -- 1% vs. 99% -- has caught hold of our collective imaginations. (Here's an interesting article on the topic, from 2007.)

This chart is from The World's Best Ever. Full disclosure, this is not an unbiased source.

How do we talk to children about the Occupy Wall Street protests, and why people are so upset? Kids realize -- of course -- that society feels unstable to many people right now. My 11-year-old was listening to NPR with me in the car, and began asking questions about the collapse of the housing markets.

I like using poetry as a jumping off point for these types of discussions. Sharing a poem, talking about what it might mean and exploring a child's reaction, provides a shoreline -- a safe place to begin when we're about to navigate a choppy conversation together.

This week, I've been reading Gary Soto's A Fire in My Hands. The poem "How Things Work" is simple enough that even young children  could begin thinking about the interplay between money and society.

Soto opens the poem with a note, "Our young daughter was always asking impossibly difficult questions. Where do the stars come from? Why is the world round? How come we sleep at night? I could answer some of the questions, and other I couldn't -- like the questions about the economy of our nation."

How Things Work
by Gary Soto

Today it’s going to cost us twenty dollars

To live. Five for a softball. Four for a book,

A handful of ones for coffee and two sweet rolls,

Bus fare, rosin for your mother’s violin.

We’re completing our task. The tip I left

For the waitress filters down

Like rain, wetting the new roots of a child

Perhaps, a belligerent cat that won’t let go

Of a balled sock until there’s chicken to eat.

As far as I can tell, daughter, it works like this:

You buy bread from a grocery, a bag of apples

From a fruit stand, and what coins

Are passed on helps others buy pencils, glue,

Tickets to a movie in which laughter

Is thrown into their faces. 

Read the rest at the Poetry Foundation.

Like a poem, the economy is an elusive thing. There are many ways of looking at how capitalism affects the way we interact with others. Similar to reading a poem, the point is not necessarily finding a "right" answer. It is to begin the practice of looking.

Today's Poetry Friday host is Laura Salas at her new blog, Writing the World for Kids.

Random Writing Prompt for NaNoWriMo

I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this year. I "won" a few years ago. Still haven't finished revising that novel.

One of the best parts of doing NaNo was participating in chats and message boards with other writers. I loved the local challenges. In Maryland, we had to work a crab into our book. When you're stuck, having to "think outside the box" -- or get out of your own  head -- and include a random object or idea can be just the trick to get the words flowing.

For all my writing-marathoner friends, here is a random writing prompt. Try working this into your novel -- either as a plot element, or just an odd detail.

Mr. Poems spotted this bell commuting on Route 95, here in Maryland, yesterday. If you use the bell, leave a comment with some details.

I'm cheering you on from the sidelines!