Sister Writes

Sun shines, filtered through leafy branches on this Summer Solstice morning. Can you feel the energy as the earth tilts mostly toward the sun and here in the Northern Hemisphere, we welcome summer?

I was thinking about the summer I stepped away from our family resort business and took a job in the kitchen of a five-star French restaurant in the nearby town. I prided myself on keeping calm and cool in sweaty, pressure-packed conditions; I'd been cooking and baking at the Lodge since I was 13.

But I'd never worked under a Master Chef, who had a reputation for making the staff tremble with fear lest they make a mistake. I witnessed many meltdowns and angry histrionics.

Lucky for me, the chef's much younger wife, who was a talented chef in her own right, made it her mission to teach me and shield me from her husband's wrath.

I can't say it was a fun job, but I liked the challenge and I learned to prepare dishes I'd never tried. And there were some life lessons.

The chef and his wife- whom I came to admire and like- seemed an unlikely pair, but they were in love and devoted and she had made a clear-eyed decision to be with him. She confided in me, and that felt good.

On this 2021 Summer Solstice, think about how you can step into a new challenge in your writing practice.
You might start with a free write about a summer job or other summer experience that had an impact on you.
Has the passage of time changed your thinking about that event?

Try writing a 2nd piece from the point of view of someone who helped you navigate the ups and downs.

Do you struggle with creating distance from your own life story?
It can be helpful to think about creating a "persona," a Latin word meaning mask.
This idea of a mask, resonates with me.

"Using a persona is a way to explore the world through a different lens," says writer Kim Addonizio.

"This strategy can be a way to enter other lives...and a way to map your inner territory."

This is just one of the tips Addonizio, author of poetry collections, novels, and stories, offers up in her 2009 book, "Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within."

Not into writing poetry? Don't worry, this is a book for all writers, full of inspiration.
She had me at the Introduction:
"This is a book about creativity. Poetry happens to be its main subject because poetry is my main vehicle...It is a book meant to inspire you, whoever you are, no matter your level of skill or ability, your age, or what circumstances brought you to these pages. It contains ideas about life and art, self-destruction and self-expression, difficulty and pain and failure, joy and ease and perfect moments."

Give yourself permission,

to write what you need to write, in the form that best suits your material and without worry about how it will be received.
Wade into that river, navigate around the protruding rocks and trust that as long as you keep writing, the current will carry you to where you need to go. But be prepared for the unexpected.

I have been struggling to write a poem based on a particular prompt. I have an opening verse, and some other bits and pieces, but it's not coming together. I am trying too hard to write material I think would be appropriate for this prompt.

I need to give myself permission to write what it is in my heart and on my mind; I need to jump into that river with both feet and let the water sweep me along.

I am grateful to award-winning poet, Ruth Panofsky, our guest at a recent Sister Writes Zoom Workshop, for sharing her process and talking about giving herself permission. She was speaking about writing the poems for her recently published collection,
"Radiant Shards: Hoda's North End Poems." (you can read my review of Ruth's book here: https://whitewallreview.com/hodas-lyric-journey/

Hoda, a character created by Adele Wiseman for her novel, "Crackpot," has long been a literary companion for Ruth. An esteemed Canadian scholar and teacher, Ruth has written about Wiseman and taught "Crackpot," for many years, but in "Radiant Shards," she gave herself permission to write, in the lyric voice of Hoda.
This is Hoda come to life in a way she cannot, in the third person narration of the novel. Ruth permitted herself to take poetic liberties with Wiseman's novel and character. In Radiant Shards,
"Hoda is my voice," Ruth told us.

She also spoke about her next project- poems based on her life- and again she has had to give herself permission; this time to write from a very personal place.

I believe that giving yourself permission is connected to letting go. Letting go of what Natalie Goldberg calls, "...the constructs that you shoulder unconsciously, the stances that were bred into you, the true and the false." She advises, "Take a deep breath and fall down through it all to just being."

I'm going to try what she suggests. See if I can do something with this material that's been swimming around in my head as I've attempted to write a poem based on a prompt.