wordswimmer: Dry Well

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Dry Well

When the well is dry--
bone dry,
drip-dried,
brain-fried--
what do you do?

You pump,
and pump,
and pump...

and what do you get?

Nothing
but an empty
bucket
and a creaky
sound
in your ears?

So, you wait.
And watch.
And wait.

Creak.
Creak.
Creak.

Still dry.

Don't give up.

Still dry.

Don't jump!

Water will return
some day.

Creak.
Creak.
Creak.

Watch and wait.
Watch and wait...

Nothing yet.

Maybe tomorrow?

Just a trickle?
A drip?
A drop?

Water will flow again.
(You have to believe this.)

Watch.
Wait.

Soon.

For more on what to do when the well runs dry, visit:
http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/istop.html
http://www.cynthiaharrison.com/?p=32
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/06/14/040614fa_fact
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9620861
http://ridingwiththetopdown.blogspot.com/2008/09/imagination-unleashed-guest-blogger.html
http://community.eharlequin.com/content/refilling-well-and-prize-win
http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/1104/42/

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: I hope your well fills nicely over the holidays, Bruce.; 11:30 AM
Bruce Black said...: Thanks, Kelly. Just hearing from writers like you helps the well fill a bit more.; 5:22 PM
laurasalas said...: Bruce, I love this poem! My writing well rarely runs dry, since my issue is time, not words flowing (of course, the words may stink, but that's another issue!).

But this beautifully captures the sense and feeling of a dry well in other areas of life, too.

Thanks for sharing!; 6:57 AM
Bruce Black said...: The image of a well... and drawing words up out of it... has always struck me as a perfect description for the writing process. Glad it worked for you, too.; 10:12 AM

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News about Writing Yoga

Anne Mazer, author of The Salamander Room, the Amazing Days of Abby Hayes series, and co-author with Ellen Potter of Spilling Ink: A Young Writer's Handbook, reviews Writing Yoga on her blog:

http://www.annemazerbooks.com/journal/2011/1/11/more-book-adoration.html

Freelance editor, book doctor, writing coach and teacher Deborah Brodie lists Writing Yoga on her list of favorite books about writing:

http://www.deborahbrodie.com/tips.html

Michelle Edwards, illustrator and author of A Knitter's Home Companion, reviews Writing Yoga on her blog:

http://michelledwards.squarespace.com/blog/2011/4/8/writing-yoga.html

Poet, Cybils Award colleague, and children's author Kelly Fineman shares her response to Writing Yoga on her blog:

http://kellyrfineman.livejournal.com/689754.html

Barbara O'Connor, author of The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester, blogs about Writing Yoga:

http://greetings-from-nowhere.blogspot.com/2011/03/writing-yoga-by-bruce-black.html

An article about Writing Yoga appears in The Jewish News of Sarasota-Manatee (March, 2011):

http://www.rodmellpress.com/writingyoga_reviews.html

Riding the Wave

You know that feeling when you're riding a wave and feel lighter than air and never want the wave to stop?

That's how I feel after hearing from my editor at Rodmell Press that my book, Writing Yoga, is now available.

It's not the same kind of exhilaration that comes from writing and discovering unexpected treasures in deep water.

But it's a remarkable feeling, all the same, knowing that words which started off as mere flickers in my journals are making their way into the world.

If you'd like to read an excerpt from the book, visit Rodmell's website:

http://www.rodmellpress.com/writingyoga1.html

And if you'd like to read more about the book, check out these links:

http://wordswimmer.blogspot.com/2011/01/on-trust-and-magic.html

http://journalpractice.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/listening-beneath-the-silence/

Thanks so much to all for your support and encouragement.

Keep swimming!

Favorite Quotes

"Pour yourself like a fountain. Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins."

-- Rainer Maria Rilke

"Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea."

-- Jack Kerouac

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."

-- Andre Gide

"Delay is natural to a writer. He is like a surfer—he bides his time, waits for the perfect wave on which to ride in."
-- E. B. White

“My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I’m grateful for it the way I’m grateful for the ocean.”
-- Anne Lamott

"I want my reader to fall into what I've written like falling into water, to go down and down and down, to enter that underwater universe, to be transformed, to breathe like a sea creature, effortlessly slipping and sliding and swimming, a fish among fish."
-- Norma Fox Mazer

"All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath."
--F. Scott Fitzgerald in a letter to his daughter.

"If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water."
--Ernest Hemingway

"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water."
--Rabindranath Tagore

"For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“Patience, patience, patience is what the sea teaches.”
--Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Honoring Our Writing Teachers

How often have you heard people say that writing can't be taught?

Yet writing is a craft that all of us have learned.

And if we're lucky, we've had a teacher who inspired us to spend a lifetime putting words on paper, a teacher who taught us to explore our minds and our hearts.

Do you remember the teacher who inspired you to write?

Why not share a brief story about him or her with other wordswimmer readers?

Join these writers who have kindly passed on their teacher's gift of inspiration:

Augusta Scattergood: http://tinyurl.com/3jmzjds
Tricia Springstubb: http://tinyurl.com/3z5nm2h

Send your stories (250 words), along with a brief bio, to wordswimmer, and we'll take a look and post them as part of our effort to honor our writing teachers.

Any questions?

Write to Bruce at wordswimmer@hotmail.com.

Thanks.

wordswimmer

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Dry Well

4 comments:

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