on this dog day this day of cloudless reeling where you send me without map or compass letters into the red water of your mescaline beauty where it is enough to sit next to it & feel the foolish tide, the safety of your animal slumber this is fumbling is fear is your bending by is too close to touch straight on this is shadow boxing your jaw with my eyes this is the blind movement towards you this is when i forget what my hands are for this is when i have the dream about your perfect teeth is slaughter is when i need the rules most lest i forget which game we are playing
Shorthand
Obsessions
Write a list of your obsessions, whether they be pancakes, betrayal or albinos. Familiarize yourself with what preoccupies and concerns your curiosity and think about these themes. These are the topics you will be exploring for the rest of your writing life.
Feeling Projection
Sometimes the most effective way of conveying a character’s feelings is to project them onto other people, animals, objects or spaces. Here is an exercise I find effective in developing this skill.
In a single paragraph describe a room from the point of view (POV) of a character who has just learned that his/her mother has died. The trick is to describe the room WITHOUT mentioning the mother’s death or using such words as “depressed,” “sad,” etc.
In another paragraph describe the same room only this time from the POV of someone who has just won the lottery. Again, do not refer to the win directly or use words such as “happy,” “I’m rich!” etc. Describe the room, the atmosphere, lighting, furniture, etc, that would be indicative of someone who has just discovered his/her life has been changed in a momentous way.
Untitled (Grade 9 Assignment)
Mr. Pyotr was his name, a man who was 70 when I was still just encountering the world. His face had as many wrinkles as an elephant, each wrinkle unfolded like a book for each wrinkle told a day in his life. A life, I must add, more rich than you and I will probably ever have. His eyes were grey and watery, with eyebrows as only a Russian can have! For his eyebrows were thick and wide and stretched across his face without a break. Mr. Pyotr had no teeth and when asked why he never put in false teeth, his reply was always, “If God would have meant man to have teeth until we die than we shall have to accept being barbarians for the rest of a life.” Even though I don’t believe in God and I did not fully understand what he meant, I respected what he said all the same.
For a man of Mr. Pyotr’s age, his body was as strong as an ox with muscles that always told who was in command.
He always sat when telling me stories of his adventures except when getting deeply involved, then he would pace up and down in his room.
His room looked like one big antique piece, for in the back of the room was a big Grandfather clock which always gave the room a feeling of seniority. The ceiling was cracked in numerous places as the last relics of paint clung on, rather like a leaf in fall.
His bed was nothing much more than a mattress and a course grey blanket. Beside his bed was a half-used candle and behind the candle the bed, and to the right of the Grandfather clock lay more books than the stars at night. Though one thing I did notice was that every book was on people such as Marx, Lenin and Stalin.
Mr. Pyotr always was very philosophical with me, for he used to tell me how wrong the Russian government is and yet told me it did work in a sense.
Author of the Month: David Layton
Tell us about yourself.
This is the sort of alarming question that inevitably leads towards the false accounting of a resume. I’ll let others try to describe me, preferably when I’m out of earshot.
When did you realize you had a passion for writing?
I’m not sure I ever had one. When it comes to writing I follow Thomas Mann’s assertion that, “a writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.”
What pieces of writing/authors have had the greatest impact on you?
Two authors who had a huge impact on me were Henry Miller and Ferdinand Céline. It was my mother who gave me Tropic of Cancer, a book I recommend, and should be read by every fifteen-year-old boy. Céline’s Journey to the End of the Night and Death on the Installment Plan are astonishing pieces of writing.
How and when do you find time to write?
The trick is not to try and find the time, as if it’s something you need to go looking for, but rather to make time so that you are its master and creator.
What has been some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a writer?
Believing in the words I just wrote in the above question.
How have you changed as a writer over the years?
For a young writer the linked attributes of arrogance and inexperience are absolutely imperative. The only thing age takes care of is the arrogance.
Big
I like elephants. Or I should say I love elephants. I like that they chew their food slowly the way my little brother does. I like the way they lumber, not lope. I like the simplicity of their thick bodies. I like how each foot has the girth of a tree. I like how their ears seem almost razorsharp at the edges. I like that their bodies can produce a substance as rare as ivory. I like that they take revenge against poachers and murderers. I like the strength hidden under the folds of skin like steel springs. I like the harsh reality of how dangerous they really are. I regret being born in this thin, useless body. I regret these legs which may as well have been toothpicks. I regret this big nose which was never big or long enough. I regret this disproportionate brain which knew too much empathy. I regret not being born an elephant or I could have wrapped my trunk tightly around you and taken you away from this place of violence and hate. I could have moved one thick leg after the other through the garbage and the stab wounds and the broken bones. But you are here with your arms wrapped around me. You are here with your back absorbing the blows. You are here dying to take revenge. Maybe you are an elephant and That is why I love you.