Hello! I have found out from some subscribers that my July and August craft letters did not appear, though they did appear in inboxes for some others. So, I am resending them, this time with no paywall, in the first two weeks of September.
INVESTIGATION
I think from now on, the poem walks will be part of the general newsletter, but that part will always be free.
This month as heat waves and wildfires smash through the planet, I’m thinking about a book I read a long time ago, Wave, by Sonali Deraniyagala. The book is described as: “The most exceptional book about grief I’ve ever read.... As unsparing as they come, but also defiantly flooded with light.... Extraordinary.” —Cheryl Strayed, The New York Times Book Review
In 2004, at a beach resort on the coast of Sri Lanka, Sonali Deraniyagala and her family—parents, husband, sons—were swept away by a tsunami. Only Sonali survived to tell their tale. This is her account of the nearly incomprehensible event and its aftermath.
The book is understandably brutal, and the form of the book, like grief, like the ocean, like waves, crashes and recedes, crashes and recedes.
I’m a fast reader, even when I try to slow down, and when a book catches me, I usually finish it in a day or two. Wave caught me, but I had to put it down over and over. I had to breathe. I needed a break. I could barely tolerate what a privilege it was to have a break from this story that the mother, the writer, would live forever.
For some reason, the heat wave in Seattle reminded me of this book, even though of course the experience is minimal in comparison, not even worth mentioning. And every time I think about this book, I think about the stillborn baby that I lost when I was twenty years old and my dad, who died when I was fifteen. Books and stories about grief bring me to my own grief. I think that’s part of their action in the world and in our bodies.
EXPLORATION
This is a long excerpt of Wave. Read as much of it as you want. I highly recommend the whole book.
Poem walk: As you’re walking or doing the laundry or driving to work, think about what acts like a wave in your life. What is relentless? Think about the sentence: _________ is relentless. Imagine 2-4 sentences describing what that LOOKS like. Memorize your sentences. Write them on the top of a page and keep writing until it is full.
ACTION
The work of this month is in exploring what is relentless. Is it you? Is it grief? Is it love? Is it the weather, politics, your parents, your dog? What in your life surges or comes at you? What in your life releases you?
Write a lyric essay of surges and releases. You can view this as a list or you can write about one topic, like the loss of a friend or family member or marriage or pet, but focus in each section of the essay on a surge or a release.