BiblioGrind

On the Rim of a Millstone

Hunting Stories Where They Happen: Everywhere

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eyeless in Gozo

 

Writing, photography, music, art—they each have aims, and no artist should be so focused as to fall into a tunnel vision that, though can produce good work on the short field, leaves out the possibility of influences from what I like to call the all-at-onceness of life. What the creative eye sees in the everyday can be used, if the body will let it. As I write daily—prose, poetry, essays, a novel-in-progress—I inevitably find that in the world outside my window there are events, actions, gestures, and overheard conversation that seem to fit with what I’m writing about. Naturally, I used to distrust such influences, having thought that I was merely looking for anything to help me along. Later, I discovered that I was not alone in how a writer (or any artist) gets involved with their stories and sees their world insinuating itself—in a good way—on story. Eudora Welty spoke of this in her Paris Review interview in 1972:

“Once you’re into a story everything seems to apply—what you overhear on a city bus is exactly what your character would say on the page you’re writing. Wherever you go, you meet part of your story.”

Now, many years later, I can see all life’s bits and pieces as found nuggets, like a squirrel digging beneath snow at mid-winter thaw, and I use them for either inspiration, or for purpose—to enhance an image, fill out a scene, describe the empathic reactions between two lovers, or how a mother unwraps a lollipop for a screaming child on a crowded bus.

Writing has been my passion for more than twenty years. I made sure that writing was how I made a living, eventually. All the other stuff have made potent grist for the millstone. Equally, writing—storytelling—remains my yoke. And this is where my aimlessness is so important: to be ready when that word, the active image, the gesture, creates story and drives inspiration.

I have had the great privilege of being allowed at key moments in my life to speak my thoughts to a public forum. Along the way people have been kind enough to let me into their lives for a short time to get their story. On BiblioGrind you will find some of my archival journalism, new and old fiction, poetry, and essays. I decided, likewise, to open essay blogs, since my aimlessness sought purpose. These are more online magazines of my own editing and writing, not emaciated postings otherwise found cyberwide. They are dedicated to kinds of criticism and commentary writing that appeal to me, but have a better chance at recognition as stand-alone projects, not buried within this site. Please visit www.democratic-conversation.com for essays encompassing the world’s political stage, and www.ways-of-seeing.com to find essays on arts & literature. Likewise, for a tour of Europe’s best parks, visit my travel website, www.european-city-parks.com, an ongoing project that takes me around Europe again and again looking for great parks to photograph, roam through, or just sit with a good book. If my writing interests you, please tell others; if you find my work can suit your editorial needs, please contact me at mark@bibliogrind.com to negotiate article commissions or commentary syndication.

And so: let me tell you a story . . .