This poem by Denise Levertov is dedicated to all of you participating in NaNoWriMo. Those, who beginning today and for the next 30 days, will breathe life into characters and plots and fashion the words that will illuminate them page by page — for your creativity, your willingness, your commitment and your courage, I salute you.
The Novel
A wind is blowing. The book being written
shifts, halts, pages
yellow and white drawing apart
and inching together in
new tries. A single white half sheet
skims out under the door.
And cramped in their not yet
halfwritten lives, a man and a woman
grimace in pain. Their cat
yawning its animal secret,
stirs in the monstrous limbo of erasure.
They live (when they live) in fear
of blinding, of burning, of choking under a
mushroom cloud in the year of the roach.
And they want (like us) the eternity
of today, they want this fear to be
struck out at once by a thick black
magic marker, everywhere, every page,
and tossed in the fire
Meanwhile from page to page they
buy things, acquiring the look of a
full life; they argue, make silence bitter,
plan journeys, move house, implant
despair in each other
and then in the nick of time
they save one another with tears,
remorse, tenderness—
hooked on those wonder-drugs.
Yet they do have—
don’t they—like us—
their days of grace, they
halt, stretch, a vision
breaks in on the cramped grimace,
inscape of transformation.
Something sundered begins to knit.
By scene, by sentence, something is rendered
back into life, back to the gods.
~Denise Levertov~
Poems 1960-1967
tho its very beautiful as reading it i get this sense of not nor maybe (dare I say) never needing to write another thing, like its all there and all drama anyway it all unfolds the story’s told ’round & ’round & round we go…. and then again this perspective could be just mine! LOL xoxoam
whats NaNoWriMo?
Hey Amari, NaNoWriMo…I think that stands for national Novel writing month…and I’m not sure why they say national since people outside of the U.S. participate. Desba is in it, so is Megan, Jules and Belle. It’s a commitment to write I think 50,000 words this month (this is done every November) or the equivalent of a novel. Inviting anyone who has ever remotely entertained the notion of a writing a novel, to do so. Many people find writing buddies and writing groups. I’m not participating but I love the idea and I celebrate all the artists involved in this creative endeavor!
Bethie, what a delicious poem! Really beautiful.
This is going to be a fun month, following along with other dear ones in their journeys. The journey is the prize.
I like that Jules – “the journey is the prize” – it really invites me to feel into what that means and just how precious this journey is.
Indeed “the journey is the prize”. I am in the beginning steps of writing a novel. It is one of those dream I never knew I had. Thank you Beth!