Hang Gliding With Emily Dickinson

Surveys have shown that one of the most popular dream occupations for Canadians has been that of writer. According to still other surveys things might be changing, what with reading on a slow, steady decline these days - although, if you hang out in poetry circles, you’ll soon realize that a disinterest in reading poetry does not prevent plenty of people from writing it. Why do so many people feel attracted to writing? (And what kind of mind games are these survey people playing with us?)

Well, obviously, writing is the cheapest ego trip you’ll ever take. You can self-express yourself silly and stand in front of a group of people who will actually listen (or pretend to listen) to what you have to say. How many can claim that kind of attention from their family, peers, or colleagues? Add to this the incredible ease of writing. Add pen to paper, or throw fingers at keyboard repeatedly and bring to a boil. Let cool and serve it up. That perception of ease is captured nicely in the apocryphal story of the writer at a cocktail party (how the writer got in there, I’ll never know) who is having a discussion with a brain surgeon. “Oh, you’re a writer,” the brain surgeon says. “I keep telling my wife that at some point I’m going to take a year off from my job and do the writing I’ve always wanted to do.” To which the writer responds, “What a coincidence. I’ve always wanted to take a year off from writing and do some brain surgery.”

But there’s more to the attraction to writing. For many people there is something classy, romantic and exciting about being a writer. It is about the independent spirit. There is the sense of adventure. The vast majority of people who do not dream of being a writer understand exactly how silly this fantasy is. “You actually sit at a desk and call that work! Get out and into the world for Pete’s sake! Get out among the living.” Never mind the fantasy of globetrotting and immersing yourself in foreign cultures. If you want to be a writer, you have to sit at a desk, shut the world out and do the writing.

When I’m the road for any reason, I find the rush of sights and sounds too much to easily absorb. In order to write, I need the comforts of home. I need some semblance of routine – not necessarily a writing routine, but some kind of a framework I can hang my day on. It can be as little as knowing which way to turn as I walk out of my bedroom. There are people who can do the globetrotting and the writing, but I’m not one of them. Nor was Emily Dickinson, who stayed close to home (mostly in her home) for the better part of her life. And though I’m extroverted among a friendly crowd, when I write I tap into my inner Emily. And I don’t trust the passion that some writers have for gobbling up all sorts of experiences. Just a little will do, thanks.

Gustave Flaubert once said, “Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois so that you may be violent and original in your work.” I’m not a big fan of Flaubert’s work. Maybe I identified a little too strongly with the bored housewife Madame Bovary. But I do fully endorse what he has said about the regular and orderly life. In fact, when I read poetry that seems flat and unoriginal I often imagine that the person who wrote it must lead a much more exciting life than I do. Nevertheless, out of my boredom and the rut I have paced into the center of my life some surprising ideas and lines and poems jump out of the shadows of my gray days and startle my pen into motion – a needle turning the page into an EKG reading.

The good news, then, is that there is still great and innovative writing to be done out there. The kind of writing that can shatter you – the kind of writing that is the hang-glider for the soul as you (and somewhere to the left of you, Emily herself) drop over the edge of your own expectations and hope your steering and the wind can bring you safely to the ground again. The bad news is that, based on my experience, you’re going to have to go sit in a corner and shut up long enough to write while the rest of the world plays outside your window. Still interested?