Pledge

Writing is something I fear.  Writing is something I love.  Self-consciousness, a dismissive teacher, a career in publishing, a confident and multi-talented literature graduate husband, I could blame all these things for abandoning my passion for writing.  Sometimes, I look back to my childhood and early adult life in an attempt to locate and isolate one pivotal moment when I lost the confidence of the young poet who won the school prize, the creative writer chosen by the visiting author to receive a signed copy of her book, the confident thirteen year old standing up to identify herself as the third place poet in a room full of astonished adults.  This search for one defining moment is pointless, fruitless, time wasted.  There was no sudden dark epiphany, no traumatic event that I can blame and work through in therapy.  I abandoned my passion and then I convinced myself that it could never have been a true passion. 

People with a true passion, never let it go, do they?

Well, they do.  I did.  

Now, I look back and I see myself absorbed in the activity of writing.  Cocooned in a warm blanket of words and feelings, conjuring images and music. Finding solace in creating, nurturing, feeding, playing with my family of words.  Writing used to be part of my daily life, but I got distracted and I built up excuses and I allowed myself to stop.  Many metaphors come to my mind, a garden left untended, becoming overgrown and overwhelming to the solitary gardener.  A river gradually running thinner and thinner until it dries up during a terrible drought.  The metaphors seem trite, but they speak one truth.  A garden can become overgrown, but with hard work, it can return to its former glory.  A river may run dry, but the rains will come and it will rush by once more.  It will take time, it will take much work, it will require regular and sustained effort and writing will become part of my life.

Although nobody reads this blog (yet), giving myself some accountability will help, so I am making the following pledge and hope that one or two people may follow and help me to keep my promise through encouragement, critique or simple reminders.

Pledge

I am going to

write you a Haiku, every

day for forty days.