Poetry Friday: Annus Mirabilis

Annus Mirabilis

how close is
the edge where we gasp
at the wondrous view

to the place where we fall.
we’re addicted to gravity
we fall, and fall, and fall

the attraction is mutual
the disasters are many
the wonders placed as knots

on a rope. Hand over hand,
the shape of each day fitting
to our palms, rough and knobby,

we pull our hearts
tough as burnt sugar
out of the blackened scrape

we’ve gotten ourselves in. A year
is nothing but a spin around
the sun, an annulus,

a common ring,
the crushed remains
of dust orbiting,

a measure of growth,
a given promise of wonder
or disaster as it slips

over a finger. I promise
for years to come
and years past

and this year
that there will be
disasters and wonder,

and how close
we will see them
as we fall.

---Sara Lewis Holmes (all rights reserved)

Annus Mirabilis:  a year of disasters or miracles. In other words, any year in which love exists. 

Also, the year 1905, in which Einstein published four papers and his dissertation, work that became the foundation of modern physics. 

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Anastasia at Picture Book of the Day.

What I'm Reading Now: The Black Hole War

You wouldn't think a book about black holes and quantum mechanics would make me laugh. But it has. Regularly. 

The Black Hole War: 

My Battle With Stephen Hawking

to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics

by Leonard Susskind

Take this tidbit, for example:

p. 147  ". . . deep holes in space whose gravitational attraction is irresistible. Wheeler (John Archibald Wheeler) began calling them black holes. At first the name was blackballed by the preeminent American physics journal Physical Review. [...] the term black hole was deemed obscene!" 

I also liked his description of running 15 miles on a freezing day in Manhattan, until there were "icicles of sweat hanging from my long hair," and then being rescued by a fellow physicist in a taxi, who whisks him to Yeshiva University where he endures a debate about toilet paper and Talmudic law in the cafeteria before walking in late to a lecture about Stephen Hawking's latest breakthrough.  

I'm also loving Einstein as a role model for novelists. Yup. That man was the master of taking a very simple thought experiment and following it out to the most far-reaching conclusions. And tell me, isn't that just what an excellent novel should do? Have a clear premise and then astound and amaze you with how it all plays out? 

Writer Death Matches: Discipline vs. Devotion

Amy Moreno posted this quote from opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, and I love it:

"People think I'm disciplined. It is not discipline. It is devotion. There is a great difference."---Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007)

Laini Taylor also writes about another match-up in her post today: Determination versus Confidence.

Other possible writer death matches could be:

Outlining vs. Free-wheeling it

Time in Chair vs. Word Count Goals

Professional Work Ethic vs. Artistic Leeway

And then of course, the classic:

Procrastination: Now or Later?

If it seems like writers seesaw between our right and left brains, it's because we DO.  

So far, on my Work in Progress, I have tried the timed writing approach. This worked excellently . . . until it didn't.  Then I constructed an outline, which served me beautifully . . . until it didn't.  Then I decided that I needed to write 1000 words a day until the draft was done. Which worked fabulously . . . until it didn't. Now I'm back to the timed writing approach . . . which thank you, is working marvelously. Until it doesn't.  But that's okay. I'm used to it by now.  

That determination that Laini speaks of? It's what I would call strength in flexibility.  (You might call it yoga, too, if you are also obsessed with mastering crow pose and headstand, like I am.)  That's what keeps me going. That's what keeps all writers going. We bribe ourselves. We give ourselves pep talks. We set up routines. We play and we work.  We may look unfocused at times, but in reality, we are the pit bulls of the universe. We have latched onto our heart's desire and there is no way we are letting go. 

P.S. Tanita Davis is blogging about this today, too. Must be the month of March. Winter vs. Spring. Snow vs. Sunshine. Lions vs. Lambs.