(Yes, this title is a clear rip off of a book by Ivan Illich, a mostly forgotten Catholic education philosopher.

There’s a worthy assignment–read some Illich!)

Twice this year I’ve had the chance to meet with far away women friends who are also on this writing journey. And each time I’ve come home and scribbled a list of resources that I wanted to share with them, trusted guides that have illuminated my path.

But instead of just sending them an email, I thought I’d share a bit more widely.

Gottman Marriage Minute

This weekly newsletter from the Gottman Institute aims to give a tiny bit of marriage advice that you can act on in just a minute. I keep one up on my desktop that entreats me to Be Kind. This isn’t rocket science, but I can often use the reminder.

Daily Dad

Another email newsletter. This one comes every week day from Ryan Holiday. It applies his interest in Stoic philosophy to being a better dad. I’m not a dad, but I know some! And I’m raising boys. I haven’t read this long enough to know if it’s something I’ll use long term. But it’s very interesting.

Efficient/Creativity

This six week audio series by Julianna Baggott is all about using your quirky creative process to your own advantage. It’s about noticing when you get ideas, developing strategies to capture them, and even ways to deal with writer’s block. Get these lectures because Julianna is an excellent writer–funny, smart, and self-deprecating. She’s wonderful to spend time with. But along the way you’ll also find ways to enrich your writing life.

Shaunta Grimes

Shaunta is a novelist who publishes nearly everyday on Medium about writing and productivity. She’s serious about helping people become authors and shares her experience and expertise freely. Her work is the basis and inspiration for my own Homeschool MFA. Her articles are behind the paywall on Medium. So you can only read a few each month without paying–enough to get a taste for the work she shares. Then you can join her email list, and she’ll send a friend link that will give you free access.

The river has been singing to me of late. Come with me as I follow her traces…

I read this interview with John Ashbery recently, it was one in an old Paris Review. He says whenever he wants to write poetry,

it’s like a little river that’s always flowing, and you can just dip into it and write. I think that’s a great analogy.

—Bernadette Mayer

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way,

just as the Scripture says.”

–John 7

If you’re going to be a writer, the first essential is just to write. Do not wait for an idea. Start writing something and the ideas will come.

You have to turn the faucet on before the water starts to flow.

—Louis L’Amour

Ask Me

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.

–William Stafford

 

Holly Wren Spaulding suggests that reading poetry is a way to keep our poetic work vital even when we can’t get to the page.

Reading poetry, we stand on the shore of the deep river of words and push our little boat out into the current. Reading poetry keeps us circled close to the fire of our work, kindling near to hand.

Here are three kinds of books in my stacks just now.

Collections by Individual Poets

Winter Morning Walks by Ted Kooser

Dead Man’s Float by Jim Harrison

The Grace of Necessity by Samuel Green

Anthologies

Joy collected by Christian Wiman

The Maverick Poets edited by Steve Kowit

Poetry 180 collected by Billy Collins

Deep Dives Before Bed

Now and Then by Robert Hass

A Long High Whistle by David Biespiel

The Poet’s Glossary by Edward Hirsch

What books are keeping your practice lively?