domingo, 26 de julio de 2009

Steps on a path to writing

My first love and ambition is and always has been fiction. However the first creative piece of work I ever wrote was after I had decided to convert to Catholicism in the final year of my studies. I was returning to university in Wales after having visited my parents. The decision had not been not well received especially by my mother. My relation with my faith has been a complex one, though I always feel a sense of belonging every time I enter a Catholic church, the same feeling ever since I first visited a small church in Paris in 1989.

I can recall writing the poems. I was travelling between Edinburgh and Wales on a train when I felt the urge to write not my best work but my first not as an academic exercise. I remember I was sitting on the right side of the carriage looking at the countryside as it sped by. I took it to be a sign from above that my decision to become a Catholic was correct as was my desire to write. And when I am at peace with my faith and direction of my life I write more. This morning while contemplating this commentary I decided to do some statistics. Prior to coming to Spain from the first published here I wrote 9 poems, from arrival in Spain in Sept 85 until the period of Easter 88 I wrote 16. From Easter 88 to May 2001 I only 9 poems though I did work on educational material at that time creative though emotionally neutral itserved as an apprenticeship in working with publishers. The period since May 2001 has been my most prolific 34 poemas half inspired by love, the greatest motivator in all poetry in all the world’s languages and the other in self exploration and understanding my life’s journey. I have found when I am at peace with my faith I write more and better. I have also completed the first drafts of two novel manuscripts which am planning to take a sabbatical to revise edit and complete in the near future and over 50000 words of the La Rioja Book in its fifth draft two extracts I have already published on this blog.

However contrary to what people believe writers don’t compose when we are really down, we do it on the way up. Research shows that creative people have personalities that function outside normal parameters with wider ranges of moods. However the very same creativity is the greatest resource as it can function as therapy to push us forward to happiness and understanding especially that of our feelings, is a great key to personal peace.


Even though it is a topic of modern psychological research the great poets have always been aware of this. Here I quote Robert Graves and T S Eliott. Reading writers on writing I have found always gives many new perspectives helping inspiring while at the same time remaining grounded with your own. This is why I have chosen to add some of my favourite thoughts by great poets on poetry because this year I read Chekov and Vargas Llosa quoted http://www.venaliteraria.blogspot.com/ so I’d like to thank Manuel for uploading these quotes as they helped me unb lock and finally complete another writing project I had been working on.

The poems add today are my first two here mentioned about becoming a Catholic and Dreams after I received my first letter from a publisher interested in my work.

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