In the Hills of Joseph, P.S.: “May We All Become Neighbors”

RoadWords

IN THE HILLS of JOSEPH

PART I: “The Windswept Soul”
PART II: “A Rivendell of Words”
PART III: “I Think I Am in Love”
PART IV: “Passing the Buck”
PART V: “Notes from the Empty Quarter”
PS: “May We All Become Neighbors”

For writers or anyone in need of inspirational mojo or creative fodder here are favorite remarks, quotes, excerpts and ephemera which caught my ear or eye at the 2012 Fishtrap writer’s workshop, where I attended the workshop led by Luis Alberto Urrea. Plus final photos from a special place on Earth. Thanks for reading “In the Hills of Joseph.” Over & out.  | douglas imbrogno

 

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“At least once a month
you should lie on the ground and listen well.”

~ Ko Un

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“Hearts must touch
to throw the spark.”

~ Luis Alberto Urrea, explaining how traditional shamans and healers he met, when hugging, would move him to the right slightly and why

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“We have lost the tribal position of the storyteller in our culture.”

~ Ursula K. Le Guin, former Fishtrap instructor (quoted by Urrea)

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“Writers write, even when they’re not writing.”

~ Poet Kim Stafford, Fishtrap co-founder

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“If you have writer’s block, write about the writer’s block. Writers all over the world want help on getting over being silent. Write: ‘This sucks, this sucks, this sucks …”

~ Luis Alberto Urrea

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“Not crazy after all these years.”

~ Douglas Imbrogno (after Luis Urrea instructed us to come back to the next day’s workshop with a six-word memoir about our lives, inspired by a feature of Smith magazine online)

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“The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”

~ Bruce Lee, quoted by Urrea in encouraging us to “get your black belt in writing”

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“Choose who you’re going to betray. For me, it’s often the dead.”

~ Luis Urrea, on the writer’s difficult task of revealing things about people and relationships close to you

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“… the wind-swept spirit..”

~ Basho. The phrase comes from the Japanese poet’s explanation of why he had to write poetry:

“In this mortal frame of mine which is made of a hundred bones and nine orifices there is something, and this something is called a wind-swept spirit for lack of a better name, for it is much like a thin drapery that is torn and swept away at the slightest stir of the wind. This something in me took to writing poetry years ago, merely to amuse itself at first, but finally making it its lifelong business. It must be admitted, however, that there were times when it sank into such dejection that it was almost ready to drop its pursuit, or again times when it was so puffed up with pride that it exulted in vain victories over the others. Indeed, ever since it began to write poetry, it has never found peace with itself, always wavering between doubts of one kind and another. At one time it wanted to gain security by entering the service of a court, and at another it wished to measure the depth of its ignorance by trying to be a scholar, but it was prevented from either because of its unquenchable love of poetry. The fact is, it knows no other art than the art of writing poetry, and therefore, it hangs onto it more or less blindly.

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“Laughter is a virus that infects you with humanity.”

~ Luis Alberto Urrea

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“Your boots are too clean. Tourist.”

~ Kathy Hunter, fellow Luis Urrea workshopper (and Fishtrap board member), spying my too-clean black boots and inviting me on a burro hike.

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“Even your mistakes are friends.”

~ Poet William Stafford

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“Eloquent listening.”

~ Poet Kim Stafford’s phrase, on the art of paying close attention to what is being said to and around you

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“Soul tax.”

~ Cindy Urrea, speaking of the cost or damage you cause to yourself, doing things that may not be in your best interest as a creative person

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“We show the Spirit of Writing we are available.”

~ Luis Alberto Urrea

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“Writing shit about new snow
for the rich
is not art.”

~ Issa

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Consider Beginnings

Do without doing
Act without action.
Savor the flavorless.
Treat the small as large,
the few as many.

Meet injury
with the power of goodnes.

Study the hard while it’s easy.
Do big things while they’re small.
The hardest jobs in the world start out easy,
the great affairs of the world start small.

So the wise soul,
by never dealing with great things,
gets great things done.

Now, since taking things too lightly makes them worthless,
and taking things too easy makes them hard,
the wise soul,
by treating the easy as hard,
doesn’t find anything hard.

~ Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching, an English version by Ursula K. Le Guin, copied out from workshop-mate Jinhee’s book on break

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“The border is not the edge. It’s the center, where conflicting forces are visible. A writer turns toward the difficult thing as a leaf turns toward the sun.”

~ Kim Stafford, in a panel discussion which turned to a discussion about writing about complex and sensitive border issues between the U.S. and Mexico and books like “The Devil’s Highway: A True Story” by Luis Alberto Urrea

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“Do these men not have mothers?!”

~ Luis Alberto Urrea, in a panel discussion in which the subject came up of Mexican narco-trafficantes who have taken to beheading opponents

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“Do your own best writing and tell the story only you can tell.”

~ Kim Stafford

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“I watched if antelope acted curious. It might be danger. If prairie birds flew up in the distance, it might be buffalo stampeding … The unexpected shadow against a big rock.”

~ Yellow Wolf, scout of the Nez Perce, whose ancestral homeland, from which they were banished by the white man, encompasses the niche of the Wallowa Lake where Fishtrap takes place. Quoted in “Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce: A poem by Robert Penn Warren”

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“Are you going to write about me?”
“Should I?”
“You need to write about me. You’re my only chance.”

~ Luis Alberto Urrea, telling of an old man who came up to him and saw him writing while he was exploring life in one of the most destitute section of Tijuana

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“May we all become neighbors whispering sweetly together.”

~ Ko Un

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IN THE HILLS of JOSEPH

PART I: “The Windswept Soul”
PART II: “A Rivendell of Words”
PART III: “I Think I Am in Love”
PART IV: “Passing the Buck”
PART V: “Notes from the Empty Quarter”
PS: “May We All Become Neighbors”

MORE RoadWords by Douglas Imbrogno:

~ “The Professor and the Porn Legend Who Married the Appalachian Mountains”
~ “800 Miles to Go Before I Sleep”