Now it’s the turn of Via Negativa’s other regular contributor to hold forth at Marly Youmans’ blog as part of the ongoing House of Words series there. Fortunately, she’s not quite as prolix as I was! Luisa talks about how she got started using entries from The Morning Porch as writing prompts, and gives three examples of how particular entries sparked the poems they did.
For instance, Dave’s TMP observation on January 28 was “The silence of falling snow. When my furnace kicks on, the three deer digging under the wild apple tree startle and run down the slope.” When I read that, the first sentence, “The silence of falling snow” coupled with the image of “the wild apple tree” had a certain beautiful gravity that felt– and sounded– almost biblical. The wild apple tree and the three deer digging also made me think immediately of medieval tapestries, rich with illustrations of plants and animals. From there it was a short leap to recalling stories in bestiaries like the Physiologus. […]
I find Luisa’s fealty to craft and the creative venture endlessly inspiring. Go read.
This is an important sui generis description of Luisa Igloria’s creative processes. It is a keeper. Thanks to you and Marly for getting it down. I particularly value the description of how TMP prompts worked. And, of course, the “Dim sum, dim sun” misreadings. (:–) Bravo!
I agree, but I can’t take any credit for it: it was entirely Marly’s initiative to solicit the essay from Luisa (or perhaps Luisa volunteered). I didn’t even know about it until it appeared this evening!
Marly kindly extended the invitation to be featured on her House of Words series. So much fun, and I am totally in awe of her energy and generosity. :)
Go Luisa!!! I loved reading this article.
I love standing on a distant hill and watching all these comings and goings.
Thanks Hannah! I’m your fan too! :)
Clive– the view from your hill is quite spectacular, according to Dave and Marly…