the imperative to write
07/26/2011
How often do we think about composition or writing as an imperative? I have been thinking about a quote by Marianne Williamson, from A Return to Love, where she writes about this imperative:
"How could Leondardo da Vinci not have painted? How could Shakespeare not have written? In Letters to a Young Poet, Rilke tells a young writer to write only if he has to. We are to do what there is a deep psychological and emotional imperative for us to do. That's our point of power, the source of our brilliance. Our power is not rationally or willfully called forth. It's a divine dispensation, an act of grace" (166).