I’m reading through On Being a Writer by Ann Kroeker and Charity Singleton Craig this summer. Last week I came across this familiar quote from Simone Weil.
Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.
It makes the rounds occasionally; people lament their cell phone use and diminishing attention. But it always rubs me the wrong way. Something about the use of the words “absolutely unmixed.” It makes attention too fine a thing for us mortals.
It almost seems as if my scattered attention is the closest thing to prayer. The booklist scribbled on the back of an envelope, the desk stacked with poem drafts + journals, the boiling over pot of beans, the laundry waiting to be moved.
And then, as if in answer, this quote from L.M. Sacasas surfaced.
Enchantment is just the measure of the quality of our attention.
Ah. Maybe I’m selling my attention short!
At the beginning of June I participated in a Revision Station with Lauren Winner. She directly ties attention to writing.
Revision is, at its core, about paying attention.
Paying attention to what you have written, paying attention to yourself as a writer.
The circumstances, the material, the situation.
Then Mary Oliver throws open “the doorway / into thanks.”
Praying
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.
— Mary Oliver, Thirst
Attention, prayer, enchantment, revision, gratitude.
How do these qualities come to play in your writing?
I got my poetry postcard (yay!!!!) and it inspired me to make art. Yesterday I took some big newsprint sheets onto the patio with some pastels and made some sketches. Today I watercolored some postcards which I will send out hopefully, eventually, with some poems on them.
In the last two weeks we had a house full of guests and three children with pneumonia. Now it is quiet and I'm remembering what it's like to have time to think and create. Now I'm longing to write and wondering if I have anything to say. What can I pay attention to? What is calling to me?
"It almost seems as if my scattered attention is the closest thing to prayer."
I love this!
Also, Simone Weil's journals are the reason I have the word, "ruthless," tattooed on my knuckles. (That's probably something I should write about soon...)
You are an inspiration, as always.