A Cup of Stars

Bob is an archaeologist of his own past. He likes to dig things out of our downstairs garage. Today he excavated a bunch of free-writing exercises that he'd written in the mid-eighties. Free-writing as a way of breaking through creative blocks became popular when it was promoted by Natalie Goldberg in her book Writing Down the Bones.You think up a topic, then write a timed exercise using it as your starting point. However, you don't have to stick to topic. You may write about anything that comes to mind.

This method works pretty well for letting your uncensored self run free. In my case, it worked too well. I loved the spontaneity of free-writing, but rarely went back to finish my pieces. After a while my freedom became a prison. To accumulate vast quantities of notebooks filled with indecipherable handwriting is not satisfying. Maybe it was for a number of years or I wouldn't have kept doing it, but in the end what did I have but a bunch of notebooks full of sometimes interesting thoughts and digressions?

Free-writing does have value. It's fun to do with a group. When people share what they've written, the similarities can seem astounding, giving credence to the concept of "group mind." And everyone has something worthwhile to say. But "saying" is the relevant word. The spoken pieces glitter in their spontaneity, but when you look at them later, they often fall apart. Still, there are poetic gems that stand out against the ramblings. I found a couple of brilliant ones when I wandered through Bob's pieces:


What is the sky but a cup of stars overturned above us, 
and the skull but a cup holding the life of our minds overturned? 
The Lord drinks us like wine and we flow through time in this vineyard world.