For Journey Class - Fall 2009 |
The Pen and the Forge Forged through a fire of experience, the writer's curves come not from adolescence and childbirth, but through disappointments, rejections, followed only by the giddiness of being entranced by the pen, caressed by the written word, wooed by the smile of a lover, a reader who understands what moves her. . But the pen in a writer's life can also be like a lover's tongue, sharp as a scalpel, to carve, dissect, to heal. The writer, a surgeon with steady hands, melds passion with practice, weighing love of the craft against love of man, with the end result, a patient, a reader, a healing, a spark. Forged through a fire of experience, the strength of the blade comes not from the natural ability of the maker, or the innate strength of ore, but from the act and skill of folding metal upon metal, heating and cooling, heating and cooling, layer upon layer. Only then will it be ready to stretch, shape, polish, adorn, and put into use. Only then will it endure blade upon blade. Writing, like swords and scalpels, is not for the faint of heart. |