...somebody left a comment here a while ago complaining about my use of ellipses instead of standard punctuation...to which I say..........................
wha?......................................
...recently started teaching creative writing at a homeless shelter...(a couple blocks from the mural above)...a gig which is turning out to be loaded with challenges...like getting people to show up...and to write once they’re there...though, as with addicts and prisoners I’ve worked with* before, the biggest issue seems not so much an unwillingness to use the written word to express themselves as a deep-seated sense that they
can’t...because they lack sufficient vocabulary, can’t spell, don’t know
the rules...or aren’t
good at following the rules they
do know...
...most of us, in learning to read and write, are presented, right from the start, with rules and lists of words...language in the abstract...with little smiley faces for following the rules correctly and red marks for not following the rules correctly...long before we have so much as a chance to
think about writing love letters or protest songs...
...rules and vocabulary come to be seen as valuable in themselves...inherently more important than whatever they might be used to express...locked gates guarded by language fundamentalists....sometimes built intentionally, to exclude and look down on the masses who lack our particular language skills...but, as often, built around ourselves...college students so proud they’ve mastered standard essay forms, like lions or eagles unable to move beyond their gilded cages...
...though these rules, like the vast lexicon of the English language...(lacking the musicality of Spanish or Italian, precision and logic of German or Latin, or inherent poetry of Chinese or Arabic, an unruly lingo which contains more words than any other)...should exist only to help us express ourselves more effectively...to serve as tools...open doorways to creation and possibility...
...to put ideas down so we can look at them, play with them...make them travel far beyond where we physically are...
...Yoga for Cynics is on the mike!...hello, Cleveland!...is Brooklyn in the house?...Chicago in the house?...Mumbai in the house?...
...ahem...even live on beyond us...though that’s exactly when they start getting dangerous...
...Paul of Tarsus wrote
the letter killeth...and a number of letters he wrote...like those written by just about every other major religious and spiritual leader... have been be implicated in killething and oppressething quite a few people...precisely because the words themselves came to be carved in stone...and those stones used to build walls**...
...then, stones can also be
thrown at walls...and would you really want all your words to be harmless and impotent?...Dylan Thomas...using a poetic form with rules like you wouldn’t believe...said...
Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
...and, really, what I’d most like to get across to the guys at the homeless shelter is this...
make your words catch fire and glow across the night sky and nobody’s gonna care if they’re spelled correctly***...
* which sounds a lot better than "with whom I’ve worked"...believe me...I tried both...
** this and other parts of the post partially inspired by Brenda’s blog...*** Ancient and Revered Yoga Cynic Sutra 323:11
