WRITING AND THE SENSE OF COMMUNITY

The idea that writing is a solitary act of self-expression does not reflect my experience of writing, or of my own relationship to my community. Self-expression is certainly unavoidable, but not a useful primary goal. The self is the least interesting of the things art embodies, and this embodiment is less an act of expression, of pressing outward, than it is an act of inwardness, of registering, of careful attention. By emptying oneself of ego, of preconceptions, of the already known and experienced, one creates a space through which poetry, experience, life, may make its own way. Rukeyser said "Breathe in experience, breathe out poetry." That seems to be the method. Of course, breathing in experience, paying attention to what's there ("what they tell you to forget" in Rukeyser's words) is not a passive activity. The full range of techniques of poetry, and of spiritual disciplines, come in handy. And, also, always, the knowledge that one is not in fact a solitary romantic genius spinning the world ab nihilo, but a living creature connected to the world and to others. The life of the world speaks through us when we pay attention.

All writers need this sense of community, so we do not get arrogant and distant and full of ourselves. The single most important thing any teacher of writing can do is to keep students firmly focused on their initial community as constituted by themselves, and their obligation, therefore, to learn from and nurture each other. The rest is technique, and it can be learned, but the sense of community is a central spiritual necessity.