I am looking forward to seeing how all the chapters she was writing during the Writing Intensive last year came out in the book. So glad to hear about the book list at the end, too. I’m excited for the book. Let us know if you have more insights along the way after reading it.

After I picked it up I felt like a hungry animal needing to read it for sustenance. I kept opening it at red stoplights, and would get so absorbed in the chapter headings that I’d get honked at. More than a few times.

It is a particular thrill, as several events of the 4-Season Intensive are mentioned: the trip to Ghost Ranch, Do the Neola, Natalie’s recitation of William Carlos Williams. And the authors she introduced us to: Jimmy Baca, James Baldwin, Steve Almond. They are all in the book. And at the end (in true Natalie form), there are about 75 books for us to read.

She dedicated the book to her students. Our dear Nat.

I suppose there are as many different ways to teach writing as their are writers. But her work has resonated with me. She believes our practice will take us where we need to go - in our writing and our art (she is also a painter). Through my own practice, I have come to believe her.

Ivy, great list of books on writing. I hope people check out the link to Keep your hand moving in Comment 18. Your list got me excited to dig out all my writing books that inspire me!

breathepeace — wonderful haiku. visual monotony. Yes. Visual and in other ways, too, old snow can be monotonous. We don’t get much old snow where I live, and yet I’ve seen old snow enough to connect with your words.

Marylin, yes, right on! Write on! The birds bobbing on the bough in the wind, it’s amazing they stay there. I wonder if it’s like a little diversion for them: hey, it’s windy, let’s go bob! (smile)

I’m excited for this book to come out, QM. I’m ready for a new infusion of her writing wisdom.

I’m happy to hear others exploring and playing with the haiku form. Great start, Marylin….keep going.

I was in Taos in December. Very special time…but the Sugar Nymph’s Cafe was not the same without you!

Sinclair, I was thinking..what about the haiku a day to ease into poetry? The form kind of leads me to forget I am writing poetry. It seems to flow from nature and the center. Just a thought.

The wind is sweeping,

pine branches push her away,

birds bounce up and down.

OK, that’s my very first poem in haiku form…let’s hear it from the gallery…have no mercy…I’m here to learn.
I think I will try writing one a day, also, for a while anyway. I love the video of Natalie.Her “Bones” book is one of my first writing books, too, but I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting her. Thanks for sharing!

It’s great that Bones was one of your first writing books. Then Wild Mind, that’s one I tend to give to other people who want to write, too. Yeah, keep the hand moving.

Continue under all circumstances. Don’t be tossed away. Make positive effort for the good. I found myself wanting to get tossed away this week. But I’m finding my ground again. Reminders are good!

My goodness, a video of Teri and QM….well, it might not be too far down the road. Liz is checking out video cameras this week. Who knows what might appear on the face of red Ravine.

One haiku a day sounds like a great practice. Thanks for sharing. visual monotony - really describes the color of old snow.

I also suddenly found myself wanting to see your face and Terri’s on a video…to be in the company of our good writing intensive clan again.

Natalie introduced me to haiku poetry. This year, I am committed to write one each day (or more if I choose.) Here is one from January 3, 2008:

same above, below:
visual monotony
color of old snow

I have often thought of poems as prayers, of the practice of writing as a meditative practice. I read Natalie Goldberg’s work so many years ago, I wonder if I just integrated her wise philosophy into my own and can no longer tell where it knit in. Her book, Writing Down the Bones, was one of my first writing books, then came Wild Mind. I am happy to be reminded right now to just “keep the hand moving” as it seems to have stilled somewhat.

Sinclair, you should do some poetry about it. Or write a non-fiction short. There’s a lot in the process of witnessing that.

The hawk would hammer at the neck of the bluejay–scattered a flurry of feathers. Twice the hawk looked over at me watching. There was no fear in its eyes. Steely. Angry. After pecking like a woodpecker, it would stop, hold down the wings, and then peck again. More feathers scattering on the frozen ground around the bluejay. Another car came down the street at a normal speed, and the hawk lifted off the ground carrying the jay to safer ground. It glided, strong…confident. Its wings beating the air slowly. Flap-Flap. Flap-Flap.

The poem you are talking about by Galway Kinnell is called Ode and Elegy. I have never forgotten it since the day she read it in a December workshop I was in.

I did a piece about Galway Kinnell a bit ago and posted that particular poem. Below is the link for anyone who would like to read it. It’s an intense poem. And I wonder, Sinclair, when you read the poem again, now that you have seen the hawk and jay, how it will ring for you.

Ode To Galway Kinnell (We Are Not The Poem) with the poem, Ode and Elegy (LINK)

Yes, slowing down for our lives. She taught me that, too. I walk in the world differently as a result of studying with her. And I’m a better writer and artist. It’s so hard to slow walk these days. Everything moves so fast. I have to keep practicing.

If I had never heard the poem, I would have driven right by–consumed with thoughts of groceries and errands and things that don’t matter. Studying with Natalie gives you the chance to wake up and stay awake. She plants seeds that keep you alert to the world.

You’re the one who told me about Natalie, QM. You’ve always been good at sharing with other writers. You have been teaching me that for years.

I think it shows some of the reasons she is such a different kind of writing teacher. And why we like studying with her so much. But when it comes down to it, it’s the way she teaches the practice. Beautiful.

I loved the intro and the sound of the sweeping broom. Doesn’t that just take you back to the chores in the zendo?