Day 16 (July 30): Murray Watts and a Steak Dinner

Our morning poetry workshop is fun, exhilarating, challenging. We are small but mighty, as Linda says. There is a spirit of camaraderie and kinship. The poetry is good. I am impressed with the quality of my partners’ work. I wish I could print some of it here.

Our morning lecturer was Murray Watts, a well-known UK screenwriter and scriptwriter, whose deep faith and commitment to writing well set the bar high for those of us who listened. He noted that we’ve not had a WWIII, but there is another war, a moral and spiritual war, that has crept in slowly and inexorably. We also live in the most narcissistic age of all time, an age noted for its “hurry sickness” (Japanese term for an over-busy life).

We bring hope, not optimism, to this world. (An optimist is one who, falling from a ten-story building, calls out at each passing level, “All right so far….”) The horsemen of the apocalypse are standing at the edge of the world, surveying. Since the West has become involved in the undoing of the world, it’s time we start remaking it—not as “Christian” writers and artists (“Christian” is a noun, not an adjective), but as fully human. We need to look back at the Celtic world, which emphasized pilgrimage and seeking the place of our resurrection. We do not do art for ourselves; we do it for the truth we know within ourselves. It’s between us and God.

The afternoon sessions dealt with publishing for young readers and then Murray Watts again, teaching on the power of dialogue.

My “cottage group” decided to eat at the hotel tonight, drawn by the half-price offer on several steak dishes. We had a great time, and even splurged on wine (free with our room vouchers). A lovely way to end the day.

This morning I workshopped a poem written after I’d studied Luke’s parables of the treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of great price.

The Pearl Paradox

It’s the rich who can’t buy it.
Only the poor can afford something
that costs everything.
Small enough to sit in the palm of my hand
or be trampled by swine,
it contains kingdoms, princes, rulers,
and the smile of God.