River Brown

I write out of my anger and into my passion.

It is Tuesday on the eastern seaboard, so I can end my gruelling long Monday in PST with a reminder of why I write.  I found old notes from an Asilomar conference session on Creative Nonfiction.  The mentor text was Terry Tempest Williams, Why I Write.  I lifted her line to start.

I’m culling lines from my 9/29/12 draft that seem true today.

I write to see what’s at my core.  I write into molten memories and frozen silences.

I write to cope, to reclaim myself from loss. 

I write because I mean it.  I’m overly serious — too much thinking. 

I write as a protection plan. 

I write because I teach.  I write to walk a mile in somebody’s mocassins. 

I write to heal the anger all the way.  I write to shut up my ancestors. 

I write just because.  To chase images around my psyche.

I write to say I’m here.  That I matter.