Language for the Land

"The lack of language to adequately express our love of the land is the clearest indication that, despite our enormous successes in saving land across the country, we are losing the battle for the souls of America." -- Peter Forbes, author of The Great Remembering: Further Thoughts on Land, Soul and Society.


I found this quote on the very interesting website for the new field of Conservation Psychology, http://www.conservationpsychology.org/.  Although I empathize, immediately it occurred to me: what is poetry if not a place to express our love of anything, including the land?  Every day poets are rising from their beds and sitting at their desks to write their passion and despair, for the land and more.

Of course there's always more work to do, more love to express, through poetry, essays, fiction, research, conversation, and activism.

Meanwhile I offer another reading list.  It's a mere inkling of a list, reading that has touched me in its ability to tell how we love and connect to the land, even as it changes under our feet.  Please add to it as you see fit!

1.  "Wild Geese," "Some Questions You Might Ask," "The Journey," and other poems by Mary Oliver
2.  The Solace of Open Spaces, Heart Mountain, and other books by Gretel Ehrlich
3.  "King of the River," and other poems by Stanley Kunitz
4.  How Green Was My Valley, novel by Richard Llewellyn
5.  A Midsummer Night's Dream, and other plays by William Shakespeare
6.  Land Circle: Writings Collected from the Land, and other books by Linda Hasselstrom
7.  Orion, a bimonthly journal in print and online at www.oriononline.org
8.   Wild to the Heart, and other books by Rick Bass
9.  The Log from the Sea of Cortez, and other books by John Steinbeck
10. Desert Solitaire, and other books by Edward Abbey.

Ten River Books to Read b4 You Die

1.  The River Why, by David James Duncan
2.  A River Runs through It, by Norman Maclean
3.  Riverwalking, by Kathleen Dean Moore
4.  The Gift of Rivers, edited by Marybeth Bond and Pamela Michael
5.  Grand Ambition, by Lisa Michaels
6.  River Notes, by Barry Lopez
7.  There's this River, edited by Christa Sadler
8.  Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, by Wallace Stegner
9.  Down the Colorado, by Major John Wesley Powell
10. The Lewis and Clark Journals, edited by Gary E. Moulton
 and
11. Reading Water, by Rebecca Lawton (had to include it!)

Agent Query with Birdbath

Good morning -- Want to write that darn good query letter but are wondering how important it is and how best to do it?  An excellent post on the Agent Query website (originally shared with me by talented writer, artist, and teacher Christine Walker) is here:

http://www.agentquery.com/writer_hq.aspx.

Don't send your agent query without a least a peek at this advice!

Have an excellent thanksgiving.  We have much to be thankful for, not the least of which is the ice on our birdbath this morning, and the beautiful way it's melting in the warming November day!

Language Matters by Becca Lawton

 

Although we may doubt it at times, the world responds to what we say and write.  As poets, essayists, story writers, editors, and other creative souls, we dream of sharing finely crafted language with others.  It may take time for our work to be published and appreciated, but the good news is that the words themselves have power.  This power is an important thing to remember as we clean our desks for National Novel Writing Month, prepare to join family and friends for the holidays, and turn a new leaf for the new year.  We are making the language bed for what lies ahead in our collective lives.

Your own words have resonated deeply enough with you to spill onto the page of your daily writing.  They also have the ability to affect others and help shape life on this planet.

Recently I watched several videos on the internet from the “It Gets Better” project.  The creators of the films shed light on the rite-of-passage bullying that many experience at the hands of their peers in the schools.  The project begs to differ with the breezy, sticks-and-stones adage that words can never hurt us.  Instead, It Gets Better recognizes that the deep effect of our language goes straight to the heart and soul of individuals—some only children, so vulnerable and hopeless that they don’t want to go on in a world that feels insensitive and cruel. 

I trust the instincts of the project, and I trust the sensitivity of the lost children.  Words create.  Words affect.  The words we use when we talk to ourselves and others are the glue of our communal life.

Jordan and I wrote Write Free: Attracting the Creative Life when we were new to the law of attraction.  The vibrational nature of the universe had made itself known to us rather sneakily: as we wrote, shared our writing, and conjured dreams, we began to experience change in our lives to match our visions.  We dug further into the law of attraction and discovered literature on particle physics and quantum fields and how these concepts work in our daily lives.  An entire body of research exists that demonstrates something we’d begun to suspect: all we say and do creates the world we inhabit. 

Words generate: they reverberate and vibrate and set into motion the action and lives we see before our eyes.  As Jordan and I glimpsed the power of language, we knew we had to bring into the world a book that empowered others to use the words that change this world for the better.

We invite your creative power.  Madeleine L’Engle said, "You have to write the book that wants to be written.”  If the language for your dream world or this real world hasn’t been crafted, you must write it.  Every one of us can wield a pen with confidence that what we write makes a difference.

Try This: Join Us in Making a Difference

Going into the holiday season, Write Free is offering a benefit sale on all our books: Write Free, Make a Scene, Reading Water, and Discover Nature in the Rocks.  Every dollar of profit from book sales made from now until the end of the year will be matched by a companion dollar that Write Free will donate to the It Gets Better project.  In early 2011, we’ll email the results of our benefit sale to all Write Free subscribers.  Please join us!  If you don’t own these important books, now is the time to buy them for yourself or your friends.  Available online at www.jordanrosenfeld.net, www.beccalawton.com, and www.writefree.us.