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the coin that sings
Booksquare as a quote on writing that I'm going to have to memorize.
The paradox of writing fiction is that, at least for the author, it is reality. My characters are trapped in a situation that’s achingly plausible; I’ve got to help them through it to a credible resolution. This feels like decent, blue-collar work. And it has the small satisfaction of human-scale protest. A novel is a story, and stories have a kind of primitive power—they’re the weeds that grow in the sidewalk cracks, the campfire fables and telephone tales that can never be stamped out.This reminds me of a poem I adore:
I say that words are men and when we spell
In alphabets we deal with living things;
With feet and thighs and breasts, fierce heads, strong wings;
Material Powers, great Bridals, Heaven and Hell.
There is a menace in the tales we tell.
From out the throne from which all language springs
Voices proceed and fires and thunderings.
Oh when we speak, Great God, let us speak well.
Beware of shapes, beware of letterings,
For in them lies such magic as alters dream,
Shakes cities down and moves the inward scheme.
Beware the magic of the coin that sings.
These coins are graved with supernatural powers
And magic wills that are more strong than ours.
Sonnets from a Lock Box
Anna Hempstead Branch, 1929
June 11, 2005 10:13 AM
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Comments
I loved the poem.
It made me think of the lines from the Rubaiyat of Omar Kahayyam (apologies for no doubt mis-quoting Fitzgerald's translation): The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on. Nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all they tears wash out a word of it.
I have definitely had my dreams altered by something I've read - have to think hard on whether also by words heard spoken.
Posted by: Alison at June 13, 2005 06:05 PM