That Girl (Not the Other One)

L.L. here with Random Acts of Poetry. Getting specific. Because the best writing always gives juicy details. We know he is talking about this girl. Not that one. That girl, not the other.

I like what Julia Cameron, author of The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life has to say about attention to detail. She notes, “Although we seldom view it this way, specificity is freedom. In the act of naming things precisely as they appear to us, we free our work from misunderstandings, from ambiguity... At its base, writing is an act of love, and when we perform it consciously, concretely, and lovingly, grace enters the equation. We—and the reader—have an experience of something larger communicating through the vessel of our work. That larger something—whose eye is on the sparrow—knows a great deal about the value of specificity.”

Why is writing with specificity an act of love and grace? Mostly I think it’s because everyone can tell we actually paid attention. That is enough to warm just about any heart. If you doubt it, consider the way you’d feel if someone wrote a nice specific poem about you, like this one from Fred Sprinkle.

That Girl

She is linen

a fragile dress

a silk kite

breath blown

away from me

She is clay

coffee and ale

substantial

she beckons

reckon with

her and feel the weight

of human

She refuses

to be read

in any context

because she

is not a book like me,

rather a mist

airy like a mountain

with a mine

of kindness

She is a general

She is a nun

Next poetry prompt: Let’s get specific about our closets. I found a red dress in mine. What’s in yours? What is not?