re: the writer

The writer is challenged to write what is difficult to make it what is easy, and to write what is impossible to make it what is merely difficult.

John.

literary ant in a land of giants

Mozart could have written the music he wrote even if he had never heard a single note from another's music. You aren't supposed to understand it. Perhaps it is our Cro Magnon brains; I can't begin to fill in the gaps. Why do some aspire to create and others create to inspire? I am not going to tell you: it would come from the foreign tongue of jibberish if I tried.

So: tell me, when I rest my head toward slumber, do these words cease dreaming of me?

John.

to a mirror reviewed

I've lost nearly all faith in every one of my character virtues, save this one: I am without doubt the greatest writer of my generation.

I am quietly drunk on this thought all day; I am reflective of those I encounter in my daily journey, how he or she had just met somebody phenominal and did not know it. I sit high in the mountain and look down upon an ordinary world and wonder who is my peer in this mountain retreat. Indeed, it would seem my cup runneth over with Ego. But the question possesses my mind nonetheless: who am I?

My quest is to become whole, this Pinocchio-like fixation, and to know love when I am loved and to be loved when giving it. All the talent one acquires in life does not prepare an individual for the fair comprehension of love—of sighting it on the beach or splashing in the waves with it or sitting still and thoughtful of the gulls that dip down to the surf to retrieve it from the mysteries of the sea, or walking along and trailing its long shadow of dismay. I wonder when or if the reach of love might find me. Now, when I pause for a second from being the great writer, I nose into the perhaps of an unknown future. If God had made light from dark, then I must consider He may choose to do the same for me; and (an irony a god might favor) I may be waiting on a god who may be waiting on me.

My failure may be in this waiting. What I could do is begin to write from my inspired waters...or what I could do is begin a journey that would take me through the better part of an eternity. Floating in such ambivalence has the disadvantage of gradually losing the will to live for anything. I float; and I know what death feels like. For love, I would commit myself to ten-thousand deaths, each death producing courage enough to face the next, for love itself is courage by another name.

But now—lacking love—I drop to my knees of futility, my body pulling into a ball of loneliness.

Who am I? Who is the darkness? I question again and again and again.

John.

beauty refined

This is beauty then: when you measure your joy against your despair and treasure the joy when it is there.

John.

reunion today

That's right. Today I get to refresh myself with old familiar faces. The reunion will be at Palmer Park. There are actually two reunions, one on my mother's side, the other on my dad's side. I will be going to the Liptow reunion.

Before I go to the reunion, I will stop at the printers to get a few copies produced of This is My Life, This is My Voice. This is a collection of some of my short stories, which keeps expanding as I keep writing more stories. This month alone I have written two stories. I hope to do a couple more at least before the month is over. I have got a few beautiful ones.

Here is one: "Lonely Man." It is about a New York prostitute just before her wedding and a relationship with an elderly man. Another is "The Room." It starts like this: "The old man poured into the room, all ears and gossip." I can't wait to be in that room. I hope to also finish "Lightening and the Dragon" this month, but I have had that on my desktop for some time now. So that's the wrap. It's reunion time! Ciao!

John.

after midnight

I finished designing my homepage today, and linking it to my writing page. This has been like some mad occupation to get this website going. I need to get out of it now and get some writing done, which is what I really want to do. I am hoping to get cracking on "Lightening and the Dragon" and "Can Dead Hearts Weep?" soon.
http://www.johnliptow.com