Pamela Leavey

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Category: Creative Non-Fiction

Ducks On The River

December 17, 2019

Ducks on the River
Ducks On The River
by Pamela Leavey

The line moves
Drawn and driven
By a finely feathered force

It fans outwards
Creating a palpable pattern
Of disruption.

They look like small children
Scampering about
On a green lawn—

They flap their wings
Suddenly, they lift off
Splashing the still water.

They spiral downward
Then swoop and swirl
On the wafting wind

They sweep, swerve
Swivel and dive
And then they diverge

Back into the motionless drink,
Creating fresh, fluid
Lines of movement.

Suddenly, the lines begin to dwindle
While they intermingle
Amidst the still steel blue water

Motion becomes
Barely perceptible—
Reflection resonates

As the still water
No longer replicates
The movement of mallards.

Originally published on Red Skies Magazine.

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On Writing: Why Prewriting Matters

August 12, 2016

deskIn the past, my writing style typically leaves out the all important first stage of writing—pre-writing.  When I write, I tend to write and then rewrite but rarely ever do I engage in pre-writing.

Needless to say, when I started taking creative writing classes at UMass Amherst UWW, I learned that I was cutting out an integral part of the writing process. Jumping right into the writing phase works if you know what you are going to write about, but when you’re stuck pre-writing frees up space and opens up the creative channels.

Reading Chapter 1 of Connie Griffin’s text, To Tell The Truth in my Magazine Writing class gave me a keener understanding of how to use pre-writing as a strategy to break free from writer’s block. The creative process needs the freedom to be expressive, and pre-writing can be seen as a fun exercise in letting go, while also trusting one’s subconscious in a “nonjudgmental and forgiving” way. (p. 5)

The Getting Started (p. 6 – 7) section in Chapter 1, helped me to understand that pre-writing is comparable to a dancer warming up with exercise and practice, or a painter sketching in a rough outline on his canvas in preparation for creating his painting using the tools of his craft. When seen in that light, I suddenly found how pre-writing should and could fit into my process. (more…)

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Musings: The Golden Light Shining Through the Trees

August 10, 2016

Today as the rain falls outside my desk window, I think of the beautiful golden sunlight often seen shining through the trees when walking in the woods.

Light Through the Trees Shackford Head in Eastport, ME

This is the light of redemption and renewal. This is the light that draws us into our center, our core, and reflects back through us when we are open to the beauty that surrounds us and is within us. This is the force that feeds us, body and soul. This is the forces that fills our psyche with unlimited love. (more…)

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Quote of the Day: Terry Tempest Williams

August 2, 2016

Today’s Quote of the Day is from one of my favorite memoir and nature writers, Terry Tempest Williams:

“Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.” ― Terry Tempest Williams

“Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.” ― Terry Tempest Williams: When The Women Were Birds

 

*Lesser Goldfinches photo by Pamela J. Leavey

 

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Musings: Seeking the Primal Escape from Technology

August 1, 2016

Deer Grazing Under the Apple Trees
A deer grazing under apple trees in Eastport, Maine

Nature is the most primal escape from technology that we can seek out to realign ourselves with our very humanity. While nature has long been considered the great escape, the need to escape into nature is more pressing than ever as we are literally consumed by technology itself.

There are devices all around us. Those devices suck us in. They trap us, spellbound. Waiting. Patiently. For the Text, the PM, the Tweet, the News Feed update.

Those devices alert us to pay attention to them, now, not later; not unlike the Myna birds in Aldous Huxley’s Island, parroting “Here and Now Boys, Here and Now,” reminding every one to be in the moment. Being in the moment is a wonderful thing.

However, if being in the moment means we are constantly connected to digital communication via IPhones, Droids, Tablets, Laptops, Desktops, and every other Smart technology device that invades our lives unless we turn them on “mute,” then we have a problem. We are swiftly becoming a Universe of Devices. We’ve forgotten how to disconnect. (more…)

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Writers on Writing: Jane Bernstein

May 25, 2016

Reading Jane Bernstein’s essay “How and Why” brought to mind my own very speculative mind and spirit that is in constant query as to the how and why’s of things. As a writer, my speculative mind and spirit causes me to look deeper into my own heart and mind, and I feel that it also grants me a strong intuitive mind that understands what is deep within other minds, connecting me to depths of humanity and life itself.  Reading “How and Why,” I could identify with Bernstein’s running, in that I walk, to clear my mind and “mull” things over. (Griffin p. 11)

When I am walking outside in nature, I lose myself into the landscape that envelops me as though I am one with it. When I am walking outside in nature, I tune out any extraneous real world soundtrack and tune into the concerto of bird song or the rustle of the leaves or marsh grasses whispering in the soft breeze or perchance keening in the wicked wind. My mind becomes clear, empty in that process of immersing myself in nature and it is then that I mull, as Bernstein does when she is running. There is a space in a clear mind that creates from a point deeper, more connected to the soul, which is a vital point of connection needed to write in the first person about one’s self and life.

Jane Bernstein’s essay “How and Why” is available in Connie Griffin’s book “To Tell the Truth: Practice and Craft in Narrative Nonfiction.” This book has been my go to book throughout the past two years studying Creative Writing at UMass Amherst University Without Walls. It has also served as textbook and reference book for four classes I have taken with Connie Griffin, including two core classes, Frameworks of Understanding and Writing for Experience, as well as Magazine Writing and Creative Non-fiction. 

The practice of reading other writers on their struggles with their craft is so helpful. All writers struggle with finding their voice, creating the right space to work in, shutting out their inner critic and getting past self-doubt. Those are just a few of the issues that writers face. As I continue to work through my own issues with writing and work to shape my first memoir, look for more posts here on Writers on Writing.

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Musing and Rambling

Sometimes I muse and I ramble because I can... I muse about life and things that matter to me...

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