I ran across this quote in a book by Madeleine L'Engle (A Circle of Quiet). Unlike the books by her that are most familiar, this is the first book of her The Crosswicks Journal, which she calls a "letter". I highly recommend it.

Madeleine L'Engle wrote:

My husband is my most ruthless critic. Tallis runs him a close second. Sometimes he will say, "It's been said better before." Of course. It's all been said better before. If I thought I had to say it better than anybody else, I'd never start. Better or worse is immaterial. The thing is that it has to be said; by me; ontologically. We each have to say it our own way. Not of our own will, but as it comes through us. Good or bad, great or little; that isn't what human creation is about. It is that we have to try; to put it down in pigment, or words, or musical notations, or we die.

Deb: Thanks for the tip. I'll look into it.

101 views and only 1 reply. now 2

Thanks .

Madeline L'Engle passed away not long after I finished reading that particular book for the first time. Her passing has made me want to go back and reread and refresh my relationships with her wonderful characters - and regret that there will be no more.

This book in particular, though, reached me in a way that her fiction never could. She talks about living life, living a writer's life. She gripes about publishers and editors removing and changing her punctuation, about how she deals with writers block, about ways she sought out to find her down time in a house full to the rafters with children, grandchildren, pets and frequent guests. Her passion for words, and for writing Truth, even when it isn't true reminds me why writing is a passion for me. The Crosswicks Journal is one of those very rare finds that I'll hang onto forever.

Excellent quote and advice, especially for novices. I often comment that poetry is a way of relaying something hiding within your psyche to the outside world, and you might not even know what it is until after you've written it. A perfect example is in my favorite movie, Contact, when Jodie Foster's scientist character is viewing a breathtaking sight of a four-star system in a far-away galaxy. She says, simply, "no words... they should have sent a poet."

Amen, L'Engle, amen!