August 18, 2010It's funny, the words we write down and then forget. I'm compiling bits from the many notebooks I've filled during the past several years and I've been enjoying an unexpected part of the project. I'm finding odds and ends, notes, lists, phrases, ideas, out of context sentences, and lines of poetry. All items I wrote down and haven't returned to, until now.
I found the lines below in the back of a notebook from 2010. They were originally written by the poet, Robert Haas. I believe they were simply lines that caught my attention, possibly from The Apple Trees at Olema. Maybe it was Poetry. I wanted to save them for later, no real agenda. I do this type of thing often. Do you?
Robert Haas:
-Because she, not her sister, answered the door,
-She looked beautiful, and looked her age, too.
-In the other world the girls were named Eleanor and Filina,
The Apple Trees at Olema
Poetry
Oh, yes. Snippets and whatnot. Like collecting pretty stones and shells. Much the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI do. I have dedicated notebooks where I put images and extracts from books/poetry/phrases. And then endless notebooks that I move restlessly between with lists, thoughts, ideas. Some snippets startle because I can't remember the context or chain of thought at all. Others bring me straight back to a place. This extract is going into my notebook...
ReplyDeleteYes, just in my planner because that is what I carry with me everywhere. Sometimes I can't remember what they mean. Often I'm startled at how many treasured insights I'd just plain forgotten about completely.
ReplyDeletei have many many small, medium, large notebooks filled with snippets. Many are half way filled...not all the way, because i like starting new ones, when i need a fresh beginning. I wish there was pinterest for words (...maybe there is?) for words I find and like on the internet. My words pingbook would definitively have many Chez Danisse snippets in it!
ReplyDeleteI have found my notebook to be invaluable, carrying it with me most of the time. Thoughts, ideas, when written down -even if they initially seem so self-evident- become much clearer, providing me with insights that were only embryonic before.
ReplyDeleteYes, also there is the pleasure of writing down an unexpected turn of phrase, a sudden epiphany...
I do, and at the time I'm always uncertain I'll come back to it or appreciate it later, but I always do.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do that sort of thing all the time. If I don't write down a fragment, line, or series of lines, I mark the page with my fingernail and dog-ear the corner. Sometimes I discover sections I have marked or stored and I can recall a little of what it was I so connected with at the time but more often than not it remains a mystery I am happy not to unravel.
ReplyDeleteI write all sorts of things down.Sentence fragments I find particularly descriptive or beautiful. Words that I like or have never heard of. Definitions. Names of restaurants,books, authors. What a jumble.
ReplyDeletesometimes I'll keep a particularly special phrase around for quite a long time, moving it from place to place on my desk and finally, maybe, putting it into a journal. I hardly ever look back through my journals, although they are filled with quotes, sentences, words, etc. I think I fulfill some need just by collecting and writing down the bits that speak to me. It makes me happy at the time to do so, anyhow! :)
ReplyDeleteI always love the part when looking back on something collected and either having new insight or feeling the same when reading words.
ReplyDeleteI don't look back into old notebooks often, but when I do I return as a stranger, at turns amused, befuddled, embarrassed and delighted by what I was.
ReplyDeletei find this so helpful for writing longer pieces--i look back and find all these snippets and can sometimes string them into a whole
ReplyDeletei love Robert Haas.
ReplyDeleteI was on a 2hour bus ride the other day and had forgotten my book at home so instead I started reading my big notebook, which I carry around with me. It was full of little bits I had no memory of writing... strange and awesome feeling.
great post.
oh, i hope that you are secretly pulling lines from your journals because you are composing your manuscript. a book. yes, i hope you are composing a book... (hi to you.)
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