About Writing

I love writing, I have for a long time but it's a difficult thing to have taken seriously by those in the 'real world'. You only need to talk to published authors and learn how much they earn per book, to realise that the long held illusion of the starving writer may not be the stuff of fiction. However, in these days, I have the time it requires, and a partner who delights in me taking it seriously.

I was reading Alison's blog just now Alison
and her latest entry reminded me of how important a good partner is for a writer. I sent her a poem that I claimed as my own as soon as I read it, many years ago ... it's by Erica Jong, and it goes like this:

Woman Enough

Because my grandmother's hours
were apple cakes baking,
& dust motes gathering,
& linens yellowing
& seams and hems
inevitably unraveling
I almost never keep house
though really I like houses
& wish I had a clean one.

Because my mother's minutes
were sucked into the roar
of the vacuum cleaner,
because she waltzed with the washer-dryer
& tore her hair waiting for repairmen
I send out my laundry,
& live in a dusty house,
though really I like clean houses
as well as anyone.

I am woman enough
to love the kneading of bread
as much as the feel
of typewriter keys
under my fingers
springy, springy.
& the smell of clean laundry
& simmering soup
are almost as dear to me
as the smell of paper and ink.

I wish there were not a choice;
I wish I could be two women.
I wish the days could be longer.
But they are short.
So I write while
the dust piles up.

I sit at my typewriter
remembering my grandmother
& all my mothers,
& the minutes they lost
loving houses better than themselves
& the man I love cleans up the kitchen
grumbling only a little
because he knows
that after all these centuries
it is easier for him
than for me.

There's more of her work on her website: Erica Jong

I always loved 'Parable of the Four Poster', and Flying At Forty surely has to be admired.

I leave it to you anyway. I'm off to Brussels tonight. It's the New Zealanders expat Christmas do at the Embassy ... I'll let you know how it goes.