Drawing a Blank {Writing Life}

“What is it about blank pages that can cause a shudder to race across the souls of some people? I love blank pages. Really. I look at all that emptiness and know that I’ve been invited to a party where my words are the guest of honor.

While I enjoy paging through my old journal pages, there is something hard to resist about an empty page in my journal or a blank index card or a new computer document. I see all that space and think, “Yes!”

So what is it about white-space that snags me by the soul?

The adventure I always find in the words. I start out thinking I know where I’m going and then it happens; the writing takes a turn, and I get to go somewhere else – usually a deeper, and often a far more fun place. It’s sort of like seeing a mushroom in the yard and thinking, “fungi” or seeing the same mushroom and wondering if it’s the roof on Tinkerbelle’s house.

To me, blank pages are full of nothing except possibilities.

A few years ago when my book, Poetry ~ Touch the World With Your Art & Soul, was a speaking topic and not yet a book, a woman at a conference asked, “Do you really think a poem can touch the world?” My answer was immediate and perhaps a little over enthusiastic when I said, “Oh my yes. First, poetry touches the soul of the poet. Then it touches the pages in the form of words, and when shared touches one reader at a time – like a ripple in a tiny pond that reaches the edges of that person’s world.”

She countered with, “But, that’s not the whole world, and you say touch THE world.”

I answered from my heart. “We have no idea how far that ripple goes. Does it waft up into the atmosphere in a sound not heard, but felt by others in the far bigger pond? Does it bump into another ripple and join it on its journey casting it’s truth into places we can’t imagine? Is it carried on the wings of evaporation to be re-deposited in another location where the poet can’t go, but the poem can?”

What about you and your words?

Sometimes I daydream about the magnificent difference we could make in the world by intentionally casting our poems into the part of the world each of us influence and beyond.

At a time in our world history, when the news is mostly bad and hearts are breaking, our poetry can make a difference. It’s been doing that for generations.

Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24 (NIV)

Not long ago, a desire to encourage you to write and share poetry grew in my heart. I prayed and waited and prayed some more. The longing grew, and finally, the answer became plain. Following the leading my heart, Poetry ~ Touch the World With Your Art & Soul is no longer in print. Instead, over the next few weeks I will be giving it away (one chapter at a time) here on the blog.

As I share these pages, I am praying that you will overcome your fear of the blank page or the lie that your words don’t matter. Because they do.