When I read The Nature Writer’s Dilemma by John Hay,
I couldn’t stop shaking with excitement.
Neurons were firing information and exclamations
out faster than my mind could hold on to them.
I confess, when a message of Truth touches me,
my body reacts by wanting to bolt to the toilet
and expel everything else left – everything
that was not touched must go, like all shit.
Old and inherited beliefs and indigestible ideas
swallowed to placate mum or society
churn in my gut.
Reading John Hay is a laxative for my lies.
The truth that I distilled from his essay I can sum up as this;
It is our responsibility to create union.
It is our responsibility as human beings, and as writers,
to create union.
This is a seed for me, so epic in potential, it’s frightening to hold.
Tags: 2010, International Institute of Modern Letters, John Hay, landscape, nature writing, responsibility, truth, union, unity, writing
