MAN EATS CAR

There was an article in the newspaper several years ago----I did not read it, it was told to me----about a yogi in India who ate a car. Not all at once, but slowly over a year's time.

In a sense, this is how we should write. Not asking "Why?," not delicately picking among candies (or spark plugs), but voraciously, letting our minds eat up everything and spewing it out on paper with great energy. we shouldn't think, "This is a good subject for writing." "This we shouldn't talk about." Writing is everything, unconditional. There is no separation between writing life, and the mind. If you think big enough to let people eat cars, you will be able to see that ants and men are women. You will see the transparency of all forms so that all separations disappear.

This is what metaphor is it is not saying that an ant is like an elephant. Perhaps; both are alive. No. Metaphor is saying the ant is an elephant.

But don't worry about metaphors. Don't think, "I have to write metaphors to sound literary." First of all, don;t be literary. Metaphors cannot be forced.

Don't make your mind do anything. Simply step out of the way and record your thoughts as they roll through you. Writing practice softens the heart and mind, helps to keep us flexible so that rigid distinctions between apples and milk, tigers and celery, disappear.

WRITING IS NOT A MCDONALD'S HAMBURGER

Let go everything when you write, and try at a simple beginning with simple words to express what you have inside. It won't begin smoothly. Allow yourself to be awkward. You are stripping yourself. You are exposing your life, not how your ego would like to see you represented, but how you are as a human being.

People often say, "I was walking along [or driving, shopping,jogging] and I had this whole poem go through my mind, but when I sat down to write it, I couldn't get it out right." i never can either. Sitting to write is another activity. Let go of walking or jogging and the poem that was born then in your mind. This is another moment. Write another poem. Perhaps secretly hope something of what you thought A While ago might come out, but let it come out however it does. Don't force it.

Give yourself some space before you decide to write those big volumes. Learn to trust the force of your own voice. Naturally, it will evolve a direction and a need for one, but it will come from a different place than your need to be an achiever. Writing is not a McDonald's hamburger. The cooking is slow, and in the beginning you are not sure whether a roast or a banquet or a lamb chop will be the result.

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