You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.
— Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing
In the preface to his book Zen in the Art of Writing. Ray Bradbury talks about the compulsion to write every day, both as a means of creative expression and as a necessary antidote to the world we live in. Creative expression can't eliminate the horrors around us, but it can allow the artist to maintain a sense of balance and sanity in an otherwise chaotic world: "So while our art cannot, as we wish it could, save us from wars, privation, envy, greed, old age, or death, it can revitalize us amidst it all."
It is this aspect of writing, more than any other, that keeps me coming back to my desk every single day. I read Bradbury's words early in my writing career and felt an instant sense of recognition. Knowing that other writers feel the same desire to express themselves and their own version of 'truth', whether through poetry, fiction, or even nonfiction, gives me a sense of connection to a larger community, one that is shot through with creativity and imagination, passion and amazement.
It's no secret that these are troubled times, though perhaps no more so than previous eras seemed to those living in them. With the onslaught of twenty-four hour news, video feeds from war zones, and an overabundance of information, we need our passions to keep us alive: "...writing allows just the proper recipes of truth, life, reality as you are able to eat, drink, and digest without hyperventilating and flopping like a dead fish in your bed." Whether your passion is writing, painting, music, or some other creative endeavor, it is important to nurture it so that it may nurture you.
As much as I love writing, I also love reading, and I would argue that a valid corollary to Bradbury's quote is a substitution of the word reading for writing. We must stay drunk on reading so reality cannot destroy us. Nothing can center me and give me a feeling of serenity like Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken." To sit in a meadow on a mountainside at twilight as stars pop into view one after another and read Walt Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric" is to truly contemplate the universe and our place within it. And any one of Ray Bradbury's short stories will take me out of myself and place me squarely in a skewed version of reality, one in which I can all too easily recognize the reflections of this world, held up and magnified, frightening and wondrous.
Look through this issue of Flashquake and you will find stories that take you out of yourself, poems that show you the world in a new light, and nonfiction pieces that move you with epiphanies big and small. As a reader you will share the passions of the writers who created these works, and who knows, you may even find yourself a little bit giddy.
Note: All quotations are from Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury.
After earning a Ph.D. in physical anthropology, Sharon Hurlbut put her career on hold to raise her two daughters. At the same time, she discovered a love of writing that has become an integral part of her life. Her poetry and fiction are published under her pen-name Ann Walters and have appeared in Poet Lore, Orbis, Main Street Rag, Kalliope, THEMA, and many others. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was a finalist in the 2007 LICHEN Tracking a Serial Poet competition.