Cultivating Awe

arousing wonder in ourselves and our readers

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

“No one can be called a poet who does not excel in the power of arousing wonder.” ~16th century Italian critic Antonio Sebastiano Minturno (with thanks to Maria Popova)

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” ~W.B. Yeats

Hi friends,

Currently, I’m listening to a wonderful book by Katherine May: Enchantment: Reawakening Wonder in an Exhausted Age. May examines particularly the mental/spiritual exhaustion brought on by the pandemic, when many of us found ourselves overcome with anxiety and/or boredom, our creative "spark” extinguished, our ability to experience awe and joy deadened.

Many of us creative folk are still grappling with the effects of the challenges of the last few years, still working our way through, still struggling to re-ignite that spark. In the deluge of bad news it’s easy to lose our connection with all that is wonderful, even miraculous, about the pale blue dot we inhabit.

That connection is vital, though, if we’re to make good art. We need to find ways to make space for awe, to remain receptive to joyful surprise. To find wonder in the ordinary. This is what keeps us sane, healthy, loving.

If you’re still on Twitter as I stubbornly am, there are accounts you can follow to offset your doom scrolling. There are puppies and kittens galore, of course, but also some truly fascinating ones, such as @upliftingvids and @rainmaker1973 (Massimo). And these will lead you to more accounts that feature art, history, poetry, travel, science. I also highly recommend Maria Popova’s The Marginalian.

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YOUR PROMPT

Today let us reconnect with our sense of magic and awe toward the goal of arousing wonder in our readers.

Children with their limited grasp of the “facts” of life and how things are supposed to work, are keenly receptive to magic in everyday life. Recall something you misunderstood as a child. Perhaps you formed your own science or mythology around it.

Now, tap deeply into that memory, that mythology, theory, or belief, and write it as though it were still very true.

In today’s writing, I want you to refuse the knowledge and experience and education of your adult brain.

When I was very young, I used to think the tornado sirens that sounded from all directions on certain summer afternoons emanated from heaven. It was not the local government warning us to take cover, but God and the angels. A far more interesting story!

If you need a nudge, here are some images to include or simply ponder:

• radio / radio waves / voices from another room / music from a box

• ant colonies

• lightning bugs (or fireflies depending on where you grew up)

• old people

• consider the image at the top of this newsletter

I’d love to hear how this goes for you! Feel free to let me know in the comments section.

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*NEW FEATURE!* SOME RECOMMENDED WRITERS TO WATCH

As some of you may have seen on social media, I'm on a mission. I've always believed no matter what level one has achieved, we ought to keep sending the ladder back down to help others rise. Who are some writers whose work blows you away and you feel deserve a wider audience? My aim going forward is to use the platform (I now have over 5,000 subscribers, thank you!) to boost and elevate talented, unsung, under-the-radar writers we may not all have read, but ought to!

Each month, I’ll include recommendations from you! This month, Audra Kerr Brown and Pat Foran have generously come forward with writers they’d like to see get more attention.

Harsimran Kaur (Recommended by Pat Foran)

Of her work, Pat says: “Harsimran Kaur’s work jumps off the page/screen — like a record that’s so fresh, so rhythmic, so alive when it’s playing, it sounds/feels like it’s gonna force the needle to jump off the spinning disc. Take “2011 blue Subaru speeding to the end of the world,” published in 2022 in Milk Candy Review. With moments such as:

"One of those girls you stare, stare, stare, the distance seeming never-ending between you and them. But these girls, these girls … "

"… build sandcastles that fall easily ..."

" … take you to the lakes and …"

… I remember thinking and maybe saying out loud while I was reading this story: Yes! This! She has that thing!

What’s that thing? I don’t like thinking too much about it, the why or how of it, that magic (cue The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Do You Believe in Magic” and the line “it’s like trying to tell a stranger ‘bout rock ‘n roll”) … but sometimes, it swims, lyrically, in and around this: I wasn’t conscious of reading Kaur’s work when I read it. I wasn’t aware of it as something that was even written. I was in it, I was experiencing it. I saw things, heard things. I felt things — in the heart, yes, but also tactually (? if that’s the word). It’s why, when I read and shared on Twitter another beautiful Kaur 2022 story, “What is and What Should Never Be” in Cheap Pop, I said:

@harsimranwrites, taking your hand, in @Cheap_Pop

Because that’s what she can do.

Can’t wait to experience more of her work in the years ahead.”

Suggested reading:

“2011 blue Subaru speeding to the end of the world” in Milk Candy Review

“What is and What Should Never Be” in Cheap Pop

“Chickens” in Okay Donkey

Nan Wigington (Recommended by Audra Kerr Brown)

Nan is a brilliant and innovative writer with a singular voice and vision. I agree with Audra that there need to be more eyes on her work!

“Return from the Woods” in The Ekphrastic Review (winner of the 2021 Christmas Contest, after the painting of the same name by Giovanni Segantini, 1890).

“Torn from a Book: Cautionary Tales for Curious Boys and Girls or A Case Against Marriage” in The Airgonaut

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BEFORE YOU GO

Upcoming 3 in 90 Workshop!

If you’d like to further cultivate your sense of wonder, come write with me on Saturday, June 3rd in my popular 3 in 90 LIVE Webex workshop, “What a Wonderful World.” Expect to come away with three fresh drafts in 90 minutes. 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Register HERE.

This newsletter now has well over 5,000 subscribers. Thanks so much! I’d like to, if possible, keep The Art of Flash Fiction FREE for all. If you have found these craft articles, writing prompts, and recommended readings useful, and you’d like to support my work in some small, tangible way, I would be most grateful!

Thanks, as always, for stopping by. Please feel free to leave a comment or question below.