Relief/Diner Online Submissions System

I received Relief's The Best of Volume 1 about a week ago in the mail and have been working my way through it in a leisurely, not to mention random, manner. Some initial thoughts:

Scars by Fisher is great. I love the intertwining of time periods as well as the commonalty of it. It also contained the most poetic interpretation of divorce I've yet to read: "Putting away," the prophet Malachi calls it, which in many divorces is an excellent description, calling to mind the way you might carelessly reshelf a book after you've laid bare all its secrets, studied all its naked pages, gotten out of it all you wanted.

There are pieces of work that make you think, "This is great, I could never write like this." There are pieces of work that make you think, "This is great, I want to be able to write like this." While both can be appreciate as the art they are, the first almost defeats you, while the latter inspires you. As a growing/learning/amateur writer, Scars fell on the inspirational side.

Onto poetry... both Sunday School Lesson and Kenosis had the same effect on me. The majority of the poem at the beginning was no big deal. In honesty, I was like what's the big deal. However, the last few lines in each brought luminosity to my heart which made me want to re-read the poems and value the "normal" beginning (if there is such a thing) in its appropriate role. It's amazing how some artists can say so much with so few words.

Finally, the other part I enjoyed thus far (for the most part) was the Foreword from Silva about safe books and writing (which reminded me of a Lewis quote from Narnia.) I agree with the over all premise, but have two qualms. One, in over reaction, I hope Relief doesn't discount joy in its pages (the real joy, not the fluffy, fabricated stuff). I, and many others I believe, can more easily connect with the beautiful tragedies of life being inscribed on paper. But the real challenge (so to say) is to move my often critical, semi-cynical, dark-night-of-the-soul inner being by conveying divine happiness, joy and triumph. Secondly, Silva says, "Keep in mind that God doesn't ask us to preach holiness, in our lives or in our books" and a few lines later admonishes us to accept the full creative palate. I don't mean to nit-pick (just be critical, remember) and understand what he is saying. It's just that I believe God is asking us to declare holiness in our lives and in our writing. The problem is that we have taken the surface of right and wrong (which, needless to say, is important), exploited it, and forgotten about the deeper attributes of holiness that deal with identity and intimacy. Furthermore, if we are to use the full palette we can't disregard holiness in any form (even if it is an awful fuchsia color) but rather write to redeem the concept of holiness.

It might not be the wisest thing to semi-criticize Silva's work, especially since I would eventual like to submit more work... then again, it was he that taught me not to be safe with words. [insert devilish smirk]

-jB
www.silhouettewords.com