Joanna Young asks, What does powerful writing mean to you? Turns out to be a rather challenging question. I tried to define powerful writing as “memorably evocative.” Writing that sticks in my head and evokes an emotion or an impulse or an attitude has power. But when I think of examples, I don’t see the common denominators. So, rather than bore you with a half-baked analysis of a topic I don’t really understand, I’ll refer you to Joanna’s blog where you can find some actual insight.
In the meantime, I’d like to share few examples of writing I find powerful, in the hope you will enjoy them. Do you find any of them powerful? Why do these passages strike you as powerful — or not?
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
(Kubla Kahn, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
__________
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`’Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.’
(The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe)
__________
And Jesus went unto mount Olivet. And early in the morning he came again into the temple: and all the people came to him. And sitting down he taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees bring unto him a woman taken in adultery: and they set her in the midst, And said to him: Master, this woman was even now taken in adultery. Now Moses in the law commanded us to stone such a one. But what sayest thou? And this they said tempting him, that they might accuse him. But Jesus bowing himself down, wrote with his finger on the ground. When therefore they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said to them: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again stooping down, he wrote on the ground. But they hearing this, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest. And Jesus alone remained, and the woman standing in the midst. Then Jesus lifting up himself, said to her: Woman, where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee? Who said: No man, Lord. And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more. (Jn 8, 1-11)
__________
Same old sun
Same old moon
It’s the same old story
Same old tune
They all say
Someday soon
My sins will all be forgiven
Gentle rain
Falls on me
All life folds back
Into the sea
We contemplate eternity
Beneath the vast indifference of heaven
(The Indifference of Heaven, by Warren Zevon)
__________
Well now I’m no hero
That’s understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl
Is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now
Except roll down the window
And let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night’s busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back
Heaven’s waiting on down the tracks
Oh oh come take my hand
Riding out tonight to case the promised land
(Thunder Road, by Bruce Springsteen)
__________
Think Different
(Apple slogan)
__________
He’s the hairy-handed gent who ran amuck in Kent
Lately he’s been overheard in Mayfair
Better stay away from him
He’ll rip your lungs out, Jim
I’d like to meet his tailor
(Werewolves of London, by LeRoy P. Marinell, Waddy Wachtel, and Warren Zevon)
Brad, You have selected powerful words… Some have turned lives around.
Here’s a quote that for me tells the power of words from Madeleine L’Engle’s “Walking on Water” (1998).
“And I knew, as a child, that it was through story that I was able to ake some small sense of the confusions and complications of life. The sound of coughing from my father’s gas burned lungs was a constant reminder of war and its terror. At school I read a book about the Belgian babies impaled on bayonets like small, slaughtered animals…
But I was frightened, and I tried to heal my fear with stories, stories which gave me courage, stories which affirmed that ultimately love is stronger than hate. If love is stronger than hate, then war is not all ther is. I wrote, and I illustrated my stories. And so story helped me learn to live. Story was in no way an evasion of life, but a way of living life creatively instead of fearfully.”
Brad, the last sentence to me shows the power of creativity and art in life. It captures power. But without the context, you really can’t capture the whole essence.
Madeleine began writing when she was very young… On the other hand I didn’t begin until later in life. But writing for me draws from the depths of creativity and it brings the most satisfaction and reward.
Thanks for priming the pump for me today!
Brad, thanks for sharing these words. I’m sitting here listening to Thunder Road, smiling, because it reminds me of a conversation we had many months ago about authenticity and what it means to you.
The more I think about powerful writing (as well as getting more confused too about my own definition!) I think it has to do with that tie to authenticity – writing our own truth. And when we read something that’s powerful it connects to us because we recognise the authenticity of the words, or it speaks to something central to our values or way of being.
Maybe.
Robyn, thanks so much for sharing that quote and comment. Now that has inspired me to stop sitting here thinking and get on with things!
Joanna
Robyn, the passage you quoted is really moving – thank you for sharing it. It reminds me of “Night”, by Elie Wiesel, about his experience as a child in a Nazi concentration camp. His words were simple, but the context made the meaning powerful beyond words. Joanna, thinking about Robyn’s quote and this discussion, it certainly seems evident authenticity is absolutely central to power in words. Would it be going to far to say authenticity is more powerful than the words themselves?
Chris Martin, lead singer for Coldplay, wrote Fix It for his wife Gwyneth Paltrow after her father died. She came home from the hospital covered and drenched in tears, and he started crying and asked her, “what can I do for you? tell me how I can do it” and she looked up at him, and said “just hold me… cause you’re the only thing that can fix me right now” And that was that – he wrote the song the next day.
The same song, because of its timely release, became the background music for a video about the devastation of Hurricane Katrina that garnered national attention and helped to raise millions for the victims.
Powerful words written for one, became a powerful words and inspiration for many others.
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/coldplay/fixyou.html
TJ, that’s quite a story. Some feelings are universal, especially when you get down to the nuts and bolts. I wonder how many great songs have a similar behind-the-scenes story to them.
Brad, I’m not sure how to answer the question. I think I’d say – the words are the conduit. What we are expressing (as the writer) or responding to (as the reader) is the authentic self.
You’ve inspired a post on this – should appear Wednesday.
Also about a song, picking up on TJ’s point. I hadn’t realised Fix You was associated with Hurricane Katrina. It was also a song with great significance for the survivors of the Kings Cross bomb attack in London. Obviously has a great deal of power to move, and heal.
Brad, thanks again for getting us to dig deeper and think harder about this.
Joanna
Joanna, I didn’t know about the association of the song with Kings Cross, so thanks for pointing that out. I’m looking forward to your Wednesday post. My post here is a good example of how a conversation can be more significant than the post itself!
Brad, it’s a conversation that’s really got me thinking, thank you (and others)
I’m enclosing a link to a piece written by Rachel From North London who was in the bomb attack and has written first a blog then a book about the experience. It’s searingly emotional stuff, but also very powerful.
This is where I first read her talking about Fix You
http://rachelnorthlondon.blogspot.com/2005/10/lights-will-guide-you-home.html
Actually, now I think about it, her work has been a source of great inspiration to me, and an example of what I understand by powerful writing. She writes deep truths, in plain words, that make a powerful (positive) difference in the world as she attempts to help people learn, build bridges, challenge authority, change things so atrocities like this become less likely to happen again.
Joanna