In between attending the talks on the Taking The Waters weekend, I took time out to experience the real thing. Increasingly, I'm using my phone camera as a visual notebook. That weekend I wanted to record different states of water - textures, the way the changing light plays on the surface.
Though I’ve written a novel about the way water can shape a life, and several watery poems, for me, water means more than subject matter. Proximity to it has become part of my writing process. I try to take regular breaks by the sea or walks by a river. Perhaps something to do with having been born by the sea ...
I won't write directly about these images but, like jottings in my notebook, they'll tune me into something that stirred as my attention was held by the water.
Being by water steadies the gaze, invites a different quality of attention, a stilling of the busy, city, mind. Something about being by water stirs the soup of the unconscious. So much more seems to float up after a period of staring out.
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