Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Day Seventy-Three: "The Rose and the Skull" by Alan Cheuse

Devotion.

Georgia O'Keeffe contemplates her life's work, her commitment to the daily grind of writing, her failing eyesight, her aging and the way it has both destroyed her and enlivened her to do her best work. It was beautifully told and has several memorable metaphors to show the reader not only what she feels but how she puts her feelings into the images she paints. Below is a quote that I felt was pretty great and serves as an example of this point:

"No matter how steady you are, no matter how fierce in your devotion to work, a certain sorrow creeps in, a tinge of sadness, in many ways natural, like the coating of pollen on your hand when you brush against a flower in certain seasons."

I finished this story and felt the need to get back to my fiction writing full speed. Time is time and it's passing even as I sit here typing this post. My hands, coated in pollen...my fingers typing to get clean.

No comments: