Sean Johnston On Writing
On Writing #13 by Sean Johnston featured on the Ottawa Poetry Blogspot On Writing series:
I have always known there was something special about a community of writers, and I have found the support of many writing communities beneficial. But I have always been troubled by publicly identifying as a writer. This unease has been with me my whole life . . .
. . . Nothing in my life is clean. It is unclean not in the way of some disease, but in the way of an unmade bed and books unfinished. I can untidy. I can’t tidy. I am useless. I have made no clean breaks in my life. What clarity I find, I try to mark down, and sometimes it stays clear, but often it doesn’t.
I respect that same effort in the work of others, but I prefer to be alone when I discover it.
