We are Cups

by Gregory A. Kompes

“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.”
~Ray Bradbury

Zen in the Art of Writing is filled with gems like the one above. I love this image, this metaphor, this idea that all of our life and experience, all the sounds and events and people and places and books and movies and music and weather and…and…and…that all of it goes in and that we tip ourselves over and don’t spill it all, but only the beautiful. Only the work.

Bradbury is a master of creating worlds, of creating suspense, of creating terror. He’s a tight writer who has a strong, solid, easily read voice on the page.

Just us on Thursday as we talk about his collection of essays on writing and life and experience. He’s used memoir to teach. When done well, as he does, the work is not only useful ideas, but inspired construction, too.

The Writer Workshop Book Club for Writers, 7 pm.