‘give yourself to the falling sky’ by Michael Schmeltzer

I could begin and end this little write up simply by providing this quote: “Writing is a near-constant state of failure.” The line is part of a short lyric essay by Michael Schmeltzer published in Proximity Magazine’s blog True. Bracketed by a fantastical scene from an anime and shot through with quotes, mostly from the incredible Li-Young Lee, the work is an earnest inquiry into creative process:

I tuck myself into every inch of the page. Unfold me into a sheet of a thousand creases. Imagine how many different ways those wrinkles can refold into a crane, a wolf, a father who cries and cries because his children are shatteringly beautiful. I have shoved myself against the rock and burned to ash. I am a majestic phoenix of failure.

This work gives me great heart; it gives me more words to help explain the unexplainable need to create poetry, to mirror the world I see or the world inside me and how those two are inseparable. Sometimes writing an essay about the creative process can’t be about craft practice, but rather an ode to creation itself. Schmeltzer titled his piece ‘Give Yourself to the Falling Sky,’ and really, what other title could there possibly be.

Proximity Magazine