I’m enclosing a link to a piece written by Rachel From North London who was in the bomb attack and has written first a blog then a book about the experience. It’s searingly emotional stuff, but also very powerful.

This is where I first read her talking about Fix You

http://rachelnorthlondon.blogspot.com/2005/10/lights-will-guide-you-home.html

Actually, now I think about it, her work has been a source of great inspiration to me, and an example of what I understand by powerful writing. She writes deep truths, in plain words, that make a powerful (positive) difference in the world as she attempts to help people learn, build bridges, challenge authority, change things so atrocities like this become less likely to happen again.

Joanna

You’ve inspired a post on this – should appear Wednesday.

Also about a song, picking up on TJ’s point. I hadn’t realised Fix You was associated with Hurricane Katrina. It was also a song with great significance for the survivors of the Kings Cross bomb attack in London. Obviously has a great deal of power to move, and heal.

Brad, thanks again for getting us to dig deeper and think harder about this.

Joanna

The same song, because of its timely release, became the background music for a video about the devastation of Hurricane Katrina that garnered national attention and helped to raise millions for the victims.

Powerful words written for one, became a powerful words and inspiration for many others.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/coldplay/fixyou.html

The more I think about powerful writing (as well as getting more confused too about my own definition!) I think it has to do with that tie to authenticity – writing our own truth. And when we read something that’s powerful it connects to us because we recognise the authenticity of the words, or it speaks to something central to our values or way of being.

Maybe.

Robyn, thanks so much for sharing that quote and comment. Now that has inspired me to stop sitting here thinking and get on with things!

Joanna

Here’s a quote that for me tells the power of words from Madeleine L’Engle’s “Walking on Water” (1998).

“And I knew, as a child, that it was through story that I was able to ake some small sense of the confusions and complications of life. The sound of coughing from my father’s gas burned lungs was a constant reminder of war and its terror. At school I read a book about the Belgian babies impaled on bayonets like small, slaughtered animals…

But I was frightened, and I tried to heal my fear with stories, stories which gave me courage, stories which affirmed that ultimately love is stronger than hate. If love is stronger than hate, then war is not all ther is. I wrote, and I illustrated my stories. And so story helped me learn to live. Story was in no way an evasion of life, but a way of living life creatively instead of fearfully.”

Brad, the last sentence to me shows the power of creativity and art in life. It captures power. But without the context, you really can’t capture the whole essence.

Madeleine began writing when she was very young… On the other hand I didn’t begin until later in life. But writing for me draws from the depths of creativity and it brings the most satisfaction and reward.

Thanks for priming the pump for me today!