Accompaniment Matters

At Orion Magazine's Wildbranch Writers' Workshop, the practice of craft occurs in community. And this year the sense of a shared process was palpable. Accompaniment by good writers who share similar concerns nourishes those of us who work diligently to "Only Connect" as E. M. Forster urged. Though I can, in fact, write anywhere now, it sure does help to be in a conducive environment. Here deep thought about what matters is part of breakfast conversations, birding is a part of every morning, and the sows at the foot of the hill remind me that, as Galway Kinnell says, " . . . sometimes it is necessary/ to reteach a thing it's loveliness". For years I chose to work in isolation as a writer. But now, I am deeply heartened and helped by this rich community of voices, each unique, and each a different kind of spokesperson.