Michael Edwards

Original post on my other blog: https://fishingfolkart.wordpress.com/2019/06/09/raw-logs-refined/

To the writer, a craftsman, punctuation is the sawdust between thoughts. Punctuation stands as a sign that some hard work has been done. Each sentence is shaped, shaved and chiseled from raw logs, making lots of sawdust. Thoughts and ideas are felled trees that require milling and seasoning. Time and effort are the required inputs of a writer as she or he interacts and becomes acquainted with what can be made from these ideas. The raw-log potential is real and it is awesome! The journey, when undertaken, goes from the stage of a newly harvested log, green and bark-covered, to finished, squared and laser-straight boards, then to the final stage. The end of the journey for the writer is only the beginning for readers and the world. This is the outcome, the pay-off, the value-added product. We humble readers finally get to see the beautiful and functional furniture that will decorate our minds.

The periods, commas and apostrophes are a part of the maker’s mark and invite readers to remember the hands and the mind that crafted the work. Cutting through knots and sap-pockets, sometimes going against the grain, a writer has clearly been working and continues to work. It is the critical task of processing the raw-log ideas that come to her or him. And finding the most beautiful burl and grain for all of us to see. Making sawdust matters. The hard work and heavy-lifting, the daily grind, it all matters.

So here’s to those of you writers, makers and artists, bent over the word-lathe, creating piles of dust and shavings. These are the works of function and of beauty that under-gird, support, hold-up and decorate this increasingly complex and confusing world.