Marie Howe on writing and noticing

I ask my students every week to write 10 observations of the actual world. It’s very hard for them.

Ms. Tippett:Really?

Ms. Howe:They really find it hard.

Ms. Tippett:What do you mean? What is the assignment? 10 observations of their actual world?

Ms. Howe:Just tell me what you saw this morning like in two lines. I saw a water glass on a brown tablecloth, and the light came through it in three places. No metaphor. And to resist metaphor is very difficult because you have to actually endure the thing itself, which hurts us for some reason.

Ms. Tippett:It does.

Ms. Howe:It hurts us.

Ms. Tippett:You naming something.

Ms. Howe:We want to say, “It was like this; it was like that.” We want to look away. And to be with a glass of water or to be with anything — and then they say, “Well, there’s nothing important enough.” And that’s whole thing. It’s the point.

https://onbeing.org/programs/marie-howe-the-power-of-words-to-save-us-may2017/