In times of turmoil, writers can affect change with their words, stories and poems. They are a window into the greater truths of the world at large, beyond the minuscule limits of ourselves. Ten years ago Michael Kimball gave this inspiring commencement address as faculty at the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing, where I earned my degree. Michael kindly gave me permission to share his words here:
We are the nightmare wranglers
We are writers in this room. We engage in a practice as old as the caves. We are agile. We are daring. We are the ones who walk through the fire. That’s the way it is.
We are the nightmare wranglers. The high-wire dancers. We are the ones who look under rocks, who levitate rocks, who dive into the dark and swim away from the light. We are the ones who stare at the sun.
We spin reality
We are the tribal daydreamers, the fire pit weavers. We spin reality from myth, myth from reality. We are the sleepless seekers of truth. We transform cultures, topple kingdoms, rock babies to sleep and shake up the world. We shake up the world.
We are the ones who know the pure harmonic of the perfect word, who stride across ages, talk down to tyrants. We are the ones who don’t bow down.
We carry back the dead
We empower, inspire, we heal and expose. We are the ones who carry back the dead. We make peace, shed light, arouse long-dormant monsters, ask answerless questions. And sometimes can’t think of a word to say. We are the ones who are often not here.
We are writers in this room. We inhabit the future and transform the past, explore heavens never imagined, imaginations never mapped. We are agile and magic and daring. We are the ones who walk through the fire. That’s the way it is.
Copyright © Michael Kimball
As an example, read this stunning poem by Michael Simms titled No: for Vladimir Putin on Vox Populi, A Public Sphere for Poetry, Politics, and Nature.
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Michael Kimball is an award-winning novelist, playwright, screenwriter, sound designer, and painter. He recieved the 2014 John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award for his play Duck and Cover, also named BEST PLAY in the Northern Writes Festival and the 2014 Dezart Performs Festival in Palm Springs, CA. His website is MichaelKimball.com