The Cornerstone The Cornerstone February 2018 | Page 21

W
ell, certain people have a passion for it,
that’s how. Why? Because of the way that
one favorite pen, blue in color, hits the
blank paper with a force of both certainty
and uncertainty, with freedom and constraint. Because of
the way the keyboard clicks with every poke at it, a small
response of surprise as the small extension of our bodies
shouts, “go” with a shove, dancing across the uneven,
cubed surface to produce something beautiful, or factual,
or poetic, or safe.
Because it is creation.
Because it has the power
to bring worlds to life,
and to reassure the one
we live in. Because it has
the power to free anyone,
even those of us in more
extreme conditions, like
exile or prison or poverty.
Because it feels like falling
a thousand feet from the air
and landing on a giant foam
cloud. Because it feels like
turning into a water droplet
and jumping in with that
rush of others, all slinging
rucksacks over their
shoulders because they are
also in the stream, on the
pilgrimage to the waterfall.
Because it feels like fire that
does not hurt, and smells
like roses and gasoline.
and stars (the kind that blink in front of the eyes when dizzy
and the kind that we find when we look above us into the
night sky), signaling to the hands to move and to not stop
until everything that is buzzing round and round across
the tracks of the Right Side is out on paper, but until that
moment it zooms and speeds and collides, challenging the
skull to contain it, all but willing for it to burst, so those
ideas will not be forgotten.
Because the sound of it is Mozart and Elvis and jazz and rap
and folk and rock and soul and trombones and harmonicas
and electric guitars
and voice, lots of voice,
especially that part of the
voice that causes laughter
to rise from the stomach
and to flourish from the
esophagus like one-
thousand-eight-hundred-
and-twenty-four pitahaya
flowers.
Because it is a man and a
women and a child and a
Christian and a Muslim
and a Hindu and an Asian
and an African separately
and together. Because it
is separateness, yet unity.
Because it is fighting for
personal freedom while
fighting for segregation
and marginalization,
while fighting against it.
Because it is an outlet
for love and because it
inspires love, that’s how.
Because the perfect idea
hits the brain like a semi
truck made out of caffeine
HOW DOES LOVE
RELATE TO WRITING?
BY EMILY AINSWORTH
Feature Page 21