Celebrating the April Commonplace Book Club (CBC)

"My loyalty is to the inner vision..."--Mary Oliver

This past winter, I set out to read every thing Mary Oliver ever wrote and to listen to every interview she gave. Here is what I learned: as creatives, we must enjoy our creations, and we must respect the source of our creativity.

Of writing poems, Oliver says,

I have wrestled with the angel and I am stained with light and I have no shame…My loyalty is to the inner vision, whenever and howsoever it may arrive.¹

Mary Oliver’s quotes have been my inspiration for this April’s Commonplace Book Club (CBC). It is clear she loved putting words together, and she loved her subject matter. It is equally clear that she loved the sentences she crafted. This is important.

Our first audience is always—and necessarily—ourselves. The words we collage in our heads and then, expectantly, on the page, must ring like a bell for us first. For if they do not, it is unlikely they will ever please anyone else. And even if those sentences remain unappreciated by others, the author has satisfied herself. That is important.

The same is true of sharing quotes we love—of sharing quotes that approximate our own inner visions. It is easier, by far, to share words written by someone else. And, for that reason, it is good practice for sharing one’s own work. Watching our club unfold over the past month, I loved seeing how members resonated with one another’s quotes. How a quote that one person loved was likely loved by someone else. My commonplace book grew with quotes shared by other participants. And I know the same is true for others.

Sharing one’s own work and sharing that of another differ only in degrees. The little zing of excitement I feel when someone else enjoyed a quote I shared mirrors the excitement I feel when I write something well-received.

The message is this: sharing language, art, and ideas is a gift, whether they come from your imagination or someone else’s.

So with that, I offer the gift of our communal commonplace book for April 2025. I hope you love the treasures therein as much as I do. But first, a couple of announcements!

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Three Announcements

First, the winners of this month’s prizes are

Mike Paul

,

Allen Martin

, and

Eric Fitzsimmons

.

Congratulations!!

Secondly, in this, our inaugural year of the CBC, I promised four meetings to reflect the four seasons. Perhaps it will be too much. Perhaps next year, we’ll only do three. But I figured it’s worth a try. I absolutely love hosting the club—it is such an honor for me, as someone who has devoted much of her life to commonplace books. So, we will meet again in June. Stay tuned for more information.

Finally, I spent the past week immersed in Joan Didion’s notes at the New York Public Library. I’m still working on my write-up, which you’ll get next Monday. Unsurprisingly, the woman kept a lot of notes!