A labyrinth of moons might be an apt means of describing the gothic curves and spirals through which the moon moves in its lunar phases. I always feel, catching a glimpse of it behind a roof and tangled in trees, as if the moon slides away even as I watch. An elegant twist of time and planet … and the moon shifts, a hairsbreadth more curve shown or scraped away.
I am, in a phrase, betwixt and between. Perhaps it is outright betweenity, an 18th-century word that captures this state. And much like the moon, I look like I’m standing still even while bone and juice runnels through the rifts of me. Job woes, of course, and a neverending round of to-do lists tangle like briars. Add in eight cats, landscapes to honor while coaxing food from, and–banal and prosaic as it might be–a knee that cackles like a demented hen until I tuck a pillow under it, and I feel like piles of plucked salt waiting for the next big wind or tide.
Yet, in these low ebb moments, the choices of an hour and a life are clear, clean-cut, and macabre: stay still to give up or keep shifting to try.
In that cloud-tossed spirit, I consider this obstinacy: the six-minute essay.
For topics, try looking out the window and fixing on a single object–tree, cloud, tractor, cat, moon, grapevine trellis, compost barrel, old gate.
Or, draw from the plethora of arts-driven reality shows. Think: Face Off, Project Runway, Next in Fashion, The Great British Baking Show, Big Dreams/Small Spaces, or any tattoo, makeup, interior design, or garden challenge. Try their websites, show schedules, and wiki pages to find the challenges they were given–plant flora to feed wildlife in winter, use cubism special effects makeup to design living art, or make a dress from candy or hardware store materials. Try their topic as the inspiration for an essay, considering your experiences from the frame of that topic.
Topics are everywhere; pick one; another will be by in a moment.
Try this:
The first 6–thinking
- Select a topic.
- Set an alarm for 6 minutes.
- Let yourself freewrite, list, think, question, muse and generally mull over the topic you’ve selected. As you do so, remember the key moves in an essay–scene, detail, reflection. What mini-moment do you have that connects to the topic? What details spring into your mind–a woman’s high-heeled shoe? The ostrich you see in a front yard on your way to work? The tiny pouncing cat tattoo on a friend’s finger? What is a tension you feel or see when thinking of the idea implied in the topic–fear, grief, regret, the moment right before joy?
The second 6–writing
- Set an alarm for 6 minutes, immediately after the first alarm sounds.
- Write a six-minute essay.
Now, you have a draft; revise obstinately. Keep shifting.
I was a thought, a dream, a fish, a wing
And then a human being …
The taste of berries made of promises
While the memories shift in their skins
At every moon, to do their ripening
Joy Harjo, “Granddaughters,” An American Sunrise