Summer Words, 2000 eBook

It began as a mass attack on writer's block. My strategy: Write a 200 word essay every day during the summer of 2000. What it became, once I dispelled the nonsense of “grander notions of the purpose of art," was this collection of some of the best words I have ever written, such as the following excerpts: And when air is given flight in laughter, and food is given art in flavor, and sex is given bliss in love--we're talking profound existence. / Truth spoken becomes myth. Life given to myth can never know Truth. / And the Poem... how I revel in the wretched-blissful-winsome hilarity of the Poem I live. / For nature, we must show up with a canteen of water and some quiet shoes. / ... what I know most passionately—the incredible significance of a smile. Enjoy!

It began as a mass attack on writer's block. My strategy: Write a 200 word essay every day during the summer of 2000. What it became, once I dispelled the nonsense of “grander notions of the purpose of art," was this collection of some of the best words I have ever written, such as the following excerpts: And when air is given flight in laughter, and food is given art in flavor, and sex is given bliss in love--we're talking profound existence. / Truth spoken becomes myth. Life given to myth can never know Truth. / And the Poem... how I revel in the wretched-blissful-winsome hilarity of the Poem I live. / For nature, we must show up with a canteen of water and some quiet shoes. / ... what I know most passionately—the incredible significance of a smile. Enjoy!

Robert Nichols on his writing: I was fifteen when I determined I would be a writer. In the ensuing decades, my commitment to the art and craft of written communication has not lessened. Though practical considerations (like making a living) have laid claim to large portions of my time and energy, at the heart of all my endeavors I have remained steadfast to the calling of a poet. Regardless of literary genre, my words are driven by a soul-deep intent to fully experience the challenge and fascination of life and, most significantly, to communicate what is gleaned from this grand encounter. When I write a poem, a novel, an essay, a grocery list, or an e-mail to my insurance agent, I do so as one whose life is committed to a principle of writing with clarity, wit, and compassion. The goal of my art: to intimately express the Universal.