Stones, or cerrig in Welsh, and the sea, or y môr, make me think a lot about elemental beings–faeries, elves, gnomes, mermaids, slyphs and sea monsters. I find it hard not to contemplate the folklore and myths of Wales in this magical natural setting.
My critical literary research has nothing at all to do with faeries or elves. Nor does my creative work. But I find it hard to stop imagining these things due to the land I walk on and the sea I encounter every day. As I sit down to work each day, I feel almost compelled to include the stories these images elicit in me.
My research has been going very well but my creative work has been, well, shit. I have just been editing and editing old stuff and find it hard to move on, to let go, to begin something new. I feel as though I have to completely finish with one thing in order to move on to the next. Maybe it’s like with relationships. I told my best friend that I’ll never be able to fall in love again because I’m still in love with someone else. She said, “The way to get over someone is to meet someone new.” So maybe I have to engage a little with these images of “other worlds,” and see where they take me. Maybe they are trying to coerce me out of one way of writing and into something new. Maybe I should experiment, let go of the images I have of myself, my linear world, the type of men I’ve loved, the form I write in, the way language works in me. Maybe it hasn’t been enough to let go of stuff, to whittle my things down to five boxes of books and 24 items total in my “capsule wardrobe.”
Maybe now it’s time to let go of something more subtle, but much, much bigger.
Kelley McKenna 