Books & Tea: Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

Join me for a cup of raspberry and blackberry leaf tea to talk about one of my favourite books on writing: “Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg.

Video Transcript

Today, I want to talk about one of my favorite books, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg.

This book isn’t just about writing, it’s about living. And it dives deep into the essence of creativity.

But before we look at Natalie’s book will make ourselves a nice cup of tea, shall we?

We have lots of raspberries growing along the chicken coop at the moment and they just started fruiting.

Raspberry leaf tea has been cherished for centuries for its many health benefits, especially for women. I’ll add some blackberry leaves too.

kettle pouring boiling water into tea pot with fresh herbal tea

Now back to the book. So this is one of my favorite books about writing. It’s called Writing Down the Bones, Freeing the Writer Within, and it’s by Natalie Goldberg.

It’s from 1986, but it’s still as important as ever. And there are just so many good essays; they’re all about writing in different ways and inspire you to get started writing. I just love this book.

So even just reading the first few chapters, The Beginner’s Mind, Pen and Paper, First Thoughts, and Writing as a Practice, they’re really, really good. I can highly recommend this book.

I’m going to read one chapter from this book called We Are Not a Poem, and it’s not really only about poetry. You can use it for anything in your life. You can use it for any writing, but even for life itself, it’s very applicable to lots of things.

So I’m going to read this to you now.

We are not the poem

The problem is we think we exist. We think our words are prominent and solid and stamp us forever. That’s not true. We write in the moment.

Sometimes when I read poems at a reading to strangers, I realize they think those poems are me.

They are not me. Even if I speak in the I person. They were my thoughts and my hand and the space and the emotions at the time of writing. Watch yourself. Every minute we change.

It is a great opportunity. At any point, we can step out of our frozen selves and our ideas and begin fresh.

That is how writing is. Instead of freezing us, it frees us.

The ability to put something down, to tell how you feel about an old husband, an old shoe, or the memory of a cheese sandwich on a grey morning in Miami. That moment you can finally align how you feel inside with the words you write.

At that moment you’re free because you are not fighting those things inside. You have accepted them. Become one with them.

I have a poem entitled No Hope. It’s a long poem. I always think of it as joyous because in my ability to write of desperation and emptiness, I felt alive again and unafraid.

However, when I read it, people comment how sad. I try to explain, but no one listens. It is important to remember we are not a poem. People will react however they want and if you write poetry, get used to no reaction at all. But that’s okay.

The power is always in the act of writing. Come back to that again and again. Don’t get caught in the admiration of for your poems. It’s fun, but then the public makes you read their favorites over and over until you get sick of those poems.

Write good poems and let go of them. Publish them, read them, go on writing. I remember Galway Kinnell when his wonderful Book of Nightmares first came out. It was a Thursday afternoon in Ann Arbor. I’d never heard of him, much less could I pronounce his name. He sang those poems. They were new and exciting for him. And a great accomplishment.

Six years later, I heard him read again at Saint John’s and Santa Fe, New Mexico. He’d read that book so much in those six years that he was sick of it. He ran through the poems, put down the book, and said, where’s the party? There was nothing dangerous for him and them anymore. The air was no longer electric.

It is very painful to become frozen with your poems, to gain too much recognition for a certain
set of poems. The real life is in writing, not in reading the same ones over and over again for years. We constantly need new insights, visions. We don’t exist in any solid form. There’s no permanent truth you can corner in a poem that will satisfy you forever.

Don’t identify too strongly with your work. Stay fluid behind those black and white words. They are not you. They were a great moment going through you. A moment you were awake enough to write down and capture.

open book showing a chapter of Writing Down the Bones

Sit down. Pick up your pen. Feel its weight. The way it fits in your hand.

And now begin.

Writing down the bones is about that very moment, the simplicity and the complexity of just beginning.

In this book, Natalie invites you to fall in love with the practice of writing, not just a product. It’s about freeing the writer within you, peeling away layers of self-doubt and criticism.

Think of writing like meditation.

You show up every day.

Sit with your thoughts, your feelings. You let them flow onto the page without judgment.

This book is filled with exercises to help you do just that.

Write without stopping. Write without worrying about grammar, structure.

Trust your mind. Let it wander and explore.

Observe the world around you. Notice the details. The way sunlight hits a leaf. The sound of a distant train.

These moments, these details. They breathe life into your writing. They make it real vivid.