A Visit to the Writer's Chapel

(Thought-Random)

        The writers start filing into the chapel, located in a dark cafe.  On the wall are the workshop commandments:

        DO NOT TAKE THY WRITING IN VAIN.

REMEMBER THE WORKSHOP DAY AND DO NOT BE TARDY OR ABSENT.

HONOR THY INFLUENCES.

THOU SHALT NOT PLAGIARIZE.

THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE CRITICISM AGAINST THY WORKSHOP NEIGHBOR

THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY WORKSHOP NEIGHBORS OEUVRE, ALTHOUGH GUSHY APPRECIATION IS FINE.

        When the room is full, they sit down at Paris cafe tables, open their manuscript books, and simultaneously bellow an excerpt from a work-in-progress; a joyful noise fills the room.
        They turn to the Book of Common Prose and read:

                Oh muses forgive us for we know not what we write.
                We have only working drafts to show for our trials.
                We have sinned in our procrastination, laziness, im-
                precision of language, failure of courage and imagi-
                nation, and overall lack of will.  Please grant us the 
                language to make bad experiences into good stories.
                Bless us with images,the stubbornness to carry on,
                the fortitude to forego unjust criticism, and the gen-
                erosity of spirit to praise the work of others.


        They take communion of a sip of espresso and a symbolic drag on an unlit cigarette.  On their way out, some stop by the Confessional Poem booth, where they recite a self-indulgent, autobiographical screed without fear of derision.
      
                                                          ----------------------------------
     
From Alan Ziegler's The Writing Workshop