Why does a writer write?

As someone who is interested in the writers that exist behind the writing and the relevance, or not, of biography and context to our understanding and appreciation of their output, 'Why does a writer write?' is an important question to ask. It is a question that, as writers, it is also interesting to ask ourselves. I would encourage you to think about this. Why do you write? What does it feel like to write?

One of the reasons that I write is to make connections between experiences and visual images in an effort to preserve the 'moment'. The following image comes from an exhibition I saw at the Museum of the City of New York. It is one of many images taken from recent trips to New York that I am using to write a collection of poems based upon my experiences of this amazing city.

The exhibition told the story of the tenure of John V. Lindsay as Mayor of New York between 1966 and 1973. It was a time of upheaval and great change in New York and Lindsay, as a supporter of the Civil Rights Movement and opposer of Vietnam, played a central role in the turmoil of the times. This powerful image tells much of the story of the city during that period. Of course, as a writer inspired by the image, the challenge is to use it to tell (possibly) the same story in a different way. More on that at a later date...