I was going through one of my notebooks, and came upon this notation: “Be a tribal writer.” A friend said this to me, while we were discussing the creative process one day a few years ago.

Be a Tribal Writer. What does it mean? Perhaps it means to write in such a way – with such a consciousness – as to seek to express our communal condition. So that my solitude as a creative person is transcended, and attains an insightful, circumspect generality. E Unum pluribus. The cheese stands alone, and decides to take a few notes on universal suffering.

Oh, I have suffered With those that I saw suffer!

~ Shakespeare

I don’t think so; I mean, maybe that’s a valid interpretation, but not something I’m willing to do. I live in a condo, not a freaking hermitage. There is plenty of agreement that suffering is the universal, implacable common denominator, but no more so than flatulence.

I think it means I get to write as a member of a tribe, with other poets and writers, musicians, painters, artists of all kinds. I have to write by myself in any case, and this is my reward. See? From time to time, I get to come forth from the cave and see who’s been throwing shadows on the stones.

Okay, I’ll meet you half way. Let me sit in the sun with the others, on the bank of the blighted canal, and I’ll keep trying to find a way to beat the undertow. Deal?

For there are deeds Which have no form, sufferings which have no tongue.