What is Beautiful Writing?

Beautiful writing is writing which strives towards an intrinsic truth which is, in one instant, both surprising and familiar. Which delights and enlightens. The kind of writing which responds to some kind of heartbeat – a rhythm which punctuates the passage of daily life, both apart from and a part of the everyday. A parallel life lived through words that exist as tangible objects – beautiful curios that entice and invite.

Beautiful writing transcends the everyday into the realm of the sacred. Don’t waste a word for every word is special and resonant – profound in its pronunciation. Each word a stained glass window, colouring the sunlight and illuminating the dust motes that dance in the hushed space where no-one dares speak above a stage whisper. Awed, we gaze at these words made manifest as coloured light and feel blessed – blessed that we were there to witness the miracle of illumination. How lucky. How… blessed.

With arms outstretched, we crane our necks heavenward to a vaulted ceiling constructed by sentences, and we slowly spin; our world revolving on its axis. And we just keep staring, our words, our wishes, our wonder, washing through us. Then we know that things will never be the same. Not really. For we have stretched forth our fingertips and touched the place where language and meaning meet.