When Words Become Legacy

It’s been a long road, but I just released two new books of poetry at once: When the Ink Runs Dry: A Poetic Retreat for the Soul and When the Questions Come: A Poetic Exploration for When Certainty Fades. I am exhausted, and I sometimes question my sanity in deciding to work on two books at the same time. But when I read through my writing, I realized there were two related books, and they needed to be published together. As a result, I have spent the last eighteen months typing, editing, and designing the pages. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, I piled on a couple more weeks of book design to get my previous five titles updated and released in hardback form in time for the new books’ release.

While it’s nice to finally be able to call this all “done,” I really am exhausted and I wonder, is it for anyone beyond myself?

When I was in junior high, I would scrawl with pen and paper while riding the school bus, while the houses slipped by. Writing was my voice when nobody else was listening. Over the next thirty years, the habit never broke. Writing is still like breathing to me, a way to express to the world the journey inside, hoping it all helps someone else walk their own road. Working with other authors professionally as I design their books, I see other writers go through this same process: they wonder what they are doing all this this for, wonder why anyone else would be interested, and (especially resonating for me right now) wondering if their work is any good.

Though I have glowing reviews in hand from poets and authors I deeply respect, I am waiting expectantly for what will happen next. It’s probable that some people will buy the books because they want to support me, and some will buy them because they love my writing. But what I’m really hoping for is someone to come back and buy a second copy to give to someone else. That’s when I’ll know the content has struck a chord. No matter what meaning that reader has drawn from my work, I’ll know it was something they needed to hear. That is the moment I am after: when the words take center stage with a life of their own.

Like a good book designer who directs the eye towards the content of a book, a good author fades into the background and directs the reader’s attention to the words themselves. Because I believe in the words in these two books – with every fiber of my being – I was able to pour a ridiculous amount of work into them. These two books carry messages that I believe in deeply and which I believe other people need to hear, too – the messages that it’s good to make room in your life to listen to your own soul and that no matter what your questions are, they are worth asking.

One day, I will stop writing and it is my fervent hope my words will outlast me. They are my legacy: something beyond myself that will speak to souls I will never meet. I can see them in my mind’s eye – books I have written, standing on a shelf; a person walking toward them, picking one up, flipping through its pages, stopping, reading. The person is surprised by what they read and relieved to discover that it’s okay to seek their own freedom to live as they truly are.

Perhaps you, too, will create something new, create something just to leave it behind. Perhaps you will make something with the purpose of lifting up some person you’ll never know. ~~~

Sarah Katreen Hoggatt is the author of several books and numerous articles. She is a book designer, hiker, and a founding member of Sierra Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends. She lives with her wife, Monica, in Salem, Oregon.