Loading
Writerās BlockWriter's Block
Nowadays, itās not a literal blank piece of paper: itās proverbial, an empty space on a screen. But perhaps the medium doesnāt really matter.
In my mindās eye, I see what many others have seen, looms out of the blizzard: vertical high rock face, an unmoved foe dominating all thought and feeling.
There is no way round: itās either upward or downward. If I turn back now, who knows how much it will take, to bring me to this position again (if ever)?
So although late in the day, Iāll have to go upward, grit my teeth, try to get traction with crampons, feel for cracks with fingertips, pound in pegs with hammer.
Rope pull by rope pull, metre by metre, inch by inch, Iāll clamber and scrabble my way to the top; even if the rope comes away, I mustnāt flinch.
The final effort might well be some indignity, I desperately raise my leg up to the ledge, and roll onto it like some tired-out little schoolkid.
And what will I find there? An icy ridge leading to the summit snowfield; freezing winds of jet stream; transcendence; ground untrodden by another being.
B.H. Smyth, London, 29.8.2026
Nowadays, itās not a literal blank piece of paper: itās proverbial, an empty space on a screen. But perhaps the medium doesnāt really matter.
In my mindās eye, I see what many others have seen, looms out of the blizzard: vertical high rock face, an unmoved foe dominating all thought and feeling.
There is no way round: itās either upward or downward. If I turn back now, who knows how much it will take, to bring me to this position again (if ever)?
So although late in the day, Iāll have to go upward, grit my teeth, try to get traction with crampons, feel for cracks with fingertips, pound in pegs with hammer.
Rope pull by rope pull, metre by metre, inch by inch, Iāll clamber and scrabble my way to the top; even if the rope comes away, I mustnāt flinch.
The final effort might well be some indignity, I desperately raise my leg up to the ledge, and roll onto it like some tired-out little schoolkid.
And what will I find there? An icy ridge leading to the summit snowfield; freezing winds of jet stream; transcendence; ground untrodden by another being.
B.H. Smyth, London, 29.8.2026