A poet speaks of vision

 Jimmy Santiago Baca said being a poet is largely about vision. He doesn’t use the word to describe something prophetic. He said a person could have a vision simply by having a relationship with a hummingbird. Vision has to do with seeing, noticing, appreciating.

Here’s Baca on how vision plays out for the writer:

The English have a way of saying, “Find your voice,” and that represents the egotistical sense of the English people. The Native American way is “to see.” It does not entail a voice; someone like Black Elk, his seeing was very strong, nothing could boggle it. But the Anglo people always have the aggressive voice thing — “Your voice is very strong in this piece,” right? — while the Indians said, “Your seeing is very strong in this piece.”

I think that vision — a process that incudes seeing, observing, noticing, appreciating, reporting — is what makes a storyteller. Writing doesn’t begin when you take up a pen. Much of the fun has already happened by then.

• Source: This Is About Vision: Interviews with Southwestern Writers, edited by John F. Crawford, William Balassi and Annie O. Eysturoy; Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990, p. 191.