One little nugget has made a stew

No Google images that I'd have for this subject.

 Here's the pic of the failed can opener incident

 

From a regional Arkansas newspaper column, I found this bit of bio about Clementine Hunter, the self-taught folk artist. It caught my eye and ear and mind. Hunter is quoted as saying, “Painting is a lot harder than pickin’ cotton. Cotton’s right there for you to pull off the stalk, but to paint you got to sweat your mind.”
 

I say the same thing goes for writing a novel (in my case), a story, an essay, a poem—“you gotta sweat your mind.”
 

To me, “sweating my mind” means looking up things like how to dance with one in a wheelchair, how to foreshadow a character’s ability to play the fiddle; which youth can play a harmonica; how to approach a returned soldier who’s a widower, especially since the woman’s husband was killed in a non-combat situation.
 

My “mind sweating” allowed me to finish the sequel in a final, 2,000-word chapter. The whoosh of exhalation you heard at 10 p.m. Sunday night was me––finally finished with the first draft. The Hot Springs writers’ group heard it Monday and pronounced it—except for a few things—finished.
 

I Googled (really, Bing-ed) the phrase “sweat my mind,” and the following showed up over and over:  “…sweat, my mind…”. Not what I was looking for. Sweat is not a poetic word to me, conjuring toil’s result, or a marathoner’s glistening.
 

So I changed my search word to “sweat used in poetry.” I found a short story by Zora Neale Hurston titled “Sweat,” first published in 1926. Then, a poem, “Sweat” by Sandra Alcosser, b. 1944.
 

Next was a piece of rhymed and metered verse that could have been written by a junior high football player. The first and final stanzas were, “Ouey gooey sticky sweat/ it must be hot out, / this I’ll bet.” Bill Sawyers was the poet. His bio informs that he’s been a school custodian for 25 years and he writes short, to-the-point poems for children aged five and up. I take back what I said earlier. His heart is in the right place.
 

Then I found a free verse poem of 20 lines by Robert Johnston that uses the word “sweat” 15 times!
 

Whoa! Sometimes a search like this provides ‘way more information than you need--TMI. Here is an example:
 

 "See sweat used in context: 100 poetry verses, 34 Shakespeare works, 3 Bible passages, 48 definitions.” I did not look them up; I’ll take the website’s word for it.

 

A couple more examples and I’m ready to close out this “sweat” business. Who knew sweat was such a popular subject? Not I, said the writer who has a jillion poems and not one about sweat!
 

I’m glad I caught the mention of Clementine Hunter. I think, however, that I’ll take only Hunter’s phrase, “You gotta sweat your mind,” and apply it to those things that sometimes seem nearly impossible to do.
 

 Like patch vintage ceiling plaster, install a new fluorescent light over the sink.

Like light the gaslog's pilot light.
 

 Like write a book. Or even a blog post.