I thought I would share a few poems this week. Not because they are particularly great poems but because I hope that the creative self-expression I found in writing them will be contagious.
I am currently part of an online class through www.abbeyofthearts.com that brings together monasticism and art. (While the class is in its 4th week now and is closed to new members, anyone interested in exploring how to nurture creativity with monastic wisdom might enjoy reading Christine Valters Paintner's book, The Artist's Rule that outlines much of the content for the class.)
The first line of the poem I am presenting today was given as part of an "assignment" in the class. I tend to feel more than a bit pretentious if I label myself as an "artist" because there are many, many people who deserve this title more than I do. However, in recent years, I have been nurturing and expressing my creative self more and that has been a great blessing, emotionally and spiritually.
I believe that all of us have creative capacity, though we may not know it or have the confidence to use it. I might add that this is very different from "talent" - which we tend to associate with creating a product that people will admire or buy. Creative self expression does not need to meet these criteria and often doesn't. Rather it is process we engage in for ourselves...to express, to heal, to grow.
Sometimes the poems (or paintings or songs or stories) we produce surprise even us, as though there were some other force than our own intention at work. And, of course, I believe there is...that's were the monastic/spiritual part comes in, as well as the healing.
(I will share one poem today and two others on separate days later in the week. Each has such a different rhythm that it seemed best to let each stand alone. I invite you to join me - allow yourself to play with words or colors or sounds or any other medium that you feel ready to engage...)
i am going to start
living like an artist,
splashing and
splashing in color till drenched
in all of the blue
the sky can hold
and dripping pink and
purple dusk.
i am going to start
fingerpainting my life
on endless rolls of
vanilla paper
till it tastes like
strawberries
and peaches and pears
and plums.
but then i might
pause…take a breath
and carefully sketch
the feathers
of every bird flitting
by me today,
etching each shaft
and barb into my soul,
that i too might soar
in heavens’ light.
then i will stoop back to my warm earth,
scooping its muddy
softness into my hands
where i will hold it
and mold it and shape it
until i see within it
my heart alive with joy.
and then – then, i
will give it all to you,
laughing my soul into
yours in wordless delight.
i am starting to live
my life as an artist –
yes, i am starting…
