Springing in

I love spring water and wild air, and not the manufacture of the chemist's shop. I see in a moment, on looking into our new Dial, which is the wild poetry, and which is the tame, and see that one wild line out of a private heart saves the whole book. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Feeling is what I like in art, not craftiness and the hiding of feelings. - Jack Kerouac

During the '50s, “first thought, best thought,” became the mantra of the Beat writers. They wanted to capture a direct line to the subconscious through what flows in the mind. The Beats went after that wild line.

Wild, free, single lines evolve into a work of art. A sketch results from glimpsed nuances. It all started with the wild sketches on cave walls.

Free form art changed writing, jazz and painting. Jackson Pollock sought the wild image; Thelonious Monk after the wild edge in jazz.

Your first thought taps something deeper; it emerges out of the edges of imagination. Energy arises from that first effort. The spirit of a writer arises in a quick sketch. Depth of feeling, spiritual depth, emotional state of the moment all spill out.

The first impression arises to set a stage.

Get into wilding today. 













Go for a walk and let the wild enter. Notice how the flash will introduce another thought.

Dig into Yourself

"Go into yourself and see how deep 
the place is from which your life flows."  
- Rainer Maria Rilke

Your fingers that nudge keys
Use them rather than a shovel

Dip. Dig. Dive into the sand

The sea will swirl the hole 


Excavate into the depths

Let warm sand and liquid 

swish to massage fingers




Delve to discover a curiosity

that has remained hidden




It may scurry up to you

A nautilus shell empty of occupant

will reveal its silky texture

Empty means best

Ready? Get fill-eager

Let the salt water wash in

Probe your gifts forgotten




Notice the ways

memory arrives

Fears. Joys. Sorrows

Desires trickle

Into the layered years

If the tide hurries to shore

to inundate the empty space

Select your found treasures 

Bring them home.

Where Poetry Begins

Unmoored
in midnight water
no waves, no wind
the empty boat
is flooded with moonlight
               -  Eihei Dogen

Basho and Dogen wrote with the idea, "Learn about the pine from the pine, learn about the bamboo from the bamboo."

Poetry begins with the outside world that teases the poet. Leaves, light, and longing connect.

Notice the nature of a blossom.

Bring attention to details and search for an original view that reveals playfulness, rebellion or courage.

Widen the possibilities with each line. 

Discover surprise and unpredictability to add to nature's simplicity.

Observe. Reflect. Question.

Tiptoe into silence with open eyes, ears and heart.



Let the words mist with secrets.

What if?

Writer, Jorge Luis Borges poses, "What if?" and lets his stories work questions out to their logical or absurd conclusions.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez blends the fantastic with the ordinary for his approaches to story. In his short story, "The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" he ponders, "What if an angel appeared in our own village?" A poor couple in an impoverished South American village cages the creature and sells tickets to view it. Marquez toys with the reader's emotions of disgust and strange wonder when an old man rises from the sand and flies away content that the couple has made money to support their new baby.

Everyone needs to stay open to surprise, absurdity, and play. For writers the opportunity in stories and poems reaches to the edges of possibility.

Stop reading and look around. Notice a roundness, square objects, colors, and scents. Add a sound or two. Launch your imagination and add tiny creatures. Where did they come from? What if they spoke?  

Let plants philosophize. What would a grasshopper do if . . . ?

Invite a character from your favorite novel into your living room. Which questions would you ask?

Imaginate and return to a story or poem that has lost its energy. Open it up.

Ask, "What if?"  Keep going until you have moved beyond reality into a realm that produces surprises, absurdity, and fun.

Explore the Expergefactor

"Most people don't find their creativity.There are more unsung geniuses who don't even know they have great talent." - Truman Capote

"You have a right to experiment with your life." - Anais Nin

Expergefactor is an old English word that means something that wakes you up. Examples include an alarm clock or a train whistle, even a partner's snore. Pronunciation: EX-PURGE-E-FACTOR. 





Expand the word's meaning to consider an adventure, a project or a relationship that piques your curiosity and enchantment.

After you identify an expergefactor to excite you, investigate its possibilities and potential for enhancing creativity and fun.









Explore your expergefactor.

"Then, one day, when you least expect it, the great adventure finds you." - Ewan McGregor

When Situations Trigger

We should value our enemies because they provide us with unique opportunities to practice patience, tolerance and forbearance. 

- Dalai Lama

Individuals who do not agree with us reflect with mirrors and shout as energizers. Rather than calling them "enemies," I prefer to think of them as stimulators. If everyone agreed with our thinking and ways of living, we would learn nothing. 

Those who have varied opinions provide the opportunity for us to take off blinders and revitalize our mind sets. If we choose to do so. That's the challenge.

Tolerance forces us to open our minds to a neutral space. Never easy but enlightening, it helps us grow.

When the Dalai Lama speaks of "forbearance," he means refrain and patient endurance. Self-control always creates another opportunity to think and gain insights.

Why do we detest the idea of being "wrong"? We risk ending relationships, cause stress and pain for ourselves and others when we take on the terrier mentality and ferocity of holding on to our notions. Our perceptions or preferences, like worrying a stuffed toy without relenting, stop the wisdom process and life's progress. 

If we must fight for right and wrong, we need to stop the mind chatter to ask what difference it makes. Whose ego gets in the way and what for?

What if we avoid trying to control everything: situations, events, people and . . . things. We only have the ability to control our decisions, not those of others. What if we allow everything to unfold and watch the process from bud to flower? Observation provides insights and opportunities to practice letting go.

When a situation triggers, we have the power to respond with positive thinking. Try it.

 

“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try, the world is beyond winning.” - Lao Tzu

A Hopi Elder's View

This is the hour for considerations. A river flows now. It moves so swifty that those will be afraid.  They will try to hold onto the shore. They will feel torn apart. Know the river has its destination.  Hopi elders say we must let go of the shore and push into the middle, keep our eyes open and heads above water.

Where is your water?

Know your garden.

Speak your truth.

Create your community.

Do not look outside yourself for the leader.

Who is in there with you to celebrate?  

Take nothing personally least of all yourself. The time for the lone wolf is gone. Gather and banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary.  

All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

                                                                - from a folded paper found by the Willamette river.

Write to answer questions in ways to seek a celebration of renewal. 

Courage Calling

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day saying, 'I'll try again tomorrow.' " - Mary Anne Radmacher and Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What's calling out to you to attempt again and again and yet again?

When have you noticed that simple presence helps others?

"If you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their
carvings." Elisabeth Kugler-Ross

What are you shielding?

You yourself are your own barrier - rise from within it."  - Idries shah

"The quieter you become, the more you can hear "    -Ram Dass

Find your courage calling.

Happy Earth Day

A senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson, founded Earth Day. His goal was to force environmental issues onto the national agenda. At first, he called it National Environment Teach-In Day, but his friend, a New York advertising executive suggested "Earth Day," catchy since it rhymes with "birthday," and that's what the press began to call it.

Do something in Gratitude for Mother Nature. 

Pick up one piece of litter - like a cup someone has shoved into a plant. 

Enjoy the scent and shapes of buds.

Feel the texture of trees. 



Plant a bulb or seed.

Sing and twirl with the breeze.

Revive Hope

Seventy-Seven artists have created an amazing tribute to Notre Dame Cathedral with beauty, honor, hope, and humor.

77 Artists pay Tribute to the Notre-Dame Cathedral. 

Visit the site:
https://www.boredpanda.com/artists-pay-tribute-drawings-burning-notre-dame-cathedral-paris/

Art captures the best in everyone when dealing with tragic situations.

Discover ways to combine a photo with words that reveal ways to revive hope when a tragic situation occurs.

Human Behavior Investigations

Does human behavior fascinate you? Do you feel confused by individuals who reveal unpredictability?  Does the complexity of someone's inability to change annoy or amuse?

Delve into human nature. Search your mental bookshelves for five of your favorite characters. What makes them memorable?  Do their strengths or flaws intrigue?  How do they experience powerful emotions or overcome tragedies?

Choose five aspects of your favorite characters to combine in one. Now place that character in a scene sitting on a bench at a park.  

Your character observes a thief stealing an elderly lady's purse across the lawn. How does your character react?  What if your character sees the thief at a coffee shop the next day?

Play with character behavior.

Fun Day of Finds

"Scattered across the ordinary world, there are books and artifacts and perhaps people who are like the doorways into impossible realms, of impossible and contradictory truth."  - Jorge Luis Borges

Stay alert for creativity revealed in doorways and circumstances. Everyday situations and individuals  could lead you to intrigue, experiences, and revelations.

Wander into locales that provide opportunities for unusual connections. 

Search with all the senses aware. 

Notice how plants that others might consider weeds, bloom as yellow wildflowers.











Let nature reveal surprises and possibilities.

Fill with energy for a fun day of finds.

Poem in Your Pocket Day

On Poem in Your Pocket Day, poets celebrate by selecting a poem, carrying it with them, and sharing it with others throughout the day at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, and on Twitter using the hashtag #pocketpoem. 

Poem in Your Pocket Day was originally initiated in 2002 by the Office of the Mayor, in partnership with the New York City Departments of Cultural Affairs and Education, as part of the city’s National Poetry Month celebration. 

In 2008, the Academy of American Poets took the initiative to all fifty United States, encouraging individuals around the country to join in and channel their inner bard. 

Select a poem or compose your own. Carry it with you in your pocket all day. Share it and the fun of National Poetry Month wherever you go.

Bench Stories

Benches seek relationships. Arrivals or departures fuel stories or poems. Emotions rise and fall. Ask a few questions, then design scenarios to probe. Search for surprises and the unpredictable.


Consider the possibilities of this scene:





What happens right before or after arrival? Who walks in? Who rises to leave?

What dialogue follows if she dropped her words in haste? Should he retrieve them?

Who holds a breath or hums a tune?

Would a dog add to the scene? What breed and what behavior adds or distracts?

Let a father and daughter share a secret here.

Show a mother’s struggle with an adult son.

Who has a beginning or stages an abrupt ending?

How does the light affect them?

What happens in the empty spaces if love fell through?

Hop along the petal trail to inspire ideas for a story or poem. Follow one of the questions or create your own to reveal a relationship in progress. Try for a story in every season.

Abandon Dreary

"I gladly abandon dreary tasks, rational scruples, reactive undertakings 

imposed by the world." 

  - Roland Barthes

Barthes said he would do the above, "for the sake of love." Even though he knew it might cause him to act like a lunatic sit freed up tremendous energy."

What if you take time off from the ordinary? 

Launch from daily tasks. 

Search for an amusement, an adventure, or creative idea that might stimulate your imagination.  

Use boundless vigor and act like a lunatic to accomplish the goal.

Abandon dreary
    Alter your rhythm
         Free up energy
                  
Take a chance
       Make a change.

Find FUNtasy

Around the avenue 

antics arouse

automotive activity

Some days we just need to get out of the way of our thoughts and concerns. Yoga helps with movement, mindfulness, and breathing. Laughter engages us. Distraction always moves us away from frustration and into mysteries for discovery.

Go for FUNtasy today and find ways to disarray. Stay beyond translation. 

Take a letter from the alphabet and see where it will go in repetition.

Start with three lines. Notice how the words appear to fly upon the page.

Flee into repetition and rhythm. 

Rhyme if it feels right. 

Just make each major word begin with your chosen letter.

Twirl a tulip

Tingle 

with 

a tang of tiger

Tree or trail

Toughen the tendrils

Tighten the tail

Feasting on fun and frenzy
fools and friends
fly with fragrance
Not fearful of falling
from flavors of fret.

Behave in befuddlement

Beyond beaches

Bask with bewilderment

Bettering babble

Find your FUNtasy. Flee from frustrations.