I’m proud to be a bad poet… always quick ramblings triggered by a birthday that needs a card or a question which was one I happened to ask our local group of muses. (Which means our local group of eclectic, funny, diverse, very interesting people with creative thinking and doing or sometimes not getting around to it, as our bond)
Here was the question prior to a get together at Red Beard Coffee (that’s important to know.. you’ll see): Anyone want to bring a demo/piece/tool/ quirk of their current favourite creative expression?… a trigger line for us to write a poem, a tool that you seem to constantly be using, a painting technique, a way you made toast when the toaster died?
But back to poetry…it just hasn’t become a place that I spend time connecting words into rhythm and magic. Even with bad poetry, though, if I’m looking to figure something out, it (like all creative expressions) will always reveal something worth knowing….
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No one else can see my quirk
It hides where others cannot lurk
Odd insights, strange stories; all day are told
Some so subtle, some so bold
They hide within my chatty mind
A little hard, then, for others to find
Like the tree that falls in the forest, does sound exist if no one heard?
YES! YES!
No matter if others don’t hear…
I’m entertained all day… and I want to end this line, (cuz it almost rhymes) with Red Beard.
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I know I was inspired to write this because of all that is ‘out there’ saying that those creative ideas in your head are meaningless if something isn’t done about them. I was inspired to write this by how often I’ve heard people be so upset with themselves because they had a great idea in the night and did not wake up enough to write it down. I’m inspired to write this because a whole realm of wonder, curiousity, fuel for future ideas, and personal entertainment is often dismissed as both frustrating and unworthy.
To all that I say; Wow, what a setup for failure, guilt and a ton of shoulds! My god, if we were meant to produce something from every creative thought or idea, I know people who would need twenty lifetimes just to produce the ideas that run through their head in a month, or even a week, or even a day, or sometimes even a highly idea-inundated hour!
So, really, let’s give it a rest.. that part of us who beats ourselves up for not turning all those interesting ideas, genius philosophies or witty comebacks into something for the world to see.
And let’s give them some credit…the ideas, humour, genius concepts, magical feelings, visions, curious questions, and quirky ponderings that flit through our minds… soon forgotten but likely leading to the next one… and appreciate them for being a part of us.
I know this is contrary to popular opinion. I know this is contrary to many teachings that say you must get those ideas down in writing. But maybe, just maybe, if we give them credit just as they are, we can enjoy them fully in that brief moment they are there. (Isn’t that part of the ‘being in the moment’ and mindfulness philosophies? Why yes, I believe so!) And there could be a side benefit; maybe if we stop trying so hard to capture them, the ones we’d most like to capture will be captured more easily.
Anyone else ever wake up to notes like this?
Musings of Janet L Whitehead 