Thoughtful

I write from my heart
Hoping to touch another
Who might need insight
To better comprehend living
From the inside to the out.

When you deal with living things,
you cannot choose when they go
or when they stay. All you can
do is continually pray.

The soul of you
The soul of me
Are joined together
Until we shall choose
To come apart, go free,
But love, can you not see;
I want you forever with me.

Music is a communal experience, but even in live
performance, to no small degree, it is entirely personal.
We can listen to the same song and come to our
individually differentiated conclusions.

Intention to Devotion

Love is filtered through
Who we are in each moment
Experience determines
What we choose to risk, how, when,
And decides who we believe is
Worth the investment of our lives.

We are careful creatures knowing
Our hearts, minds, are not to be
Turned over too easily, so freely
We want to be treasured, held dear,
Because each of us is aware
Love is a potential weapon to maim and kill.

So we reach out gingerly
Watching for reaction, acceptance
Hoping our tenderness is returned,
But ready in seconds to run
If there is an indication we should
Retreat before the pain gets deep.

If we set ourselves open to let
Another in, we are directing
Our lives, real enough to love.

Recipe for Creating More

This is not meant to be definitive. The hope is to present some ideas. There is some background to draw upon.

As much as possible, put your internal critic in the dungeon, a nice one if you like. You can liberate the rascal when you begin to edit, and absence makes the findings sharper.
If you are stuck, do something else; a different style, media, genre, voice.
Do Morning Pages as instructed by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way.
Use a different method; notebooks and a variety of pens, computer, tablet, phone; acrylics, oils, watercolors, pencil, colored pencil, pen & ink, canvas, paper, wood, sculpture; color, monochrome, macro, zoom, panorama, varied lenses, day, night, indoor, outdoor.
Take a break and read something inspiring, or if you are more audio-visual, watch some how-to’s on YouTube or find some podcasts. Use music when you can, it can ease tension and promote imagination.
Work in a different location: Go to a cafe or restaurant, a picnic table in a park, a bench or table in a high traffic shopping center, a library, a ball game, a parade.
Give yourself permission to be an amateur. Everything does not have to be perfect. Even if something you do does not get glowing praise, it was an experiment in which you gain knowledge. There is no such thing as perfection. What you do at the moment is perfect in that it is an expression of yourself and was done courageously by you. Work, and in time you shall gain mastery.

This is brought to you by my son, Alex, saying he was having a hard time working on his novel. I thought it might be a topic worth my exploring since I consider myself a creativity expert.

Best Unknown

the things we sweep aside
burying horror deep inside
in the cursed ebony hours
when we beg for mercy, sleep;
for ourselves the secrets
becoming hungry ghouls feasting
upon our weakened minds
the guilty hauntings we cannot keep
can consume our nights
disturb our days, smuggle peace away,
yet we know we like other persons
must fight our way into the light
make a plea to God for help to win
our lives back from that which would
steal our breath, leaving us inert, end
disspirited and dead, a corpse alone
the past is tome we must place upon
a disused shelf and let it fade
not reopening it to inquire what
now we miss because there is nothing
it holds that can invade today
unless we give it power, let it stray
from the position, it has earned
retired, obsolete, bridges burned
some memory we may desire
but much is sheer agony, anger, pain
from such we well do to refrain.

Everything has its place. Those things that torture us, we should endeavor to expunge from our thought. At least, never linger over them. Our guilt and shame provide no benefit to us presently or going toward the future.

I cannot tell you where this poem came from. It just, as most do, took over my thoughts.

Be well. Express gratitude. Leave life better than you found it.

Opportunity

I have always supported every form of artistic/creative endeavor possible. I pay outrageously for the privilege many times.

A few years ago, I won two tickets to a concert, the prize sponsored by the company I now do my small job with.

I took my Mom, who had never been to an indoor concert, and we saw Kenny Loggins. The thing is, “Danger Zone” from Top Gun is and has been my ringtone.

I thought I would share a picture. I was allowed up close cause the venue was small.

The concert was spectacular, and I am forever grateful I was allowed to share it with my Mom.

Worth Saving

We mourn animals, beasts,
Who are last of their line, but why
Do we allow preventable deaths
Of human beings, who are
Each one unique, never to be
Duplicated, repeated, or remade,
Each one a miracle creation
Given to enrich all, and every time?
Seems each man, woman, or child,
With all the strange coincidence
That conspire to create a life;
Would deserve every effort to provide
The needful things to help one survive.