Specs

When we choose to create, whole universes rise to meet our inclination, which can, on occasion, be intimidating. What we know about process, creation, may not lend itself at the moment to production. Time may swirl its vaporous fogs around us. We may need to filter the nectar from the dew.

A useful tool for creative sessions we find in music. Often, we have many favorites and find it fortuitous to add artists to our listening consistently. There are numerous choices in ways to find and enjoy music these days. Every taste meets ample representation.

An exercise one might do, is to take a song well enjoyed, enter it, imbibe its mood, let the lyrics move the spirit; then write, paint, create something original from what one finds in the experience. Music is heart and soul; it is a gift always filling lives.

Equally, photos can be a catalyst for inspiration. Looking through photos offers a bevy of ideas. Personal and family photos, magazines, Instagram, and other online services should serve well enough. Create as whim and wish may direct.

Random words found in various places can be material to seed many works. Dictionaries, quotations, thesauri, signs will work, or pick some out of the air.

There is never a dearth of creativity; it infuses every portion of reality and imagination. The trick is to harness it and make with it some beauty to honor who we are in the world. At times like these, love is sorely needed and can be delivered expertly through our creations.

So T’is

We, a masterpiece,
Painted love upon the present
Never are erased,
Caresses full of ardor
Colored words our wild passion.

I believed in you
Long enough to breathe your life
Into what was mine,
Now we are never alone
Bound each to one another.

Fixed pieces within
A frame carefully cited
Who we are and may
Become on some future day;
Art skillfully executed.

The purse lies empty,
No one dares to refill it,
Because they want no
Part of its obligation;
Owning possibilities.

I cannot ever
Know because it is yours to
Take, to carry on,
But I love you – despite grief,
Which will not have you, the thief.

If you wish, your prompt is to create things that demonstrate how you have reality in hand but are somehow outside it. Dare to be the freedom that expresses what is yours and yet beyond yourself. Life is a crucible, be the alchemy.

Unwritten

I meant to write you
A letter, but somehow got
Lost without the time;
I told myself you’d not mind.
Sometimes I lose all my place
Slipping in between
The moments, the blanks in space,
I had the words set
To scribe but became waylaid
By other tasks and could not
Settle down enough
To do justice to the work.
So here is a poem
To say I regret having
Not written, maybe someday;
You never knew anyway.

As a prompt, create something about a task you mean to do, but never seem to get done.

Sketch

I try at art sometimes. Maybe I will add color or no.

As a prompt, go beyond your creative bounds. Try something different.

Allegiance

It is not like me
To dwell here inside my flesh;
My mind is often
An aptly chosen abode,
Words my finest furniture.
You, however, call
Me into reality,
My visions react
To your being with growing
Hopes, you may one day love me.
Time beating unkind
Reverts to seeming stillness
When you hold me near;
Better dreams, futures appear,
We, together, display promise.

What you see is quite different from what came out in my journal (in Kindness Pink ink), but I think it serves well. Again, I used the syllable counts for tanka and strung three together.

I keep thinking I will find some other forms, but I have almost always been a Free Verse poet. It is hard to break the habits of a lifetime.

What forms do you like? Can you illustrate one?

If you are another type of writer or artist, what patterns do you see in your work? Can you break with those, change things up?

I went to the library yesterday. Oh, what a treasure trove I amassed. I appeased my dragon self with a horde of books. No zombies though, no, done with those for now, maybe ever.