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.

Excellent Zeal

The movement of stars
In the firmament of the sky,
Reminds me of how
Your eyes shine with radiance
When you express your passion.
What you are living,
What you love, every treasure,
That moves you to speak;
These things that inspire your heart
Stand with you against the dark.
Everyone has times
They shuffle away from where
Their miracles lie,
But I have seen you become
More than who you were before.
You have the lights turned
High on the goals you must seek,
There is no stopping
Until you find yourself complete
Your soul carries you everywhere.
Bathe in the fountain
Under the moon shining bright,
Know you provided
Encouragement needed to
Help others discover delight.
All who go this way
Live one with the beloved –
Those chosen and set
Apart, who exist in emotions
Deep, wild, free, called to create.
The movement of stars
In the firmament of the sky,
Reminds me of how
Your eyes shine with radiance
When you express your passion.

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.

No Rust Here

Our halos fell off
Many long years ago, or
Perhaps never once
Were ours, here to wear, joy share;
Life is bizarre now, never
The things one expects,
Disorganized, time of plague.
Disaster movies
Did not well prepare us all;
Constant stress, no withdrawal.
Government, all states
Of confusion, shattered gates,
Disillusion where
Clear-eyed justice is sorely
Needed in citizens’ control.
Pandemic, if we
Can believe it, some less so,
Numbers rising much
Higher, how can anyone
Deny contagion, people die.
If you love someone
Do not hesitate to tell
How much you love, care,
For as these days go onward
We can on little depend
Even less believe
In temporal existence;
We lack any guarantees.
Still, God sovereign reigns,
Even in this mess, we find rest,
When we share our love
With those who need to know all
Is not lost, for together
We will build futures,
Shoring up the brokenness
Living better than before.

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.