I warned you there would be more love poems.
Today marks another massive benchmark on this journey. We are now officially one month in to The Everyday Poet challenge. 31 days down and 31 poems written.
This one’s for my bride, whose love and support make me so much more.
If you are a creative and you have not read The War of Art, I highly encourage you to do so. The author speaks of the enemy of creatives and calls it “resistance.” I was thinking on it today as I push myself to create more and more works.
What is your motivation? Is it powerful enough to light a fire inside of you to overcome the inertia called fear that life throws at us? If I could, I would burn away all trace of lethargy and hesitation from myself and hurl my energies into the act of creation.
Fear shall not paralyze me not kill my desire. I invite all who read this to join me in the quest to find the origin of our will power and with it, the agency to achieve.
Had some interesting thoughts about the nature of thought, the transformation of thought into action, the process that undergoes, and how the way we choose to think, the thoughts that we focus on and allow ourselves to have, shape who we are and what we are capable of. While dwelling on this I reread Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and the idea of thoughts following highways in our brains that we have constructed occurred to me. Hardly a new concept but it stuck with me and insisted upon being today’s subject.
Saw a pair of birds of prey fighting over the lot where I walk my dog. Graceful and fascinating. I really need to learn how to identify birds. One was smaller and white with a long tail white the other was bigger with banded wings and tail and a darn head. They inspired today’s poem.
Some very sweet coworkers insisted that I have some of their delicious food during our break. I’ve never had a healthy, Iranian cake before. Delicious! And it got me thinking about the underrated sense of taste and under appreciated muscle responsible for it. Truly remarkable when you consider how much the song does for us.
I read a fascinating article the other day about a scientist in trouble in China for editing several embryos so that the children were immune to HIV. A brought this article up to an acquaintance who was shocked that the man was not in trouble simply for the fact that he had genetically modified human children (one set of twins has already been born) but because China has a strict policy against allowing carriers of HIV to have children. In his words, the man was tampering with God’s design. I have my own opinions on genetic manipulation and I have a hard time seeing it as “evil.” Thanks to this scientist there are now at least two people in the world who will NEVER have to suffer HIV. To me, that speaks of blessing, not blasphemy.
It does raise questions though. How long before genetic alterations become common place? How will we use this new technology? How will we abuse it? It’s coming one way or another.
I hate not feeling well. It’s like there’s a disconnect between my brain and the rest of my facilities that makes the entire creative machine malfunction. Hard to think, you know? So I’m feeling especially pleased with myself for cranking today’s poem out in spite of that.
I read an article on hypocognition yesterday that brought me back to some of my time in the classroom where we discussed the idea of the connection between words and concepts. For example, when you say “chair” what comes to mind? It’s not necessarily the same image or concept of a chair that comes to my mind. And what about stories and humor? How often do we lose things in translation or find that there is no significant equivalent in our language or another? Colors, concepts, even emotions–how many different forms of love are there?
Food for thought.
Wow, we passed the three week mark and didn’t even notice. Someone somewhere once said it takes 21 days to make something a habit. Here’s to making poetry a regular part of everyday living.
On the subject of everyday living, this morning has found me contemplating geography, familial relationships, networking, and the relationship we as a people, arguably as a species, now share with technology. Information always at our fingertips. Platforms selling connections rather than services. Social networks. Businesses that span globes.
It’s all so amorphous isn’t it? No less powerful for it, simply different. Arguably more powerful for the sheer amount of connections and information we’ve enabled ourselves to have access to. How on earth could we explain this modern phenomenon to someone thirty, or even twenty, years ago? More relevant, less philosophical question: where are we going with it?
The Everyday Poet 