Hello folks! We have officially entered the second half of our Writing month - which means we are focusing on the creative practice of Poetry and the quality of Mystery.
Creative prompt 2: Poetry and Mystery
Your creative task:
Create a piece of poetic writing that taps into your intuition. Take the risk of creating something you do not fully understand.
Your life prompt:
Where is mystery moving through your life? How does it feel to stop looking for explanations for those things?
A project idea to get started:
If you’re already someone with an existing poetry practice, I would imagine you may already have a challenge in mind.
But if you’re new to this area, don’t be intimidated!
The first step is just to dip your toe in the water in whatever way feels comfortable for you.
I’ll be sending out some additional project ideas in the next couple of days, but I wanted to start with offering one that is a particularly great starting point...
This is a great moment to reconnect with your reflective practice (journal, video diary, etc) - because when we enter the realm of mystery, interesting things can start to unfold. And having a way to track and process that inspiration can be particularly valuable.
So try this…
Journal in poetry.
Let the words flow out in strange fragments - capture images, play with punctuation, dive into the sensory experience of your life.
This is actually my preferred way to journal now, although it came out of a moment of true desperation. About a year and a half ago, I was in a particularly difficult moment of distress - the kind that leaves you on your knees in a way you thought only happened in movies (until suddenly, it is you).
I tried to journal, and what came out instead ended up being poetry. And it released me from some of the thought loops I had been getting stuck inside during my journalling up to that point.
In that moment, I couldn’t string together linear thoughts, but it still helped me so much to have a way to record my experience. The fragmentary nature was so true to my internal experience at that time. And while most of what came out was just noise, I actually found a few gems in there that I could develop into something more polished once I had enough emotional distance to be ready for this.
The thing to keep in mind is this:
Sometimes, the main goal is to try to capture our experience, rather than try to to understand it.
In this video…
This video introduces us to poetry and mystery, introducing some of the central ideas we will be sitting with over the next couple of weeks.
This touches on:
Asking ourselves ‘what is is a poem?’
Engaging with expressive and symbolic language
Shaking off ‘rules’ in how we engage with language
Writing to engage our senses more deeply
Opacity vs transparency in making art
Making room for the things in life that do not make sense / letting go of the need for rational explanation
Feeling self-conscious about writing poetically
Ideas for where to start engaging with poetry
Welcome the unexpected!
Uncertainty can be frightening and destabilising - but alternatively, living in harmony with the unknown gives us an environment that is full of possibility.
Who knows what can happen in the next two weeks if we choose to make room for mystery?
(If anything interesting happens for you, I’d love to hear about it if you want to post a comment or drop me a message!)
Thanks again for joining me on this journey!
If you know someone you think would enjoy The Total Artist, please do forward this prompt to them. Art is always more fun when we are creating together!
For now,
Alli
Access Support: If you have access needs that I’m not currently meeting, please do drop me a line! (The best email is contact@ac-smith.com.) I’d really like to make this project available to anyone who wants to participate.
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