Carolee Bennett –> poet. artist. crankypants.
The new approach is like sensible shoes: not quite as sexy but less pain, more mileage. At least that’s the idea. And so far, so good! I’ve been keeping up with art and writing by doing at least one small thing each day, and it’s helping me reconstruct the idea of myself as a poet and artist.
I took the summer off, almost entirely, from any of the familiar measures of writing productivity. Here’s what I did instead.
POETRY PROMPT / I introduce three poems by Ruth Madievsky — “Electron,” “Wormhole” and “Tuning Fork” — and invite you to use them as inspiration for your own drafts.
Since my style is associative and imagistic, I’ve typically depended on being able to see the strange places things intersect. Losing that spacial awareness, even metaphorically, has been quite challenging.
I’ve been think a lot recently about the idea of safety. Specifically how powerful it is to turn to someone and say, “You make me feel safe.” To trust them fully. And at the same time how important it is to learn to how to make my own kind of safety. A deep breath. A lit candle. A good meal.
I was totally surprised when I started evaluating progress on my official 2016 writing /poetry goals. According to my mood related to writing in 2016, I believed I’d failed every goal I’d set. Turns out, I totally nailed it.
The Fast Company article says creative folks need three kinds of creative circles — a scene, a network and a community. No matter how you label your support system, I believe in what he has to say. I do think relationships balance out the solitary, internal work we’re called to do.