Friday

CREATIVE SOULFULNESS

What inspires you? Of all the activities you're able to do, which is it that compels, motivates, or drives you? You know what I'm talking about--what really gets your creative, competitive, or compassionate juices flowing?

Is it travel or cooking? Discovering or sharing something new? Building or taking something apart?

And how much time do you actually spend doing this thing that energizes your body, mind, spirit, or all three?

Does it involve animals or people? Music or art? Is it more a practicing and acting out, or a contemplating and be-ing within? Participating or observiing, serving or receiving? Sorting and finding relationships among things, or building and attending to relationships with others?

What would you have to do to spend even an extra hour a day doing this activity that would enrich your life and, most probably, the lives of those who love and are loved by you? Think about it.
For your journal or discussion. On Perspective:
(Nuestra Madonna de la Smithsonia)

What's it like to be

1. the new kid?
2. the mouse caught by the cat?
3. the artist at the gallery opening?
4. the tourist or the sales clerk at a strange gift shop in a far away land?
5. the hiker fallen into a ravine or the rescuer approaching the precipice?

What do they perceive, think, feel?

In Carolyn Kizer's book, THEODORE ROETHKE--On Poetry & Craft, the author reveals that Roethke said many useful things in his classes. He urged his students to "think of a poem as a three-act play, where you move from one impulse to the next, and a final breath."

For Southern and Central California poets and artists, two readings you might appreciate:

9/8, 2:00, Avenue 50 Studios, Highland Park
9/14, 4:00, Granada Books (the new bookstore), Santa Barbara (on State St., Downtown).