I love all of this....the vulnerability and humility required to ask 'who am I' while knowing there may never be an answer....and yet the asking IS the answer.
Funny that you quote Rick Rubin...I'm currently reading his book!
If your mirror is momentarily a window, then I am standing on the other side of the pane waving hello at you , beckoning you to just come outside and play. Eventually, you'll need to go back inside for rest and solitude and contemplation. Knowing the truth that both actions are leading you more into balance and wholeness...bringing you closer to being who you are. ❤️
Thanks Jacqueline! Rubin’s book is a gem. Thanks for mentioning play! I deliberately put the picture of the child on an empty bus for that reason. My biggest challenge is I seem to not allow myself to play at times. After all we are souls seeking out a human experience? Thank you for reading and reaching out. 🙏❤️
"My biggest challenge is I seem to not allow myself to play at times."
I get this- which is why last year my touchstone word was PLAY. And boy did it guide me to let go, not take things too seriously, and create without expectations. It really did the trick for me. After all, Source has a cosmic sense of humour~ clearly evidenced by the natural tendency of animals to play. ❤️
An endless "to do" list seems to masterfully squeeze out time-space to play - that in itself should tell us something. Play is definitely a doorway to tapping into creativity beyond the rational.
Beautiful! I hear you, swimming in the ocean of words can often feel lonely, it is hard to feel our own wave when we are the wave that creates the ripples. Keep going! You are an amazing poet and writer and your words surely transformed me. 💕🙏 I'm endlessly grateful for your bravery to put your words out! We don't create to get something, we create because we are.
Thanks Sadhbh. Poetry is inquiry for me. We are the drop in the ocean. As a human its nice to taste it sometimes and feel that ripple. The words keep calling I just set them free. Thanks for your kind words. There is a small wave of support here that is a gift. We all definitely create because we are! Well said. Bless you. 🙏❤️
Why we write, create and make worlds unknown is often asked of us and by us. We have many reasons, Jamie, as we are all individuals on a quest for understanding. This takes a lifetime; it is a journey that only ends when we close our eyes.
Passion is Suffering and it is the lot of the Artist. Poetry is Prophecy and no one wants that job. It is thankless. The message is never welcome.
I write to rediscover a younger self who was truly happier than he thought and yet took a different path to conform. He got lost in this foreign world that he thought he could learn to live in, and he now share the pain of not fitting in, and to heal in this sharing. There is mixed in beauty, love and awe of Nature, which provides the healing.
We write because every once in a while we get the glimpses of the truth, the healing takes effect and we see a little more clearly. There is no program, no religion, no ideology, no tricks. There is only the journey that each of us must take.
Pure poetry Perry. I once chose the safety of science ahead of the mystery of that Poeisis. Poetry came back to find me. This second mountain is a gift. The journey. Always fractal. Those small glimpses of soul carry us home. Bless you. 🙏❤️
Beautiful words here, Jamie. Your anguish and ambivalence over writing are well expressed here. And that’s what being a good writer is all about—being able to express your emotions and experiences in such an evocative manner!!
This is beautiful, and forcing us all to look inward and question why we create and write; the struggle between making a thing people will like and saying what is in our hearts. Thank you for these thought provoking words, I love the poem and that you opened with it today. Thank you, Jamie ❤️
Thanks Jenn. Definitely seems to be a journey from Imitation to creation as a poet. I’ve never been a painter or a visual artist and I wonder if it’s the same? Bless you 🙏❤️
Thanks Veronika. It’s definitely a cuoreodyssey! We are the poem. In the end the words write us. Bless you. Sometimes I just forget to let the flow of the tide take me and I try to swim against the undertow.
That’s just a maze and letting go into the spiral 🌀 of the labyrinth guides back to the eye of this storm. 🙏❤️
Beautiful words and ideas! I've been mulling the same questions. After studying music all my life, it became sucked dry by the academy. Writing is the vehicle I've been using to explore these questions. I don't identify as a "writer" so I feel free to make mistakes. I don't feel my sense of purpose tied to "you're only as good as your last gig"--I'm just clanking on a keyboard and letting what wants out out.
It's easy to forget why we do what we do. Thank you for your wonderful reminder. Cheers.
Thanks Will! Once we label ourselves anything we lose some of that wild invitation just to be. Judgement seems to arrive with the labels. Living into the questions might just be the journey in itself and of itself. Keep clanking away. If we all just inspire one other person to one day read out loud what we shared just think what that ripple could create. Bless you and thank you so much for reaching out. 🙏❤️🌀
I’d rather bleed slow out on the serrated edges of any box and label. Out on the edges we can see the horizon of possibility. Enjoy the music that those words bring. Keep writing. We need you.
Beautiful Jamie. I so relate to this. The courage of putting ourselves out there. Trying not to think about end results or views. Coming back constantly to that "wonderful state" of flow and heart and soul. To me that is the ultimate space to be in. I love what you do here. Keep doing it for you not for anyone else. The "everyone else" will naturally fall into place. 🙏
Thanks Jo! That’s all we can ever do in the end. Sometimes I forget. In that poetry I witness my own unfolding. Thanks for being here and for reaching out. Bless you. Enjoy that autumn. 🙏❤️
"...ripping growth out on the serrated edges of being."
Grabbed me Jamie. I began to write my way out of heavy grief (from 2020-2022) and believe I found I've been grieving my whole life, since waving goodbye to my family, as a little girl, immigrating to America. I think you just helped me completely admit that right (write) here.
In my opinion, beyond recognition or connecting with other souls or any other motivation, poetry is some sort of itch. When you have mixt feelings about it, try retreating into your own mind for a while (a period as long as necessary to become relevant) and see if you can refrain yourself from writing. The answer is there in your heart, I’m sure.
To be honest I admire a bit the writers before Internet era. They were there isolated with their own minds and a piece of paper in front of them for as long as necessary to assemble a book. No feedback, no external encouragements, nothing. Only them, alone on a path of their own.
What I clumsily try to say is trust your heart and write (for you write well). Ignore the outside noise, ignore the need to give your urge a meaning. Follow your intuition, for that is enough
Thanks Ethan. I totally resonate and scratch that itch as it arrives! We write because we have to. Heart and intuition write the way. Thanks for bearing witness to a path that is always our own. When it feels forced a little retreat is spiritual medicine indeed. Bless you. Thanks so much for reaching out. 🙏❤️
I really enjoyed the poem. It captures so well the experience of the artist's/writer's journey. In the end I always feel something greater than us wants to express itself, and we can choose to have the privilege of 'joining in' the process, come what may - or block it and feel even more miserable! 🙃
Thanks Josh. Creativity moves in mysterious ways. It definitely never leaves us where it found us. Hope that gardening is going well and the harvest of your efforts is flowing. Thank you so much for reaching out. 🙏❤️
‘I put the book together to release and free the words that consumed me. The words that I never wanted to die with me in the fire.’ I understand this feeling … your writing is a gift to yourself and to us.
Keep putting your words out, never doubt, in fact shout, tell us what it’s all about… my own little poem - be encouraged🫣😉❤️
Play what is play play feels play touches play eats play makes love play is a feeling play is being charmed sitting in my armchair playing with you razzed by Jamie
I have a superpower my imagination I play and pray I see that tree over there waving and dancing in the blustery west wind the wind is playing the tree is playing a song and I am waning crescent in a playful mood watchful for play and wired playfully wise
I love all of this....the vulnerability and humility required to ask 'who am I' while knowing there may never be an answer....and yet the asking IS the answer.
Funny that you quote Rick Rubin...I'm currently reading his book!
If your mirror is momentarily a window, then I am standing on the other side of the pane waving hello at you , beckoning you to just come outside and play. Eventually, you'll need to go back inside for rest and solitude and contemplation. Knowing the truth that both actions are leading you more into balance and wholeness...bringing you closer to being who you are. ❤️
Thanks Jacqueline! Rubin’s book is a gem. Thanks for mentioning play! I deliberately put the picture of the child on an empty bus for that reason. My biggest challenge is I seem to not allow myself to play at times. After all we are souls seeking out a human experience? Thank you for reading and reaching out. 🙏❤️
You're so welcome, my friend.
"My biggest challenge is I seem to not allow myself to play at times."
I get this- which is why last year my touchstone word was PLAY. And boy did it guide me to let go, not take things too seriously, and create without expectations. It really did the trick for me. After all, Source has a cosmic sense of humour~ clearly evidenced by the natural tendency of animals to play. ❤️
Source laughs hard! I am learning to laugh with her and at my “self” as well! Bless you! 🙏❤️Thank you!
Oh I totally relate to this! I over and over realise how we unlearn to play when we get older!
An endless "to do" list seems to masterfully squeeze out time-space to play - that in itself should tell us something. Play is definitely a doorway to tapping into creativity beyond the rational.
Beautiful! I hear you, swimming in the ocean of words can often feel lonely, it is hard to feel our own wave when we are the wave that creates the ripples. Keep going! You are an amazing poet and writer and your words surely transformed me. 💕🙏 I'm endlessly grateful for your bravery to put your words out! We don't create to get something, we create because we are.
Thanks Sadhbh. Poetry is inquiry for me. We are the drop in the ocean. As a human its nice to taste it sometimes and feel that ripple. The words keep calling I just set them free. Thanks for your kind words. There is a small wave of support here that is a gift. We all definitely create because we are! Well said. Bless you. 🙏❤️
Why we write, create and make worlds unknown is often asked of us and by us. We have many reasons, Jamie, as we are all individuals on a quest for understanding. This takes a lifetime; it is a journey that only ends when we close our eyes.
Passion is Suffering and it is the lot of the Artist. Poetry is Prophecy and no one wants that job. It is thankless. The message is never welcome.
I write to rediscover a younger self who was truly happier than he thought and yet took a different path to conform. He got lost in this foreign world that he thought he could learn to live in, and he now share the pain of not fitting in, and to heal in this sharing. There is mixed in beauty, love and awe of Nature, which provides the healing.
We write because every once in a while we get the glimpses of the truth, the healing takes effect and we see a little more clearly. There is no program, no religion, no ideology, no tricks. There is only the journey that each of us must take.
Pure poetry Perry. I once chose the safety of science ahead of the mystery of that Poeisis. Poetry came back to find me. This second mountain is a gift. The journey. Always fractal. Those small glimpses of soul carry us home. Bless you. 🙏❤️
Yes fitting in and standing out. It seems like an inevitable journey as Jamie would say from imitation to creation. 🙏💕
Beautiful words here, Jamie. Your anguish and ambivalence over writing are well expressed here. And that’s what being a good writer is all about—being able to express your emotions and experiences in such an evocative manner!!
Thanks Bethel! Its a blessing and a curse 🙏❤️
This is beautiful, and forcing us all to look inward and question why we create and write; the struggle between making a thing people will like and saying what is in our hearts. Thank you for these thought provoking words, I love the poem and that you opened with it today. Thank you, Jamie ❤️
Thanks Jenn. Definitely seems to be a journey from Imitation to creation as a poet. I’ve never been a painter or a visual artist and I wonder if it’s the same? Bless you 🙏❤️
I think so, and also the struggle to create something you think will be well received and whatever is in your heart. Bless you, Jamie.
oh, the writer's odyssey in search of islands of self
circling around being "in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable..."
through the ebbs and tides of the creative flow.
Thank you Jamie 💙🙏
We are the story and the quest (I picked that up from you)
Thanks Veronika. It’s definitely a cuoreodyssey! We are the poem. In the end the words write us. Bless you. Sometimes I just forget to let the flow of the tide take me and I try to swim against the undertow.
That’s just a maze and letting go into the spiral 🌀 of the labyrinth guides back to the eye of this storm. 🙏❤️
Beautiful words and ideas! I've been mulling the same questions. After studying music all my life, it became sucked dry by the academy. Writing is the vehicle I've been using to explore these questions. I don't identify as a "writer" so I feel free to make mistakes. I don't feel my sense of purpose tied to "you're only as good as your last gig"--I'm just clanking on a keyboard and letting what wants out out.
It's easy to forget why we do what we do. Thank you for your wonderful reminder. Cheers.
Thanks Will! Once we label ourselves anything we lose some of that wild invitation just to be. Judgement seems to arrive with the labels. Living into the questions might just be the journey in itself and of itself. Keep clanking away. If we all just inspire one other person to one day read out loud what we shared just think what that ripple could create. Bless you and thank you so much for reaching out. 🙏❤️🌀
Absolutely, the weight of the label is a double edge sword.
I’d rather bleed slow out on the serrated edges of any box and label. Out on the edges we can see the horizon of possibility. Enjoy the music that those words bring. Keep writing. We need you.
Right back at ya :)
Beautiful Jamie. I so relate to this. The courage of putting ourselves out there. Trying not to think about end results or views. Coming back constantly to that "wonderful state" of flow and heart and soul. To me that is the ultimate space to be in. I love what you do here. Keep doing it for you not for anyone else. The "everyone else" will naturally fall into place. 🙏
Thanks Jo! That’s all we can ever do in the end. Sometimes I forget. In that poetry I witness my own unfolding. Thanks for being here and for reaching out. Bless you. Enjoy that autumn. 🙏❤️
"...ripping growth out on the serrated edges of being."
Grabbed me Jamie. I began to write my way out of heavy grief (from 2020-2022) and believe I found I've been grieving my whole life, since waving goodbye to my family, as a little girl, immigrating to America. I think you just helped me completely admit that right (write) here.
Beautiful Deb! Somehow we are all on substack for a reason too! Bless you and thank you 🙏❤️
We are! I adore you Jamie!
Thanks Deb right back at you
"...ripping growth out on the serrated edges of being." How true is that?!!
Thanks Muriel! It’s a slow bleed. Thanks so much for reading and reaching out. 🙏❤️
In my opinion, beyond recognition or connecting with other souls or any other motivation, poetry is some sort of itch. When you have mixt feelings about it, try retreating into your own mind for a while (a period as long as necessary to become relevant) and see if you can refrain yourself from writing. The answer is there in your heart, I’m sure.
To be honest I admire a bit the writers before Internet era. They were there isolated with their own minds and a piece of paper in front of them for as long as necessary to assemble a book. No feedback, no external encouragements, nothing. Only them, alone on a path of their own.
What I clumsily try to say is trust your heart and write (for you write well). Ignore the outside noise, ignore the need to give your urge a meaning. Follow your intuition, for that is enough
Thanks Ethan. I totally resonate and scratch that itch as it arrives! We write because we have to. Heart and intuition write the way. Thanks for bearing witness to a path that is always our own. When it feels forced a little retreat is spiritual medicine indeed. Bless you. Thanks so much for reaching out. 🙏❤️
It is a familiar question and a lovely and resonant post. Thank you Jamie.
Thans Terra 🙏❤️
Beautiful. It’s very good to discover your work and to “meet you where you are.
Thanks Andrew 🙏❤️
I really enjoyed the poem. It captures so well the experience of the artist's/writer's journey. In the end I always feel something greater than us wants to express itself, and we can choose to have the privilege of 'joining in' the process, come what may - or block it and feel even more miserable! 🙃
Thanks Josh. Creativity moves in mysterious ways. It definitely never leaves us where it found us. Hope that gardening is going well and the harvest of your efforts is flowing. Thank you so much for reaching out. 🙏❤️
‘I put the book together to release and free the words that consumed me. The words that I never wanted to die with me in the fire.’ I understand this feeling … your writing is a gift to yourself and to us.
Keep putting your words out, never doubt, in fact shout, tell us what it’s all about… my own little poem - be encouraged🫣😉❤️
Thanks Alice! Bless you 🙏❤️
Play what is play play feels play touches play eats play makes love play is a feeling play is being charmed sitting in my armchair playing with you razzed by Jamie
I have a superpower my imagination I play and pray I see that tree over there waving and dancing in the blustery west wind the wind is playing the tree is playing a song and I am waning crescent in a playful mood watchful for play and wired playfully wise
Soul Poetry! I’ll definitely play between the words! Thank you so much Geraldine! It’s all just one big play. Thanks for reaching out. Bless you! 🙏❤️🌀