Poetry Dowsing Week Six: Uncovering A Sense of Resolve

This is a weekly exercise for a 12 week program for creative exploration and self care. A new exercise will be posted each week for the duration of the program. All post titles are matched up to the chapter names in Julia Cameron’s book “Finding Water”, which is our source text. Please read Poetry Dowsing: A Path to Your Creative Well for more information.

Week Six Intentions

This week we’re going to focus on the ‘work’. This means doing some grounding and focusing on our resolve to move our creativity forward. When things seem to get muddled and chaotic this week, let’s take a moment for a gentle reminder that we are walking down the path of resolve.

A personal note about resolve

Resolve is easy for me in the beginning of a project. I’m always so full of fire for this new, great idea. But, there are lots of great ideas and only so much time. Sometimes, that can cause me to throw up my hands in the swirl of creativity and I become like a cork bobbing in the ocean waves. I swim from one place to another until I am tired and then I let the waves take me where they will. That can work, if it leads me toward a destination. But far too often, I float off course into other great ideas and I lose my resolve for the ‘big idea’ I started out chasing.

Additionally, the little things of life pull me off course with their gentle urgency. Sometimes, I tell myself that I will begin writing after I finish the laundry. Then that laundry needs to be folded and put away, oh and maybe I should change the sheets and air out the bedroom. When I open the window, I suddenly notice a layer of dust on the sill, so that becomes a task, too. Several tasks down the line I think about that writing I wanted to do. I tell myself I will start fresh tomorrow. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don’t.

When I read this chapter of Finding Water, I was suddenly impressed with a very simple notion. If small actions could pull me off course so easily, then small actions could keep me on course, as well. This week I am working small and remembering that creative moves don’t always have to be so grandiose to keep moving me forward on my artistic path.

This week’s dowsing exercise

This week we’re going to look closely at our immediate surroundings. Often, I think we can feel like we have to go to far off places for inspiration. Sometimes writers are advised to write what they know. I believe that a lot of times, we don’t even know what we know. No matter what our situation might be, we all have things around us that beckon us to notice them. Sometimes these are beautiful things, sometimes they aren’t.

No matter what those things are, they can be a treasure trove for your writing. This week, take a look around your neighbourhood. If you’re able to get out and walk in it, so much the better. Imagine you are going to write a poem about your surroundings. Create a list of five interesting details that you would include in a poem (or several poems).  For extra credit, write a poem using at least one of your details.

This week’s quote:

“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.”

-Helen Keller

 

Important reminders

• This process centers on recovery and self care in regard to your creative self. Be gentle!
• Make adjustments as needed, you know yourself best and your positive mental health is paramount.
• Commit to using your basic tools of Morning Pages, Artist Dates and Walks.
• Sharing is not mandatory, but we’d love to share the journey with you! Tag all posts regarding these exercises as #PoetryDowsing so we can support you within the Twitter community.