Today's Writing Prompt: Where are you, Muse? I know you are with me when.....
Welcome to And Now You Write. We are grateful you are here today to write alongside us. If this is your first visit: hooray! This is the just right time for you to start.
Before you read the lesson, allow the prompt of the day to seep into your mind. Don't actively seek the words yet, instead allow it to just be there, settling into your mind, as you go through the lesson itself.
Daily Writing Teleconference Sessions will be held through November 3 as usual including weekends at 8:30 AM Pacific time and will go until right about 9 AM Pacific time. It may be accessed by dialing (712) 432 3100 conference code 440137. I look forward to connecting with each and all of you!
Write along with the audio now:
It surprised me to discover we have two weeks left.
Only two weeks left of "And Now You Write."
There are several reasons to be excited about this: let's try this one on for size.
Two weeks is a short amount of time. It is do-able. It is the "Sure, I can commit to two weeks!" when seven weeks sounds like such a long, long time.t
For those of us who have been writing consistently, it is about staying the course.
For those of us who are new, it is time to devote ourselves to the course.
For all of us, it is time to find our muse and and to court our muse, actively. To be awake to our muse's directives.
It is akin to the life force Martha Graham describes so famously:
"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is a divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
our Muse is powerful, like Jodi's Goddess of Now.
We need to agree to be host to our Muse, our life force. We must allow this presence, this willingness to open ourselves so much that it simply becomes who we are, who are being every moment of everyday. We need to issue an invitation to our Muse daily. We need to have a writing and creative life that invites our Muse to flex her creative might, to bring out words that have meaning, that have joy, that are passionate and insist on being written. Weasel like, will never let you go and never allow you to let go of the act of writing, never let go of the beauty in your words, the truth in your words, the YOU in your words.
A poem I wrote several weeks ago:
Where art thou, Muse?
Hidden in a haiku line or
woven into a pantoum's sweater
There, your shadow is showing
underneath the essay's hook
I read of you in that three
year old letter I thought
I had mailed or lost
I think I heard your call
in the song of the journeying
bird or perhaps on that worn,
leather patch on the bikers back pack
Yesterday I felt your presence
in the graffitti scrawling, slopping
on the women's room stall
My pencil hesitates to move
to stay this bumpy, nearly
invisible course
It is easier to claim
it is too dark to see
I wonder was it you
who left? That's the
song I sing but
a new verse wants to
be written suddenly breaks free
saying it was I who turned
my back on thee.
Where art thou, Muse?
For the next two weeks, our call is to be host to our Muse consistently and lovingly.
This has the foundation of being the most productive writing time you have ever had. Remain open to that over the days that come. If you find yourself feeling stuck, go back to one of the lessons, randomly, and write from the prompt, again.
Try a weekend prompt, perhaps, which you haven't attempted yet.
Simply write.
Write.
One thing I learned about Martha Graham when I studied her life several years ago: when she was choreographing a new dance, she would surround herself with meaningful quotes and readings just as we do here. Let's repeat her words before we begin to write. Allow her words to fill you, from the soles of your feet to your belly and then up your spine into your arms and fingers and hands as you write.
"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is a divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
Today's Writing Prompt: Where are you, Muse? I know you are with me when.....
Add a link to any blog entries you write which relate back to our writing prompts. We would love to read your words.
If this is your first visit, you may "officially" JOIN OUR ADVENTURE IN WRITING -
Sign up here to receive daily lessons.
(Required fields are bold)
 |
I am so grateful to be writing together with you.
If you are interested in firing up your writing even more, please visit the Page for "And Now You Write: Premium Program."
I write because something inside demands I take pen to paper or hand to keyboard and put these mental impressions that occur down somewhere. I write because someplace deep inside there is some story waiting to get out. I write because when I look out my window I don't just see "trees," and "grass" and "birds." I see soft golden sunlight filtering through the leaves of the neighbors sycamore, backlighting the large spider web on their flying goose weather vane. I hear a thrush singing joyously, telling the world how glorious this new day is. I smell damp grass and wet dog fur after my cocker spaniel walks through the door. I see the roses, slightly opened, dew glinting from their pink and cream petals. I write because that is how Spirit expresses through me as Itself.
Earlier their was a prompt about "what if" this flowed in response over the weekend
I fear
if I let go of the safety cord I will float away
and disappear
because there is nothing
substantial to anchor me
here
I fear
if I throw the door open wide
instead of releasing magical dreams of wonderous journies
I will only find
emptiness
a void
I fear
if I dig down deep
in search of the buried treasure I always believed was there
I will instead find
delusion
the treasure simply illusion
I fear
if I try to pull back the layers in search of complexity
once past the protective outer skin
there will be nothing
just hallowness
within
I fear
I may be just a shell like so many others
buffeted by the waves washed up on the beach
empty
except for the sound of the sea
whispering of what once was
Do I dare dig deep?
Do I dare let go?
Do I dare throw open wide the doors?
Or shall I cling to fear
stay safely wrapped
trapped
inside my grey cocoon.
Posted by: Lstrouse2 | 10/20/2010 at 04:41 PM