May 29, 2015

Open Yourself to Being Who You Were Always Meant to Be: Lost, Found & Letting Go

I call this style of poetry “black out poetry”.

Some call it “found poetry” and in this case, this poem definitely found me.

It practically leaped off the edge of the paper from a book I was reading.

I was at an indoor play space with my son, Samuel, a post Middle-School-Graduation fun time for him and for me, I sat in the section where many other parents were sitting. They were mostly just sitting, though, while I came prepared with journal and mixed media and a book to read.

I didn’t realize I would tear into the book, pull out a page and open myself up to a poem speaking to me from the page.

It is so simple yet complex, too.

It might even be considered shocking.

Please relax.

I died.

Femininity

betrayed.

Wha-wha-what?

Before I lose you completely, consider what aspect of your life would be better off left behind? I would be better off if my propensity for sweets died. That might seem like an exceptionally strong way to say it but why do we as a culture shy away from such words?

Death is as common as birth. Our society is exceptionally uncomfortable with death. I have experienced more deaths of loved ones than I care to catalogue, but one of the spaces of gratitude I hold for experiencing loss is I learn so much from it and I am a much stronger, more wise person because of it.

Additionally it is over and over again metaphorical deaths needs to happen in order for us to reach our next level of personal growth and develop.

It is with that realization I ask you:

What is it in your life that is ready to “be gone”? To leave? To pass from your life for good?

Who would you be if you finally let go, if you stopped holding on, if you opened yourself to the wonder of what wants to be born in you, newly?

I don’t want to feel betrayed by myself anymore. This is what the poem spoke to me right now, but I doubt the poem is finished speaking with me, actually.

Perhaps it has more layers for you as well.

Please relax, dear friends.

I’m changing, evolving, growing into who I was always meant to be just as you are changing, evolving and growing into who you were always meant to be.

I will no longer betray myself by pretending to be anyone except for exactly who I am and who I am meant to be as I pray you will, too.

That feels powerful.

What’s your story?

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in Spring, 2015 and beyond. To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.

Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!) Follow on Instagram

Posted at 09:46 PM in Living the Question, Poet, Poetry, Prayer | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 12, 2014

The Gift of Right Time, Right Place, Right Thing

Enjoy the path you are on: right place, right time, right thing.

"I am in the right place, in the right time, doing the right thing."

Louise Hay

I opened my email this morning to find a remarkable gift: a request from a person I do not know in Poland, asking for my expertise in the work of Rainer Rilke. Seriously? Me?

Sure, I have had an ongoing love affair with Rilke for more than fifteen years, but I am not a scholar in the conventional sense. I am a scholar of passion for life. Within that school, I have discovered the beyond words lovely grit that is Rainer Rilke.

My new friend had a simple request: a page of a poem in a book I had reviewed on Amazon. My new friend took a risk and emailed me with such a direct request. I didn't need an apology, I was too inspired at the thought of assisting a fellow lover of Rilke who was studying in Europe.

I drove my daughter to school thinking about Alice Walker's poem, Reassurance, inspired by Rilke. I watched the sunrise from my car. I chose a particularly seedy neighborhood where there are more drug addicts and prostitutes than Moms-of-ivy-league-students.

Rainer Rilke at his desk.

I was reminded everyone is offered the gift of sunrise every day, for free, no matter where they are or for that matter, what the weather may be.

I was in the right place at the right time when I wrote that review on Amazon many years ago. My words froze in that spot and connected with my pure delight today where I continue to live in the right place at the right time and am doing the right thing now.

Perfect.

=====

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at a First Friday soon, when it is warmer than it was in December!, in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

Posted at 08:38 AM in Be Here Now, Contemplate, Meditation, Poet, Poetry | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 28, 2013

The Return of Poetry: Another Late November Miracle

Miracles come in all shapes and sizes: Poetry Miracles, Surgery Miracles, Foggy Miracles, November Miracles

Finally through the fog, the poetry rises again --

Today as I left the grocery store parking lot I thought, “Where has my poetry gone?”

I had just met my friend, LisaAnn, in line and she had asked what I was up to right now. She has always been a “poetry friend” first and foremost. I see her and remember poetry performance.

I have gone through the longest spell of my life without doing any poetry performance and it is one of my very favorite activities. It is strangely beyond the word strange. I haven’t analyzed it primarily because I suppose I haven't wanted to think about it. I have noticed it but not enough to take action to change it.

I remember one of the first forty-two day programs I started more than ten years ago there was a phrase I used that became a catch phrase.

Three simple words: Start and continue.

Those are the words that flash into my head when I ask where my poetry has gone, knowing full well my poetry is always here, it is I who float away.

“You just have to put your pencil to paper” the thought reminded me as I purposefully drove to my home office, wanting to be sure I made it in time for my daily community writing sprint.

Fingers to the keyboard, music floating toward my center.

I write. My dear friend poetry arrived once I consciously issued the invitation:

Miracle reflection

Thin red line

shouting new life

though not as most

would claim it

“its a miracle”

I said, looking

at the stitches,

the residual blood,

the tiny dots

where threads

recently lived

my face

is more

me than

it has been

in more

than a year

No matter

what others

declare, it

is I who

felt battered

by the pulchritudinous

scar, slick so

makeup didn’t

stick like

many suggested

I try

So recent

two children

ran from

my sight

today - afraid

by my old new

face

the one

I refuse

to be

ashamed

to show

to use

to touch

to feel against

the chilly

winds of

this late

November

miracle

= = =

I recently had scar revision surgery to mend my melanoma scar. It took a long time and quite a bit of courage to go back in and get it done. I am so grateful I did. Less than one week after surgery, my doctor took out my sutures and said, "Ok, look in the mirror over there..."

I did.

The words, "Its a miracle!" flew from my mouth without thought. I've experienced many miracles recently. May miracles continue. for each and all of us.

=====

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

Posted at 11:00 AM in Poet, Poetry, Storytelling, Women Artists | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 11, 2013

Monday, Monday - Black Out Poetry & a Rag Rug in Progress, Again -

It is Monday, a school holiday for my children Monday. It feels a bit off. Wobbly feelings, however brought my favorite Black Out Poem ever. This is how it looks in the book and below, I will write out the words of the poem. (Some of them aren't as clearly "not blacked out" as I would like them to be!)

Page from Charlotte Perkins Gilman classic, "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Don't

He loves me very dearly

He said I wasn't able

John gathered me

carried me

sat by me

read to me

He said I must - -

>> ---<<

Braided strips of old sheets and fabric will become a circular rag rug.

Because of the 15 Minute Festive Fun cards I made yesterday, I scooped up some of my old rag rug sheets and braided some more. I realized as I braided these particular strands I didn't want to marry these in with all the others I have done and decided, instead, I would see these together at their ends and make a circular rug with them.

I love the colors! The fabric is a pink sheet, a Barbie sheet and some deep pink fabric that once belonged to my friend's mother.

It felt so good to be back with my rag rug making. I want to finish the one I started back in June - and set aside back in June - but I think I am making the right choice with the circular rug for these particular fabrics.

What is happening along your adventures in Art Every Day land?

>> -----<<

You may still join Art Every Day Month - Leah Piken Kolidas has been inspiring many of us for years! Check it out -

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

Posted at 07:59 AM in AEDM2013, Art Begets Art, Poetry, Self Care, Self Love, Time Management, Upcycling, Work in Progress | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

October 07, 2013

For Your Writing & Creative Inspiration: Alice Walker Quote + Questions + A Prompt

Each day, a quote, several questions and a writing prompt are offered to you to use for your personal and creative development. Enjoy!

Alice Walker, a prolific writer if ever I read one, has a poem I never found until today. It was written some time before 1990 which tells me she didn't follow the declaration she boldly gave to Poetry.

Thank goodness for the rest of us. It is something to think about, though, when we may have the desire to make such a declaration to any task that we believe once called us.

Quote: "I said to poetry, 'I'm finished with you." Alice Walker

Questions: Have you ever declared you were finished with something when you knew you really weren't? What did you do with or about it?

Is there something you quit that you want to begin again? What's stopping you?

Prompt: I thought was finished with _____, but I wasn't..........

Welcome to my seventh post (of 31!) for the October Ultimate Blog Challenge. Watch here for Your Writing & Creative Inspiration! Word-Love to YOU!

Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Posted at 03:12 PM in Literary Grannies, Literary Grannies from A to Z, Poet, Poetry, Writing, Writing Inspiration, Writing Practice, Writing Prompt, Writing tips | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 18, 2013

Being Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable with Not Having "THE" Answer

Hooray for writing a Poem. Hooray for not having a clear response to what it means, only fragments of it.

This morning I started collecting nuggets of beloved poems, more specifically tweetable nuggets. I need to keep room for the poet’s name as well, so the small morsel of a poem is smaller, even smaller still.

I read three poems by Lisel Miller this morning. This phrase is a standout to me:

“Speaking of marvels, I am alive
together with you, when I might have been
alive with anyone under the sun”

Today was ripe with reminders of deeply valued friendships, sacred friendships, sweeter than the smell of drying grass friendships. This tidbit of poetry reached into me and plucked at my heart’s harp strings.

Tonight after a bit of a struggle here at home over such mundane tasks it barely deserves a mention, yet it remains a part of this marvelous poetic experience.

Frags

“A poem wants to be written,”

My hands tell my gut and

my gut stays silent

"No words right now," hands translate.

"I'm feeling it but not enough to risk...

Hands don't get it.

They want to fly over the keyboard

take a pencil and scritch scratch wiggle

faint squiggles and call it "meaning" -

Cloaked risk is stronger

when the moon is just a

sliver in the sky

And Venus is nowhere to be seen –

= = =

You may ask me what this Frags poem means.

All I can say right now is this. Meaning has yet to show me her face. When she does, there may be more and there may be not. It may be years before my gut feels comfortable letting go of the risk and translating gently to me.

I also found some irony underneath the word "frag" - I chose it to be a fragment of the word "fragment" meaning not quite finished, but apparently it also means purposefully "taking out" someone in your own batallion. Perhaps a higher officer, but definitely a friend causing the death of a friend.

No, that isn't what I meant by "Frags".

Oh, and thank you, always, for reading. I don't have THE answer to what my meandering with words is about and you know what? That is perfectly fine for me as I trust it is perfectly fine with you, too.

+++++

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

Posted at 08:59 AM in Poetry, Writing, Writing Inspiration, Writing Practice, Writing tips | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 09, 2013

When Did It Begin to Shine Brightly?

Origami dresses with Emily Dickinson handwriting Chinese Lettering Dictionary Pages and Dr. Seuss

I'm sure you can see here how it is so easy to fall in love... over and over again

I have fallen in love again.

My fingers move across the page, folding, bending, tugging, pulling, coaxing. I find myself creating a different sort of word-love art and I find I can’t stop. These origami dresses are so beautiful to me it is as if I have given birth to an entire tribe of dresses that definitely feel sentient to me. Each one unique, I coo and cluck and giggle when they show their faces to me, complete, a surprising combination of words and images.

Right now as I type I have a square page waiting. A pair of scissors. A lot of desire. Dare I say lustfulness?

I’m not sure when I fell in love with book pages as an art medium.

I don’t think it was a happy accident because I’ve been doing it for a while now and it seems blurry – oh, yes. I remember. I was creating art for the Visible Poetics art show I curated? No, I used book pages, painted, because I didn’t like a book by Julia Kristeva. It was more of a textbook than I had hoped for, so in order to at least appreciate if not her tone, at least the content, I started to tear out the pages and paint them.

Origami Dress out of painted dictionary pages background is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Everything here was rescued from thrift stores and book sales. Love it!

Naturally, I started falling in love.

This morning when I was doing a spell check on her surname I found this quote which sounds so much like me I am shaking my head as I reiterate an important lesson: just because a person’s work doesn’t please you one time, do not write that person’s work off in a sweeping generalization of distaste. I mean, she wrote these words: “When the starry sky, a vista of open seas, or a stained-glass window shedding purple beams fascinate me, there is a cluster of meaning, of colors, of words, of caresses, there are light touches, scents, sighs, cadences that arise, shroud me, carry me away, and sweep me beyond the things I see, hear, or think, The "sublime" object dissolves in the raptures of a bottomless memory. It is such a memory, which, from stopping point to stopping point, remembrance to remembrance, love to love, transfers that object to the refulgent point of the dazzlement in which I stray in order to be.”

I have no idea what the word refulgent – a word in the paragraph above - means until now. In case you don’t either, it means “shining brightly”.

I made origami as a child. I think we attempted making paper cranes at some point but the only folded art I mastered were the fortune telling games we made and played for a season or two on the playground, asking our fingers questions based on number choices and usually involving whatever boy classmate we currently fancied.

Now origami and specifically origami word-love dresses have helped me fall even deeper in love with words, with art, with the surprises inherent in putting words and art together into what is primarily a mundane subject.

I can’t help myself.

None of it seems at all mundane to me.

I’m in love.

= = = = =

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

Posted at 09:31 AM in Art Begets Art, Poetry, This Sensational Life, Upcycling, Word-Love | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)

July 11, 2013

Why You Should Love Your Literary Grannies: Meet Harriet Monroe

Love Your Literary Grannies: Today, we feature a tiny snippet about Harriet Monroe!

The name “Harriet Monroe” probably means nothing to you.

I knew I needed to feature her as a literary granny after reading her name over and over again and then realizing the impact she had on the rising popularity of new poetry, especially new and cutting edge poetry, is unmatched by anyone of either gender.

Harriet Monroe was the founding editor of Poetry Magazine. In a time of slumping subscriptions, her magazine continues to thrive and recently celebrated its 100^th anniversary.

Miss Monroe worked for two years with no salary and continued to work during those two years as an art critic for the Chicago Tribune. When her work load became too heavy, she spent many years working for a minimal salary simply because she felt her work – and the importance of sharing poetic voices which might not have been heard without Poetry Magazine was of utmost importance.

I didn’t want to write a profile without reading more in depth of her life.

Harriet Monroe - today's lovely literary granny early in her career.

I discovered she wrote an autobiography. I discovered it was out of print. I discovered it on a used book website. I bought a first edition for a very low price and was rarely as excited to get a book in the mail as I was for this one.

I am reading it slowly, many parts aloud, so I can get a feeling for the sound of her voice. There are few activities I enjoy as much as reading aloud and being read to, aloud. I don’t want to wait to introduce her to you, my dear readers. Just know there will be more coming in the future.

She was a poet herself, but her greatest contribution to the literary world was her magazine.

Laura Ingram in the Dictionary of Literary Biography wrote this of Miss Monroe’s legacy: "The abundant richness of this movement might well have been less spectacular without the encouragement and vitality which Poetry offered in those years when young poets were seeking to break the bonds of traditionalism and to create a new poetic voice for the modern age."

Her editorial policy was quoted in the second edition: “"Open Door will be the policy of this magazine—may the great poet we are looking for never find it shut, or half-shut, against his ample genius! To this end the editors . . . desire to print the best English verse which is being written today, regardless of where, by whom, or under what theory of art it is written."

Pages from the First Volume of "Poetry" magazine

Without Harriet Monroe, poetry was dwindling in popularity. I am sure it would delight her to see poetry continues to be alive and well and hopefully will become even more alive and even more well known as we get to know our literary grannies, poetic and prosody and all other forms of writing as well.

I’ve barely started her memoir and yesterday I giggled about her correspondence with Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island and others. Usually I am all about literary grannies in April during A to Z, but since I got sidetracked then, I’m writing some additional profiles this July.

It’s important we know who came before us in the writing world – for all creative people, including you!

Enjoy this meandering throughout July – please let me know of any Grannies I should research and build a relationship with as well. I’m grateful, always, for your input.

= = = = =

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

Posted at 09:45 AM in Literary Grannies, Literary Grannies from A to Z, Literary History, Poetry, Women in Literary History, Women in Literary History from A to Z, Women's Sphere | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

June 26, 2013

To See Heaven (or a Creative Solution) in a Wildflower

Do you love inspirational quotes and images like I do?

I started a series featuring William Blake poetry and my images to assist you in your business and creative life. While you may use these images as simply for pleasure, I

"To See Heaven in a Wildflower" William Blake - Poetry image + Creativy Prompt

also suggest you spend a smidge of time (only 5 minutes) mindfully gazing at the photo and quote.

I’ll be doing the same with this quote and image, but more importantly, I look forward to what YOU do with this poetry and image.

If you would like examples before you begin, here you go. Please return here to do your contemplative time. After all, it could change the way you live or do business or even how you feel about the way you live or do business.

Click here for an explanation of the process.

Click here to see where the original quote and image took me creatively.

I’ll be doing the same with this quote and image, but more importantly, I look forward to what YOU do with this poetry and image.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

Posted at 02:58 PM in Creativity, Living the Question, Poet, Poetry, Writing Practice, Writing Prompt | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 23, 2013

Follow Up: Writing From William Blake & a Grain of Sand (Part One)

Follow up on this image/writing prompt I posted yesterday:

- 7 Steps and 10 Minutes to Your Creative Breakthrough -

When I wrote, I didn't use the question that is perplexing me, but later today, I will repeat the process using that scenario. Right now, I was simply listening and observing the message from the sand to me (and perhaps you.) To see the complete instructions for the exercise, simply click on the link for the prompt above.

"See the world in a grain of sand - " William Blake plus a writing/creativity prompt - which is available if you simply click the image

I wrote....

You think the world is supposed to be one way, even sand. Uniform, dull – far from unique, actually. But up close, look at the variety in colors, textures, shapes. If the grain of sand had a mother, she would recognize the faces of each of these grains and call them by name.

You are just right. You fit in your space and there is plenty of space around you to poke about, to puzzle about, to feel passionate about.

Five minutes may seem like a tiny grain of time sand, but so much may be experienced in it. Tears of wonder may appear. Smiles, even giddy smiles may come and go. Curiosity. Brain skitters and lost focus before it is scooped up and invited to sit, sit… be at peace and breathe, just breathe and look.

The out of focus places in the image tell me not everything needs to be understood clearly to be appreciated. In fact, treasuring mystery and being comfortable in mysterious situations will bring so much happiness into one’s life. There is no labeling of sand being good or bad here.

This sand is not fine like sand in some places and that’s just right for this place and in that place its just right for that place but I would guess that sand in all its soft, wonderfully groundedness is unique as this sand. The measurement isn’t important, the pure appreciation is….

My unique son just came to me, not knowing the image and I were conversing. He wants me to watch a video with him, a youtube video. I laughed softly and said, “as soon as I am done with this, I’m there.”

And at precisely that moment, the timer rings.

At precisely that moment, the sand smiled at me and said, “go now.”

# # # # #

Last night I edited this photo I took and wrote the quote and the prompt on my Julie Unplugged blog.

I went to sleep, woke up and went about my business and then I did exactly as I suggested on the blog post: Timed Gaze, Timed Writing. Phew. Awesome. The word result is above but the feeling result is deeper, still.

I’m going to continue with William Blake’s poem matched with my images to see the “what’s next” for me.

If you wrote (or write) please comment here and add a link to your writing if you are comfortable with that. I would love to know what you discover, even over time. I feel like its value will increase as I spend more time with it and allow it to do its work, the sand will continue to “speak.” I hope you will continue along with this series that completely took me off guard and by surprise.

I love it when words and images do that!