Poetic Flow

What is it about poetry that is so compelling?

Poetry speaks to the heart. It has a different vibration than that to which the mind is attuned. It has an energy that flows, moves, and creates an emotional connection. To the self. To others. To the world.

And when I have been focusing intensely on my routine work and the sometimes jerky nature of its implementation, when there is much detailed research, or when things sometimes go off the smoother rails, so to speak, like right now, it is where I go to let go and reconnect. Art in general has that power. To switch from the mundane to the beautiful. To take a break. To refresh, to feel, and move away from the tiredness or the stuckness, to a new gracefulness and intention.

As Robert Fitzgerald put it "Poetry is at least an elegance and at most a revelation".

That is why I have recently changed my workspace. I have two workstations. One for my organised structured work that always must get done, and a separate space for my poetry and art work, which is dear to my heart. One is more organised. The other much less so. And I switch and blend between them. The right brain and the left brain. Creative space and routine space. It is working well. It helps balance and counteract fatigue and invite new thinking. It brings my heart back when my mind gets cluttered. And creates a new energy that is more inspiring, more creative, more open to options, solutions and renewed vigour.

I invite you to come and join in. Experiment with a poem. Begin.

It is a poem about poetry by John Fox, a poetry therapist and teacher who discovered the benefits of poetry to deal with distress. He wrote it when he was thirteen during an experience when he was inspired by a skater. And likened it to the experience of writing poetry. The letting go into the feeling experience transitioning.

Let go, slow down, and breathe, with me.

Read it with your feeling heart, and see.

It skates boldly onto
the page, tips one vulnerable foot
back and forth slowly, till finally
the edge of a toe
cuts a simple, sharp line
through the world's cold resistance
and with that plain courage, a statement of intention begins;
and you can't turn back any longer
from the weight of feeling and letting go
into the flow that follows.
Poetry is a choice to feel it all,
not all at once but to gradually sink down
within ourselves, to give what fear
we hold behind our knees
to gravity and grace,
to discover what makes our whole world turn;
the place our necessary weight
lifts to lightened joy.

Ah, yes...The feeling imagery is soul food. The changing pace. Movement. New momentum.

I hope you find the creativity that inspires you to lightened joy. Whether it be art, dance, music, writing, whatever does it for you. Blend it in with the routine. And see.

All of it works for me.

Much love

SaraSwati Shakti.


Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved.
www.lovingpsyche.com