"I hope you are all creating every day according to the inner map you were born with. I know it sometimes seems that map is written in invisible ink... but you know to read invisible ink, you have to hold it over heat. Same with creative life, 'Fire, give me more fire!'"
Clarissa Pinkola Estes, from "The Creative Fire" mansuscript, this quote posted at her public site at Facebook.
where potential poems
lay like unfertilized ova
a thousand rise
new moons
on the landscape of the future
I have no chromosone
starmap to offer
or helixes of lunar pearls
I wasn't born with a vision
mapless, without signs
my fire is your fire
what bursts from this undifferentiated mass, a singular
moment, astral blossom of solarity, prism of
colour, strange sapient gloss
is a response,
a spark,
the lighting of our blazing
A composite image I composed for this poem (from public
domain and NASA images).
__
I like Dr. Estes quote very much, and am inspired by her words. I've written a poem - the creative fire like an Olympic torch alighting us. Her philosophy, though, has given me pause for thought. For me there isn't an 'inner map' that I was 'born with.' While there is inner pressure to produce, my creativity is a response. It's not about my 'feelings' or particularly 'confessional,' but sparked by something I want to address. Sometimes it can be a way to work out a puzzle. What I write or paint or produce occurs in relation to my world, the people in it, a sense of spirit, a need to discover truth, a way to connect, reflect, deflect, untangle, give, discover the depths of.
I like your take on the challenge this week, especially, "helixes of lunar pearls." I do think you were born with a map, though... =)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Linda... while each of us has a gesture, something that defines our writing style, I wouldn't go so far as to call it a 'map'... but that's just me.
ReplyDeleteEstes is working perhaps from a Platonic pure forms, that we come with a blueprint through which we can realize our talents; whereas, for me, it's relational. Creating as you go in response... to what affects you, moves you, transforms you, to what's around you.
So of course I must ask, Linda, what do you mean by "map" and how does this originary map play out throughout one's creative output through life?
Nice imagery - I'm kind of under the impression that we design our own maps to some degree. Agree with Linda on 'helixes of lunar pearls'.
ReplyDeletevery very nice and fully responsive!
ReplyDeletei first read "blossoms" instead of blossom... and i started thinking: there really is an infinite number of responses, of paths to the flame. consequently, a suggestion connected to "a thousand rise".
might you say, "what bursts from this undifferentiated mass/ this singular moment, are astral blossoms of solidarity/ prisms of color, strange sapient glosses/ a response/ a spark,/ the lighting (up) of our blazing"
beside the context, there is a wonderful extention of your "s" sounds...
(no ego, just thoughts :>>>))))
I like the idea of potential poems laying like unfertilized ova. I identify. We all have them, even people who have not yet turned to poetry.
ReplyDeleteI read something by Clarissa Pinkola Estes years ago. However, forgive me, I can't remember its name. I hadn't realized she was still writing.
I hope you will take a look at my blog response. I chose the word FUTILE.
http://inthecornerofmyeye.blogspot.com/2010/05/futile.html
Thanks, Tumblewords...
ReplyDeleteBy drawing so strongly on the imagery of ovulation, of our bodily 'map,' I hoped to tease out Estes imagery and who knows perhaps concept behind it.
Yes, in each ovum apparently an entire genome of 'us' and yet I have read that were we cloned, gave birth by parthenogenesis, our clones, or projeny still would not be exact replicas of us.
Does the map hold?
Also there is new evidence of stem cells in the ovaries, perhaps throwing into contention another male myth about the female body?
But clearly even with a stable set of chromosomes that could be a map of ourselves that we can rely on as creative guidance in the world we still need fertilization... which, each time, produces an entirely new and unique being.
The latter of particular importance in this process, its imagery in my estimation... :)
So I'm drawing on a medical model of the body as an extended poetic metaphor... for creativity.
And while the number may not be exact, a 'thousand' follicles do rise in the ovaries each month and only one (usually) matures into an ova...
Not that, Tumblewords, your sweet comment asked for an extended response like this!
:-) Again, thanks... I'll be by over the weekend to see your wordle too...
Laura, thank you sweetie! Your reading, as ever, astute. I really like the way you turn the whole metaphor to infinite ways to turn towards the flame that the beautiful and brilliant Dr Estes speaks of. I saw her speak in Toronto once, in the 90s - she's a very large woman, of Mexican descent I think. Her voice is rich and sensual and she has a deep and infectious laugh. Her talk was as deliciously inspiring as her book, "Women Who Run With the Wolves." It was focused entirely on women's creativity, for she connects our lives, our spirituality, our life essence to our creativity. She's a master storyteller and carries thousands of fairy stories, myths in her psyche, I can't imagine what it must be like in her visionary mind, some of which she discussed in her groundbreaking book.
ReplyDeleteI was delighted to find her on Facebook where she regularly posts quotes from her forthcoming book. Her website is full and worth visiting too... one could not help but come away inspired.
I'm not sure if she isn't edging into more of a new age way of thinking, though... with its didactic beliefs about authentic selves no-one can define, fear and mistrust of 'negative' influences, and so on.
I left a link to this post at her site. She might not like my response, or she might, I have no idea. She's a very knowledgeable and intelligent woman... who I have enormous respect for.
All that said, yes, you picked exactly the spots I rewrote many times... :)! Because of the lunar imagery, and how the fertilized ovum is more like a sun than a moon, I decided to keep 'solarity,' a word that actually doesn't exist, but links both the solar and solidarity.
And the final list, that's where I got my wordle in :-) ... lighting was lighning of our blazing for awhile... but I have to think about 'lighting up' since in my visual imagination, that might be like a bomb in this strange womanly landscape, which doesn't work for me, or even like cigarettes, which again doesn't... so I went with 'lighting' thinking more of the Olympic flame and lighting each other's similar flames...
Thank you so, so much... and over the next weeks as I revisit this poem, I will continue to tweak the metaphors into better configurations. xo
Mary... I have just written myself out in long comments, so I'll be brief :-) Thanks for your reading, and yes, I'll be by...
ReplyDeleteOriginality is is what we all strive for, and in following the directions of our influences we arrive at the point that defines us, enabling us to establish our individuality.
ReplyDeletei have an all-day expressive arts training tomorrow and this puts me in the perfect mindset. thank you for writing it!
ReplyDeleteWhat a joy to read your poem & commentary. The Estes quote was remarkable, a powerful thought to respond to. I admire -- and agree, for what it's worth -- with your assessment.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I too work/create in reflection in, reaction of, response to all kinds of external "stuff." :-)
I don't believe in "maps" but I am not keen on predestination, and maps seems too close to that concept for my comfort. (I know it is not, exactly, but I have internal knee-jerk reactions.)
Now I am rattling! Great poem & post to create such a discussion.
Thanks for joining us under the big tent. And I am still excited this was your first prompt-response poem. Wow. :-)
xxoo
Deb (Stoney)
thanks for your response, bren. i agree with you and am finding more and more of that new age "didactic thinking among our adored writers... estes, alice walker... personally i'm growing tired of it. just wanted to add that i love your poem just as it is. and such a strong opening image! ((((brenda))))) everything you do is good and brings goodness. xoxoxoox
ReplyDelete"You possess some exceptional capacity that is absolutely unique. You're a masterpiece unlike any other that has ever lived in the history of the world. Furthermore, the precise instructions you need to ripen into your genius have always been with you, even from the time before you were born. In the words of psychologist James Hillman, you have a soul's code.
ReplyDeleteYou might also call it the special mission you came to Earth to carry out; the divine blueprint that contains the open secret of how to be perfectly, unpredictably yourself; the master plan that is your heart's deepest desire.
Would you like help in deciphering it?" Rob Brezsny, from "Pronoia" (it came in an email this morning).
To me, this is outrageous 'missionary' talk, only "the church" is economic. There are the 'chosen' ones who participate in the belief of a 'genius code,' a 'soul blueprint' that can make them not just great, but 'evolved,' way ahead of everyone else on the planet. But please buy the book to find out how.
I wonder if the uncertainties of life are what produce these people who claim to have answers? Does that give us comfort?
A further moment to this post.
And nothing personal with the beloved astrologer Rob Brezsny, whose newspaper horrorscopes are quite delightfully entertaining.
Stan, you've written an aphorism!
ReplyDelete"The word aphorism (literally "distinction" or "definition", from the Greek: ἀφορισμός, aphorismós ap–horizein "from-to bound") denotes an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and memorable form." Wikipedia
You've written an aphorism, which denotes an original thought, on finding one's originality!
That's pretty cool.
Though I would hasten to add that find one's original style, which is I think what you mean, might be not original but a sycretism of styles.
The mystic Rudolph Steiner calls this world I think the third world and here we are to learn how to incarnate, how to manifest ourselves through ego, how, as you say, to become individuals.
Thank you for your comment. I am, with some clarifications, in agreement.
Though you didn't connect this back to the model of an originary 'soul's code,' a 'blueprint,' the "inner map you were born with" and that 'you create every day according to'... (from the quote) which sparked this poem, and many of the comments on it.
Nice, Carol, enjoy your day!
ReplyDeleteOr, rather, Carolee... :-)
ReplyDeleteDeb, thank you..... so much. And I appreciate your reading the quote, which, yes, is a "remarkable,... powerful thought to respond to."
ReplyDeleteClarissa Pinkola Estes is one of those creatively rich opulent gardens of a woman... she produces blossom after blossom of large Galapagos flowers of inspiration, support, fairy tale, myth, she gets us up and moving, fired, creating, and the philosophical ruminations of a brilliant mind... yet is she edging into new age guru territory... one wonders.
Like you, I have a bad reaction to 'predestination maps,' or the inverse way of saying it, "the inner map you were born with" for living life... and this way of thinking, it natural teleology, would be to close creativity down ultimately, to extinguish the flame.
Isn't creativity the opposite of determinism?
Creativity, whatever it is, doesn't fit easily into boxes or predetermined maps.
And hasn't the entire world come into being through 'creative responses' occuring here and there, what works, what doesn't, isn't that the process of evolution?
Is creativity accidental? I don't think so. Creativity, among many descriptions, could be considered a response to a problem or a need to express what's there.
Joining the Big Tent has been a wonderful experience, Deb! Comments, conversation, discussion - all enlivening.
Thank you... xoxo
Laura... I think it's a lingo that an entire and large community understands and that these writers are directing their wares to... Hay House for some reason has been sending me hardcover books to review before publication in my blog... a Caroline Myss book, and a Wayne Dyer... and while I've read earlier books by these authors, they've taken on "Guru status" in the intervening years... I find am shocked at the logical inconsistencies in their writing, the garbled call on 'science' to back up muddled thought... the 'Messianic complexes' they've developed... and wonder if these books that seem not to have been edited for logical development of idea and accuracy and consistency are being churned out by the successful New Age gurus to cover expenses on large mansions they've purchased?... and, no, I haven't published any reviews in my blog or otherwise... and hope Hay House will stop shocking me with these, at the end of the day, rather crude books that seem clearly to be financially driven attempts to get at the 'healing markets'....
ReplyDeleteSo I wrote a tiny little poem.
And streams of comments.... :))))))))
Thank you for everything, dear Laura! xoxoxxoxoxo
The poem describes a lush inner landscape that somehow has no need for a map! Just to be is all that is meant to be!
ReplyDeleteHi Barbara -- my "map" is fluid, changing daily to accommodate changes and motivations in my life. Maybe "map" is the wrong terminology; but, I do like using the word, because I love maps...and even the ones used by explorers have changed over time...the maps we use today will change over the next decades to reflect land lost to environmental pressures, new transport systems, etc. as well. Maps are not necessarily carved in stone...
ReplyDeleteI think that the map changes according to the creative output...simply by putting a creative thought into action or into print alters a map...the creator never can fully realize how he or she has altered a personal course -- let alone someone else's course -- without allowing that creativity to emerge and be viewed by others, to be reshaped by others and to allow that energy to be adopted or ignored.
I agree, Greyscale! Yet the sparking, fertilized, ignited...
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for coming by...
I agree with you, Linda... and your map and maps and mapping are beautiful and open-ended and a creative shaping of a route through...
ReplyDeleteWhich is not like the map in the Estes quote, I don't think, or the one I found in a recent email by Brezsny. They seem to be referring to a 'soul's code' (I wonder if Hillman, who's in his 80s now would approve?) that is predetermined, something you can always call on, an inborn map.
Creativity doesn't fit easily into prescriptivist models, if at all.
Give me your ever-changing maps anytime... :-)
Nice poem! I think we all come in with a "map." But we don't have to follow it! May a blueprint is a good concept. Yes, I think that building our own thing on that blueprint is what transforms us.
ReplyDeletei too like the idea of potential poems lie in waiting a spark of manifestation... sorta like the number of eggs women are born with... a treasure to be understood..... a fire to flame...
ReplyDelete