Of Two Minds – Blog 2 of Invitation of Openness

Of Two Minds – Blog 2 of Invitation of Openness

Our book, Invitation to Openness has now been available on Amazon for about two weeks.  There are a couple of rubs in an author’s life in this particular season of writing. It is not unlike the new parent who desperately wanted that little bundle of joy, but the excitement of new life gives way to the less than romantic season of changing diapers and round-the-clock feedings. 

No, a new book is not as hard as a new baby, but it does require a different type of energy that comes from a different well than that which creates and waters poetry. 
I find myself needing to practice release when the insecure wonderer worries how people are responding to the book.   I wish I could say the internal critic was not such a familiar voice, but it would not be true.

   

I often share with writing groups the wisdom of Dorothea Brande in her little book, Becoming a Writer.  She offers a useful metaphor for writers with over-active critics and for the authors who have just published. She speaks of the two persons of the writer.  One person is of the sensitive, shy, free-flowing type that needs careful nurture and coaxing to show up while the other is the intelligent critic who performs the practical tasks needed to survive.

Brande encourages writers to work with what she calls “innocent duplicity.”   I speak of this when I ask writers to know that writing the early drafts is not the time to listen to the internal critic.  They might imagine politely nodding with a “not now” response to this voice.  Later with editing and publishing, we need this organizational and public-faced energy for all it can offer.

The second rub is quieting the business mind's nervous concern about exposing "ourselves" in a book.  This part worries about quality, disapproval, disappointment…we all know the lexicon of the insecure.  Here I find my work is to honor where I am as a developing writer and human being.  I would bring this respect to the efforts of my family, friends, and students, so I can certainly bring that same grace to my own journeying.  This image of mothering or teaching the self can be quite useful in quelling the voice that brings us to our quaking knees.  If you try it, go ahead and make your image a ferocious she-bear.  She will not let pesky doubts mess with her cubs!

Thinking of the creative process, I include here two poems from our section of the book titled, Creativity.  The epigraph that begins this section comes from Thomas Merton who writes, “There is an instinct for newness, for renewal, for liberation of creative power.”  Kim’s poem relates to the topic of rejection after we send our work out and my narrative poem is about the divine value of engaging with creativity.  

Dweller in the Heart

I got rejected today;

A baby of mine,

78,000 words or so,

turned away for not being quite

sexy enough.

But the character,

he laughed inside me,

peeking around the shadows of my heart,

shaking his head.

He will always be a warrior first,

lover second;

Would I change that for money?

Would I change anyone else in my life

for coin?

And if he,

of all shadowy men,

can find the humor in such things,

well,

who am I to brood?

KBN

Adolescent Art

Middle-school teens of every nationality bring their art

to this show,  life-sized tape sculptures,  rolling panels

laden with water colors, acrylic, charcoal, pencil, chalk,

tables covered with ceramic piggy banks of such expressions,

cockeyed-comical, teapots with jungle leafs and starfish.

All this here, in spite of the crime and poverty;  seven police

park at the adjoining high school.

All this here, where parents, friends, teachers gaze at the art,

study the name, then look for their friend, their child, their student with new admiration. Shy artists smile in response.

So many ways for children to be destroyed, but not here,

not today.  They are strong with their art.

Karim from the Eastern bloc may one day be an illustrator

or a car mechanic - here he begins to learn access to his depth-

brilliant in any job.

Joshapreet from India will feel the heat of American and Indian eyes;  her art will water her confidence to grow in both worlds.

Neusha, an Iranian girl of superior intellect, one day

an astrophysicist , perhaps…but  her art  connects her

to her true genius.

Addictions will chain the lives of some, but if they drink freedom, it will come from the same well they drew this art,

from the divine in their depth.

SSH