the art of creation (poem)

The Art of Creation

8/18/24

Those who don’t regularly participate in creation hesitate to call themselves “artists”
But what is one, really?
The Universe unfolds on a cosmic timeline
Perhaps the artists are those who have more sensitive antennas to transmit their awareness
We each harbor a database, constantly overloaded with information
Filtered, so not all goes through.
These tidbits form relationships with what we already hold
Creating new senses of self, conceptions, and misconceptions
“The more raw data we take in, and the less we shape it, the closer we get to nature”
We don’t have to understand something to appreciate it.
We select a few to represent differently -- in poems and pottery,
Buildings and businesses, sculptures and sea shanties,
Canvases and cocktails, linguine scampi in little Italy.

No matter what tools you use to create, the true instrument is you
And if we’re lucky, sometimes what we create becomes a source of inspiration for others.
Thus, the cycle of regeneration flows as fluidly as photosynthesis.

Our purpose isn’t to fill libraries with books
or cram Manhattan with Brooklyn Bridges
or sprawl chapbooks pages back-to-back with eulogies.
We don’t create for materialistic returns,
But to fulfill an irresistible desire to transcend into the unseen world.

Where reality has dead ends and gravity, the imaginative realm is limitless and filled with energy
There are no coincidences in our creations
so pay attention to moments when it seems like an invisible hand guides your process.
The double rainbow after a spring drizzle
Insight in an elegant mathematics problem
Intention beneath Pollock’s frenzied splatters.

No wonder writers and cafes are closely associated.
Lines of conversations can be grabbed easily from adjacent stools,
As your tongue savors a Pistachio cream croissant, and your pen strays over the notepad.

The universe is a conveyor belt with infinite little packages.
First you have to notice the belt, then you can choose which packages to open and delight in.
The ocean provides a closer reflection of who we are than anything in the mirror.
Be open. Be attuned. It’s always there,
Like the sun behind the nimbus cloud on an overcast day.
Look for what you notice, but what no one else sees.
If you miss it today, it won’t be the same tomorrow.