I'm curious—
(it's a perpetual affliction.)
March 3, 2023—Waxing Gibbous moon in Cancer
Word by word, the language of women so often begins with a whisper.
Terry Tempest Williams
I think of writing as painting with language.
I choose words with attention to the shades of meaning they will make when I brush them across the page.
I believe placing words in relationship to each other—whether on a page or aloud in a conversation, a speech, or a song—is an act of creation in the deepest sense of that word. One in which we are bringing into being a wholly unique moment.
When you free words onto the page, you release a moment built from:
feelings
memories
expectations
life experiences
the time in which you are recording it
the relationships influencing you as you create
As a poet, I can’t help but love this
The moment is unique because those specific circumstances cannot be replicated.
To paraphrase Heraclitus, you can’t step in the same moment (he used a river as his metaphor) twice, because it isn’t the same moment and you aren’t the same person.
But, when we root an experience in words, we create a snapshot, an Impressionist painting, of that particular moment in all its textures and colors and layers.
(I’m shamelessly mixing metaphors, I know, but I’m just going to roll on.)
On the one hand my assembled words are seeds I tuck in the ground of the world to grow nourishing plants for anyone who chooses to pluck a fragrant leaf or flower.
On the other hand, the act of liberating words from the ground of my inner landscape nourishes me, eases me, reorients me in those times when life has spun me in a remorseless game of hide-and-seek.
I’ve been rereading When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams. To me, Tempest’s imagination makes this book a verbal tuning fork, helping me recalibrate my voice when I drift off key or constrict my throat and don’t let out my words. In it I find a wild-voiced invitation to liberate my word artistry.
So, inspiration can rise from the moment itself, or be catalyzed by someone else’s words. For me what’s important is when I create with language, I am ultimately more whole both on the page and off.
I’m curious, where do you find inspiration?
May your words liberate you!
Tracie
I find inspiration from the living beings around me. Words, phrases and the pictures they create for me in my mind are another rich source of inspiration.
This was a wonderful piece! I find inspiration through books, films, visual beauty around me and music! Music can help me create.