Writing With Emotional Depth
I shied away from today’s challenge … and remembered someone I recently met.
Jacqueline
I met her in La Palma.
We walked to the top
of the highest volcano
there and stopped.
Still.
The air was cool on my face.
White pillows hung in the sky.
A crow cried.
‘It is breathtaking,’ she said.
And so was she with her bubblegum
mouth and lavender eyes.Â
Today, it’s all about the list and how a list can inspire a poem.
Here is a list of instructions.
Instructions
Put down your screens and stand up.
Go into the heart of the forest.
Lie face down on the ground.
Smell the rotting undergrowth,
the musk of creatures unseen.
Feel the fallen leaves warm
your swollen belly.
Smile at the earthworms rising
through the undergrowth to greet you.
Tell them how exhausted you are.
Now imagine their world.
How they wriggle and squirm,
passing the decomposing scrub
through their tubular form.
Think about them pulling
dead leaves deep into tunnels,
breaking them down to feed
all that grows in the forest.
Now you know how sacred
the earthworm is, get up.
Go home and be grateful.
Day 6 asked that we search for a poem in another language, absorb the ‘sound and shape of the words’ and use this as a basis for a poem. https://www.napowrimo.net/day-six-10/
Here is my offering:
How to BeÂ
In this world, always be you
I say to myself.
Pause often
to observe what arises.
Be aware, keeping a gentle
gaze upon someone’s smouldering eye.
Let arising thoughts float
by like clouds in the sky.
Drink deeply to nourish
your body-mind and soul.
You are infinite, everlasting
and real, your true self.
Don’t say ‘I am scared’,
just breathe and Be.
Day five invites us to write a poem that ‘illuminates the juxtaposition between grief and joy, sorrow and reprieve.’ https://www.napowrimo.net/day-five-10/
My poem came from a memory.
Keep Dancing
There was a moment when my mother
was stuck in her chair with cancer
creeping up her spine.
She said to me:
‘I’m not going to get any better.’
‘I’m learning to dance,’ I said. ‘The waltz.’
‘Show me,’ she said.
And I did.
Opening my arms to an imaginary partner,
I stepped around the room.
One, two, three, one, two, three …
She said to me:
‘Let me show you how.’
There was a miraculous moment
when my mother rose from her chair
and pulled me to her breast.
‘Follow me,’ she said.
And I did.
We danced and danced, laughed and laughed.
Tears of joy streamed down my face.
Today’s poem is a first for me. The task was to write a triolet which is an eight-line poem with certain rules around rhyme and syllables. Take a look here for the finer details: https://www.napowrimo.net/day-four-11/
I hope you enjoy reading my triolet.
Praise Song
Praising the light of early Spring
Above me a skylark rises
My body tingles. Hear it sing!
Praising the light of early Spring
My mind is empty. Full of zing!
My joyous heart brings surprises
Praising the light of early Spring
Above me a skylark rises
Today was a challenge but I have something to share.
See here if you are curious how this piece came about: https://www.napowrimo.net/day-three-9/
Beyond Happiness
After you know what kindness really is,
you may find ordinary things like a smile,
a tear, or a touch, taste like honey.
What you let fall from your hand,
what you discounted and threw away
must stay, so you know how joyful
a moment can be within the vast,
open landscape of kindness.
At first, you stumble along fearing
you will never find the path, envying
others who are already there.
After you discover the light of kindness
you must stay with the one who is fighting
themselves and see how this could be you,
how they too are someone who travelled
with no plans and a complicated breath.
After you know kindness as the only thing,
you will know happiness as the shallowest thing.
You may go to sleep with happiness, dream
of it until your subconscious snags on the gauze
of all pain and wake, knowing the size of your wound.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense,
only kindness that unties your ankles,
sends you out into the night to find the path,
only kindest that lowers its head
from the solitariness that is you to say,
It is you I have been searching for,
and then accompanies you everywhere
like the friend you have never had.
It’s the second day of National Poetry Writing Month and my offering this time didn’t take long to complete.
The prompt was a nudge towards the surreal which delighted me. It was suggested, like the Romanian-born poet Paul Celan once did, we write a series of surrealist questions and answers and from this, craft a poem.
I loved doing this, sitting in an area of our kitchen I call ‘poetry corner’, with a cuppa, relishing the Spring sunshine streaming in through the patio doors. My resulting poem surprised me.
Take a look here if you are interested in trying this exercise yourself: https://www.napowrimo.net/day-two-10/
Thank you for reading.
Pathway to Love
There is a mysterious cloth
darned and patched with jute .
Fear in disguise.
Protecting me from the silent
arrow aimed at my heart.
What if I chose to listen
to the echo from the Universe?
To discard the armour.
Know the spear already piecing
my soul is in truth a pointer.
A pathway to Love.
This is my response to https://www.napowrimo.net/poets-start-your-engines/ and my first time taking part in National Poetry Writing Month, an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. I feel inspired but acknowledge it’s a target I may not achieve. I can but try.
How to Write Poetry
I will keep on wondering
about the broken things
that make me cry.
About deep green
oceans, swollen waves
and pear drop tears.
I will keep on listening
to the yawning silence within
where a steady, single flame
burns with desire
to be known, to belong
and to be heard.
I will keep on letting go
of all that is out there,
and focus on inner sensations
pulsing, prickling, pumping,
informing me I am alive
and have something to say.
I will keep on watching clouds
billowing, leaves fluttering,
sunrises, the moon, setting suns.
Hope for fox cubs scampering,
damselflies resting, a badger
and recognise I too am nature.
I will keep on remembering
presence, moments of beauty,
here and now despite being
burdened with a flickering mind.
To write poetry is to find joy
and to discover why I am here.
Any writing, including free writing, writing stories, poems, journaling, even letters, can improve our mood and wellbeing. You don’t need any special materials other than a notebook/paper and pen/pencil and you don’t need to write with good grammar or punctuation or be an accomplished writer to benefit, just a willingness to get your own words down on the page.
I am thrilled to be able to offer a series of five Writing for Wellbeing workshops (see my Writing for Wellbeing page for more information). Using a variety of writing prompts such as poems, objects, photos and visualisations, my aim is to help participants express themselves through writing.
By writing down our thoughts, feelings and ideas, things can become clearer, more understandable and gives a sense of perspective and control. Writing helps with personal development and this kind of writing has the potential for therapeutic benefit.
Writing can stir up many thoughts, feelings and strong emotions and so it is important to write what is within safe limits and to practice self-care. Sharing writing with other participants in the group is not obligatory.
These workshops are designed to use the medium of writing for self-discovery, affirming the ability to know what is needed to enhance personal wellbeing.
Benefits:
This series of workshops is designed around 5 different ways to wellbeing which research has shown can improve our sense of feeling good about ourselves and our lives. Whilst including happiness, wellbeing has a much broader concept than moment to moment pleasures and includes how satisfied and fulfilled we feel, our sense of purpose, how in control we feel and how we evaluate our lives as a whole. Wellbeing is a process of discovery and is different for different people.
The origin of yoga has been lost in the midst of time. The closest we can get, is that it began in India over 5000 years ago. In today’s modern world, many people think of yoga as a physical practice, but this is not the case. The essence of yoga is about stilling the mind, emptying the mind. If you’ve ever tried to sit in meditation, you will realise this is extremely difficult to achieve and certainly for any length of time. The physical poses and the breathing we practice on the mat are tools to use to help still the mind off the mat.
This week I am in the Lake District. On some of my walks, I have been alone, spending time on the hills and mountains practicing yoga. No, I haven’t gone into a downward dog on the summit nor knelt down on the fell to do a cat – I’ve been practicing emptying my mind and having a psychological clear out of all the rubbish I carry around in it in an attempt to find an inner stillness and tranquility.
In recent years, as I have developed my yoga practice, I have been focussing on taking what I practice on the mat, off the mat, and into my day to day activities. I have learnt I can practice yoga anytime and anywhere just by becoming aware and bringing myself back to the present moment.
I have a tendency towards an over active mind and if I am not careful, I can find myself ruminating about things (people, events, issues, situations, imaginings, ideas etc.) to the detriment of my wellbeing.
One of my daily affirmations is to have a clear, steady, quiet and alert mind. This is far easier to achieve when I’m walking in the Lake District than when I am at home. This week I have focussed on having a clear out of my mind and enjoyed peace and quiet when out on the fells. The challenge will be to maintain this sense of being when I leave this beautiful national park behind and return to my usual day to day routines.
It is therefore my intention whenever … :
… that I pause, watch my thoughts, allow them to float away and then reset. I will remember I don’t need to roll out my mat, practice asanas and breathing or sit cross legged in meditation … I can achieve this wherever I am and whatever I am doing. I don’t need to be solo walking in the Lake District.
All it takes is practice!
LIHazleton.
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LyndyH 