I ... entered the poem of life, whose purpose is ... simply to witness the beauties of the world, to discover the many forms that love can take. (Barabara Blackman in 'Glass After Glass')

These poems are works in progress and may be updated without notice. Nevertheless copyright applies to all writings here and all photos (which are either my own or used with permission). Thank you for your comments. I read and appreciate them all, and reply here to specific points that seem to need it — or as I have the leisure. Otherwise I reciprocate by reading and commenting on your blog posts as much as possible.

5 January 2017

A Conversation About Creating a Vision

The vision the conversation is about is recorded here.

Me without –
without hope, without vision,
without a dream for the future –
what could that be?

A testing? 
A between kind of place?
A terrible thwarting?

No – matter
is not sufficient.
I need also the soft frisson
of hope, though it may be
delusion.

The truth of fact
is one thing, and facts
are hard to shift, they are
rocks you trip over.

Truth stretches though,
to fractal infinity
with built-in random.
So I have hope
enough to create a vision.

The way is up,
I believe.
Then my friend 
tells me
her truth.

Rich, awful telling.
(Some of it I've heard
in other places before.)
A vision for the future
will pull you back, she says.

You'll be stuck
in / with / to 
the past you label bad.
Isn't it better to see 
your vision here, now?

Never mind (I think)
what I do see here and now.
The mere word Aleppo
conjures maimed children, 
terrified parents. 

In my own town
I see the deranged,
the homeless,
walking about
as part of 'normal'.
I will not blind my eye.

How long
should we let this lie?
Well, there is being and doing.

Nothing ventured....
The watery grief, even
the shock and rage,
all are real, each
is necessary, this

is a way to finding out 
what more brings life to life.
From that we create vision.

My soul can have it be
here, now, radiant, yes,
but my body
is trapped in time,
and my personality too,
frequently.

Pausing 
for reflection
is a thing we can do.
We can pull the vision close,
make it
an act of creation.

Deliberately stepping
for this moment
out of time,
hearing in mind and heart
the sweet words 
expressing our vision –

right then it is here,
we are in it,
and we carry back
to the everyday world
that consciousness –
a mechanism
of infiltration,
helping the vision spread.

High?
Far?
Always yet to be reached?
No. Only hear it.
Only hold it.
Know it. 
Be it.

And if that seems unreal, 
simply start
here, now.


Back Story

Susan, at Poets United's Midweek Motif, asks us for a vision of the future, in poetry. I am one of a sisterhood called the Goddesses of Shining Light, who spent months last year creating and articulating just that (though not in verse). Here (again) is the link; we are inviting people to listen and, if they choose, hold it in consciousness (and in their daily meditations if they do that). I couldn't say it better (and btw the concepts are not new – though arrived at anew – but bear reiterating)So I thought to write, instead, a poem about creating a vision.

I began with an erasure, and the idea that I might expand it. A friend (Debi Swim) sent me a package wrapped in a Barnes and Noble bag with an excerpt from Huckleberry Finn printed on one side, one from Moby Dick on the other. We don't have B&N in Australia; I was enchanted!  The first verse of my (unexpanded) erasure poem below was from Huck, the second courtesy of Ishmael.

Meanwhile I posted on facebook the invitation to listen to our vision. A friend suggested we'd do better to envision our ideal world as already here, not to dwell on the negatives (though in fact I don't think our vision does that, except perhaps by implication). I understand where she's coming from. However.... We had a long discussion, which gave rise to an expansion of the erasure poem into something else. I even incorporated (in verse two) some of Spellcheck's more creative mistakes! The resulting poem, above, is my vision poem for the prompt (not the vision itself – for which you must click the link and listen – but about the process).


Creating a Vision 
(erasure)

me without 
no matter
the truth
stretches
the way is up
rich awful

never mind
how long
nothing
the watery 
is a way 
my soul 
pausing
deliberately stepping
high

11 comments:

  1. To live like this--stepping in and out of time in order to ebb and flow with creation--is already a vision. Imagine! And so, now I have to go and read this thing you created through all things that matter to me: spirit, faith, love, community, conversation, holding on and letting go. Thank you for sharing this process!

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    1. Just as your comment was coming in, I added a note that the concepts in our vision are not new – though we arrived at them anew – but we believe they bear reiterating.

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  2. Wow. I have clicked "follow" on your group vision site, and I am very impressed with this very wise and comprehensive poem. The world needs every bit of positive we can muster, my friend. Thanks to you and your group for doing this fine visioning work.

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  3. a most wondrous work Rosemary. Kudos.

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  4. see your vision now...despite a body trapped in time...wonderful thoughts Rosemary...much to ponder about here.

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  5. Wow! there is seeing and then there is really seeing..and feeling.. i think we have tripped over many rocks..perhaps on the path of life each trip teaches us a new lesson - i do hope so

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  6. This gives so much to contemplate, to think and ponder on Rosemary, sigh.. "Pausing for reflection is a thing we can do. We can pull the vision close, make it an act of creation." Beautifully executed.


    Lots of love,
    Sanaa

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  7. Well thought out vision. You drew me in to journey with you.

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  8. While the rest of the world appears to be irrational or even mad we comfort ourselves with that small seed of hope that can can be nurtured into effectiveness and your vision and perhaps ours as well can be realised for my children and their childrens sake. Beautifully written Rosemary.

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  9. Facts are hard to shift. You trip over them like rocks.
    To me that is the crux of the poem.
    Shock and rage is necessary I agree. These are healthy emotions that we are dissuaded from expressing.When some outrageous crime is committed . the victims relatives are encouraged to say they were 'disappointed' at the behaviour of the perpetrator. Language no longer expresses our true feelings...the corruption of semantics is a real problem Rage in a normal person does not need to descend into violence.This is where articulated literary expression is important.You can make mince meat of your opponent without laying a hand on them. Sure words hurt but much preferable to being permanently physically damaged.You can always block your ears and switch off but there is no way of preventing broken bones with physical violence

    I like your reference to the deranged and homelessness in your area.One of the reasons I left that geographically magnificent area was because of the drug induced derangement of too much of the population. It permeated everything.

    There must be a solution. Hope. Change. Change in values.
    It will be a David and Goliath situation. The juggernauts of Mammon are all powerful and great indoctrinateurs through the Archangel called media. David has to find that vulnerable chink and knock them out.It is a different kind of war...but the battle has to be won with a well thought out campaign. Otherwise we are all up * polluted waterways * without a paddle:)

    And this is my rave for today . Thank you for a thought provoking poem.

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