Advise for those living at the edges outside the mainstream

Rumi says to those who live at the fertile and also highly uncertain edges of life;

We must become ignorant
Of all we've been taught,
And, be instead, bewildered.

Run from what's profitable and comfortable
If you drink those liqueurs, you'll spill
The spring water of your real life.

Forget safety.
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious.

I have tried prudent planning
Long enough, from now
On, I'll live mad.

Rest assured if your actions or ideas are being derided by the status quo you maybe onto something worth following. Trust your intuition and feelings. Now is a time to bring forth from mysterious places. In itself this requires not knowing what is to come or where it is to come from. As paradoxical as this may seem it is nevertheless necessary to set out and seek a new.

Found

I can't begin to tell you how long I have been searching for this poem. I first came across the poetry of Kevin Gilbert about eight years ago. By chance I came across the poem 'Unity' while meandering the shelves of the Schumacher College library. Books have a habit of finding people (well me) when in that space.

A few years ago the library was reclassified and rearranged afterwards when I looked for the book I could not find it anywhere. Eventually I gave up gravely worried it had been purged during the revamp. There was no hand written index card. There was no presence of it in the poetry section.

Then last year when on a wild camping night my friend Daisy unexpectedly produced the book. We were sat around the camp fire with the moon shining down fro above that night and it felt right to be reading poetry aloud. And there is was Unity. Wow. That moment in itself felt like magic enough.

Fast forward to today. Blue Monday as the second working Monday of the new year is also know. Not always a high point in anyones week, month or year. I am inspired to look for a book in the WL (World Literature) section of the library  ... and there it was Kevin Gilbert 'Black from the Edge'. What? I go back to the index deck and look, no index card. After years of searching there it is, seemingly out of nowhere reappearing on the book shelves agin. It feels like another piece of magic. Thank You Magic.

Here's the poem.

if only this were real

To Lower The Bar or Not To Lower The Bar

One of my teachers starts morning sessions with the five minute poem. After listening to some inspiring poems we are invited to simply write. What comes from these five minutes is often jaw droppingly incredible. And yet as Martin will say to help those of us nervous to share our scribbles, 'let's lower the bar'. There is a celebration in the poems we offer to the group being awkward, bad or at best just terrible. It's not about the quality of the writing. It is about the act of writing itself. How refreshing and human to allow a welcome space for everything to be ok.

Martin is want to share the story of William Stafford who when asked how does he write such amazing poetry, answers write everyday and lower your expectations.

It's like people who daily vlog on youtube, when you can filter and edit what people see there is the tendency to control and show only the good stuff in their lives, or at least not reveal anything you don't want others to see. Poets publish what they want you to read. We don't see the writing or editing process. Nor do we see those poems that remain in the locked study room draw.

I have decided to let myself off the hook, lower the bar and just write my blog and hit the publish button - come what may. My hope is that at some point in the future with lots of writing experience under my belt combined with a reduction in self consciousness, that my writing will become much closer to what it is I am trying to express.

I have noticed that when I try too hard or push too much my writing is awkward and clunky. Automatic writing still contains a lot of random stuff and to be honest dross, but maybe there will be the occasional sentence or two that I am proud of.

Let's see ...

Presence in 2017

The word presence means 'to exist in a place'. It is the art of being. Not so much about the past or the future, but of the moment. My interest in presence has been sparked by a quote from the phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty. He suggests that consciousness 'does not give me truth like geometry but presences' [quoted in Stang, 2009). Is this saying, I wonder, that consciousness gives us experiences;  such that awareness comes in a form of presences?

In our world where science is the dominant philosophy facts and truth are objectively trusted and what's more valued above qualities of feeling, imagination and intuition. This can place personal experiences and ordinary daily life into a lowly category. If you imagine most if not nearly all people live in the everyday no wonder self esteem and wellbeing is taking a hammering in our modern life.

Presence invites a different stance if you will. It asks us to become open and aware to our experiences. All of our experiences, the explained and the unexplained. To value the ordinary in our lives. Doing the daily chores. Waking up to a brand new day. Reaching out the simple hand of friendship to those in need. Attending to the school run, the shopping, or the journey home from work. Knocking on the door of our neighbours to check-in.

In the race to the top of an invisible (arguably nonexistent) ladder how often do we stop to take in the awe of the beauty around us? The enjoyment in making a simple meal for our family and friends. Going for a walk to the nearby river where we live. Or stopping to watch the sunset.

How fantastic it is to witness and be a part of such everyday awesome experiences and not feel the need to classify them as special in order to validate ourselves or what happened.

That's my wish for 2017. To be able to take in and celebrate the ordinariness of my life. To see the gift in the everyday. And to see how that stance of being in the presence shapes and moulds my life and relationships.

It starts today on Sunday 01 January with the joy of rain. Yes rain can be enjoyed, for water is sacred, it is life itself. Without it I would not be here, nor much of anything else I can see from my window. Yet in the United Kingdom where I live rain is not always seen in this way. Water is not often scarce. If anything due to climate change water has become a powerful force resulting in seasonal flooding. However, for many in other parts of the world water is becoming increasingly hard to find. Rain is seen as the foreteller of change and a blessing to be appreciated. I am therefore fortunate today to be able to watch the water fall from the clouds above.