I Light This World By Living | Creative Jam Season One Wrap Up
Images, poetry & behind the scenes from Jan, Feb & March
Lighting The Inner Lantern
Season One of the Image Word Mystery Creative Jams, has wrapped! Thank you so much for joining me on Zoom and in the chat thread for this symbolic journey.
We lit it up! These three months of focus were so, so helpful in gently carrying me out of the darkness of winter into the life-giving light of spring. I hope it helped you, too.
Today I’m sharing a collection of images & poetry I generated during this fertile exploration.
Paid folks can share your own work & see other participants’ pages in the chat thread!
January Session:
Every session follows some sort of a progression from very simple body/page activation, to visualization, to timed writing and drawing segments and then we share our work with one another.
During our shares, we take notes on our peers’ words (I call this poetic noticing). Then we use our notes from these shares to propel an interwoven bit of writing/drawing. I think of this as The Mystery in action— you never know what interesting things you’ll notice during the shares!
I noticed the words SEEKING UMBILICAL and WHOLENESS in participants’ shares that day, so I wrote a pantoum with that cross-inspiration.
This timed writing is FAST! FAST! FAST! Just enough time for folks to get something on the page:
the umbilical cord doesn't need to seek wholeness when connection is your function wholeness rests like a small girl & her kitten playing in the grass when connection is your function your end of life is like a song like a small girl and her kitten playing in the grass the whole world hangs in presence your end of life is like a song the song, a word: yes, yes the whole world hangs in presence what really matters is this willingness the song, a word: yes, yes wholeness rests what really matters is this willingness the umbilical cord doesn't need to seek wholeness
February Asynchronous Prompts:
February’s prompt included 17 nuanced questions involving an embodied journey as the tarot’s Hermit archetype.
I took a weird way of working through these prompts, personally—
I felt like the resulting poetry sounded like a translation from another language…I like imagining that…wondering what it might have sounded like in its original form…
i'm not done waiting for my thoughts to arrive my throat is still hollow, not aching for words i am listening harder for wisdom and birds breathe in: mineral, breathe in: wool a white moth hits my face, the moon i break out singing: thank you for making me light! how long it took to make this world my home when i come back, don't ask how could i devour a mountain?
March Live Gathering:
I BECOME THE RADIANT i sense an unending vastness... ...rowdy coyote pups call owooooooooooo... red muddy river damp breeze trusting this small dim sun slowly turning inward listening far finally i belong.
I continued to digest all this lightness throughout the rest of the month— here’s a daily pantoum:
eat the sun
if you've been in the dark so long, so long
move your throat around the word "hungry"
open your mouth in an embrace
if you've been in the dark so long, so long
open your eyes!
open your mouth in an embrace
until you're shining
open your eyes!
sing every word you know about darkness
until you're shining
bid it: come
sing every word you know about darkness
move your throat around the word "hungry"
bid it: come!
eat the sun.
[I LIGHT THIS WORLD BY LIVING march 15th, 2024]
Thanks for shining your light on us, y’all!!!
*Season Two info coming soon! Would you like to join us for more creative play? All paid tiers are invited.
xo,
It was lovely to see your studio shot and POV of a smiling sun and smiling Neon. Thank you for always reminding us to play, that 'randomness' is less a jumble than a thread for sensemaking, and that time limits help release the need for perfectionism.