The Drive - The Source

If I want to be somewhere else, I need to travel.  Today's trek to Santa Fe from South Suburban Denver was quick and easy.  When I crested Monument Hill, I began to wonder about writing a poem using the exit names of I25 as a source.  Baptist Rd would be about my wusband as that is his newfound spot in the Springs. Northgate would be my good friends Laura and Tim, where the coffee is made fresh each morning and the bed is super comfy!  Garden of the Gods is my old stomping grounds, so lots to consider there.  A good thread for a poem, but not today.  Into my idea book it went.  Today is devoted to getting somewhere else.  Being somewhere else.

This is my mind.  This is how I think.  I try to tap into many different sources to invoke my writing.  I cannot just depend on inspiration to motivate me each day.  If the lightning bolt doesn't hit then I wouldn't write.  I know I need more than inspiration alone to press the ink and pull my pen across the paper into poetry, prose and prattle.  Thus Santa Fe.  Place can be a good source for writing.  New environment, new digs, new places to sit and watch the world unfold. In just five short hours, I talked to a few strangers, and have come away from these interactions with ideas:  Amtrak Writing Residency,  a few lines to ponder for future work, a philosophy on Santa Fe's magnetic pull; either you feel it, or you leave.  Amazing!  What will this month present if this all happened in one short afternoon?

Another source for me is reading.  I've always believed that to be a writer, one must be a reader.  The expansion of vocabulary and ideas found through reading is infinite.  I read magazines, books, newspapers, billboards, advertisements, poetry, graffiti...  Anywhere there is a word that has been immortalized into a medium holds interest for me.  It doesn't matter if it is newsprint or the side of a building, I am fascinated by words.  They keep my mind sharp.  I adore alliteration.  I relish, enjoy and employ the rule of three.  I could go on , but I'll spare you!

Observation, a/k/a eavesdropping is another source of material for my writing.  People say incredibly profound, witty, silly, astonishing, confessional statements.  Intentionally and unintentionally.   If I can just remember or write them down; more grist for the writing mill.  Judgments come into play here.  Can I be an observer without being judgmental?  Probably not.  But I can be kind, and still use what I see, hear and feel for a writing springboard.

My most profound source is meditation.  I need to 'slow' my mind, to 'grow' my mind.  We live in a busy, bombarded world.  I cannot possibly process all the information that is thrown at me every day.  I need time to decompress, not only my body, but my mind and my spirit.  Here's my not so secret, secret.  I like to meditate in a steam room after exercising.  I'm tired.  My body is ready to accept inactivity.  It is hot, hot, hot in there.  I find it cleansing.  I imagine the steam and the heat are moisturizing my cells in the incredibly dry environment where I choose to live.  I visualize the toxins from the environment are being sweated out.  After this ritual, I can relax enough to allow spirit in.  I breathe deeply, through my nostrils.  My mind calms down, and I just am. An idea or two may come to me during this time, but I never force the thought process.  This is where my inspiration is most organic.

What are your sources?  What keeps you going in your daily work, or artistic endeavor?  Maybe you are lucky enough that work and art is the same.  I am trying to be in that space; to treat writing like a job that I need to show up for each day.  Progress, not perfection.  If I can get 10 good pages out of every two or three hundred I write, I'll consider that successful.  A friend once took an art class and said the teacher implored "Process, not product".  I can try that.

Time to Write,

Jane