Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

Discover More than A Title Can Hold: Poetry & Writing Meditation

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Morning writing time: coffee is beside me, a timer is set. All my metaphorical cards are on the table beside a quote, a line of poetry. “It is so near to the heart, an eternal pasture,” from poet, Robert Duncan.

I’ve allotted five minutes to write meditatively so I write. I write free-flow style, not thinking or editing, just allow whatever wants to be heard to be heard without judgment. Can only five minutes of writing do any good?

Writing Meditation Doesn’t Have to Take a Lot of Time

The words come from my keyboard and a memory pops up, quite happily and next, a painful memory right on its heels. “What are you thinking, having a good memory? Who do you think you are? You know you aren’t worthy of good memories or happy times or God forbid, nice things! Get off your high horse!”

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Who is running the show here? Is it the smart, funny, woman labeled as brave and capable leader by quite a few people? Is it instead this nasty alternative voice roaming about her head, roping up her truthful, constructive, happy thoughts in attempt to put them in thought quarantine?

Sometimes the Voices that “Speak Up” in Meditation Surprise Us – and it is all a good thing.

My eyes look up and catch a typo. “Heals” in place of “heels” which is precisely what I decided today as I drove home from my daily haiku discovery time.

“That’s it!” I declared earlier, as I drove home. “I am done with being mean and belittling to myself. It is poison!” Thoughts begin the healing. Actions are the glue which keep the healing together as they begin to build a foundation.

Did you notice how mistakes made during meditation showed a-ha’s downloaded as a result?

Writing and meditation: Breathe in: you are allowed to be all the goodness and light that is you. Breathe out, More goodness and light for all, please.`

It is so near to the heart, this healing, this lying down and resting time, this peace, this pleasantness, this receiving of grace.

I look up from the keyboard and watch a man walk by my house in a grey and red track suit. It is cold outside today – unusual in Bakersfield at this time of year. I see my sprinkler water, feeding the hungry soil. Another typo – feeding the hungry soul.

Soil and soul, only one letter different.

Today I am being aware of openings, alert to spaces as they speak to me. I am inviting synchronicity and light to tap me on my shoulder or draw me close in a hug, whispering “Look, over here,” as has happened several times today.

I invite you to do the same.

We’re taught typo’s are bad: not so in meditative writing.

Look at the typos I’ve written as evidence. I wrote heals instead of heels, like high heals on a shoe or heals as in the back of my foot.

I wrote soul as in my interior self versus soil, the place where plants grow.

Truthful, constructive, capable, happy is who I am. God (in whatever name you prefer: nature, love, universe, divinity, creator) is definitely not forbidding me from anything good or right or holy or me being exactly me.

Now – as in the present place I am in, is forever my eternal pasture, near to my heart, when I engage with it like I am this morning.

Does that make sense? Would it be helpful to say more?

Let’s say what I just said, slightly differently.

I invite you to do the same.

Truthful, constructive, capable, happy is who I am. God (in whatever name you prefer: nature, love, universe, divinity, creator) is definitely not forbidding me from anything good or right or holy or me being exactly me, as you are allowed to be all the goodness and light that is you.

You are allowed to be all the goodness and light that is you.

Today's poetry meditation line comes from Robert Duncan's "Often I am Permitted to Return to a Meadow". The line I chose specifically is "It is so near the heart, an eternal pasture." and the view is wildflowers in a pasture, absolutely gorgeous.

I’ll dip back into meditation for a bit – and trust you are choosing not to listen to any nasty, alternative voices and are instead replacing it with the capable, strong, courageous person you know yourself capable of being and becoming, starting here and now.

To read the poem by Robert Duncan, visit here at the Poetry Foundation Website.

Julie JordanScott was a writer before she was literate – she would dictate letters to her very patient mother which she would then copy using the wide, kindergarten style crayons that come 8 in a box.  It is no surprise Julie turned to poetry following the after-effects of Valley Fever and a near death experience. A single question, asked earnestly while watching the sunrise out her Alta Vista Drive living room window, “What can I do to feel better?” marked the beginnings of this body of work. For 377 consecutive days, Julie wrote a short poem – most often haiku – capturing the world that surrounded her day-to-day life.

After Julie’s completion of 377 Haiku, she turned to Tree Hugging – and is now in the midst of 377 consecutive days of hugging trees. The combination of poetry and nature – even and especially urban nature – is poignant and powerful.

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“I wake to listen” – How to Use Poetry to Meditate (Even if you don’t think you’re “good” at either)

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In May, we are blending poetry and meditation to create, make and activate a more mindful, art-rich life. Welcome to that experience.

May is National Meditation Month. Field of Lavender and purple reflect the poetic nature of meditation we are using here in May. Welcome back or welcome for the first time!

Many of you have said, “Meditation and poetry – I am not good at either. And you use writing as meditation? Forget it. I can’t”

Stick around for a couple days so we may wash out those thoughts. 

Here’s how this process goes for me – I invite you to try it this way and feel welcome to make modifications so it may work for you.

Whenever I read Plath, (link to the poem we meditated on today, Morning Song) I hear and feel a hush which may be why this line of her poem attracted me. This poem, “Morning Song” is about mothering a baby. Have you parented a baby?

I remember thinking when I had my son that I couldn’t have a boy. I didn’t know how to mother boys. It took me six weeks to actually agree this relationship as mom-to-boy would work and while it may still be rocky – he is an adolescent now – I know I wouldn’t trade the process for anything.

I invite you to think from your “beginner’s mind” place like I did as a new mom – with an open heart and without leaping inot judgment (like I find myself leaping more times than I would care to admit.) 

Many of you have said, “Meditation and poetry – I am not good at either. And you use writing as meditation? Forget it. I can’t”

Stick around for a couple days so we may wash out those thoughts. 

Here’s how this process goes for me – I invite you to try it this way and feel welcome to make modifications so it may work for you.

a lavender field at sunrise allows us to embrace and accept we may not be good at poetry or meditation now,. we may allow ourselves to come as a complete beginner to both. The sunrise is a metaphor for the new beginnings you may experience when you come from the beginners mindset.

1. First I read the poem to myself several times and choose one line or phrase as a centering line. On my live-streams I ask viewers to choose a line also and direct them to the Poetry Foundation website for the poems I read. All are published there and are easily accessible – which for some people makes it easier to choose a meaningful meditation line.

2. Deep breathe and sit quietly with the poem, sometimes briefly and sometimes – like this time, I meditated before sleep and  as I fell off to sleep. 

3. The next step has differed when I do it, but write for at least 5 minutes, free flow style, stream of consciousness. Sometimes before the live-streams though more often after. Sometimes I write the centering phrase over and over again. What I find it when I trust the process and breathe deeply as I write, other words begin to pop in – you may scoff at this and I invite you to try it.

4. Livestream first on Periscope, often a rougher version – but I enjoy picking up the twitter audience.I will share the livestream from Twitter so you may see it here as well.  I pin the poetry/meditation streams daily with a link to the poem and the graphic (whenever I create it), often afterwards. Livestream second on Instagram  live. Usually a smaller audience but often more engaged in the poem itself. 

5. Sometimes I post here, in my Creative Life Midwife blog – once I even created a second series based on what I wrote during my meditative writing and it blasted more helpful content. Whether or not I post elsewhere, I follow up with discovering the next poem. 

In this case I’ve planned ahead and will next read Kim Adonizzio.

If you have a favorite poem or poet you would like to suggest please do so in the comments. .

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Revisit Your Opinions: Is Your Shadow the Enemy?

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A view of the beach at sunset time frames the quote "There is no light without shadow. Light without shadow, just as there is no happiness without pain." from Isabelle Allende. This begins the article about writing as meditation.

Before you begin to exhale your knowledge about different teacher’s concepts of “The Shadow” or “Shadow Sides” or anything with Shadow in its title that a wise person once said, remember back to childhood.

barefoot child at play in the playground, enjoying his shadow. Children don't see the shadow as a bad thing, but as a good thing.

Remember the wonder of your shadow. I remember my son laughing in delight on the playground, watching his shadow follow his silent command. Where his feet went, his shadow feet went.

This weekend I took a photo and I realized my shadow had the capacity of being a character in the photo that gave it an entirely deeper meaning as object being witnessed.

What would happen if you chose to return to pure enjoyment, without your intellect rushing in to explain?

What if you simply took time to enjoy your shadow?

One of the voice in my head hangovers I have heard since perhaps the moment I was conceived is “Whatever you do, don’t get “it” wrong.” It could be whatever I hold the dearest in that particular moment.

“Don’t fail” and “don’t fail’s” sibling ‘don’t try because if you try and fail…..’ and…. what?

I solved this conundrum in adulthood by holding a tiny bird in the center of my palm saying “There is no right, there is no wrong, there is simply ______” Most of the time I say writing.

I could put almost anything as that final word.

“You can’t get this wrong,” I remember telling my friend Josh when we were cooking dinner together. “It is impossible. With this, there are no wrongs, there are only different version of right.”

Samuel is still angry with me about what ‘could have been’ if I had been braver and allowed him to possibly experience failure.

He is possibly and perhaps probably right and perhaps probably wrong and we will never know.

I recently asked myself, “Would you do it over again?” and I said, “Yes, I would do it over again braver, taking more risks and not allowing fear to overshadow the light within me.”

In fact, I wish I could.

I wish I could get taken up into a science fiction life, step into a different dimension and come out with a who-knows-how different ending.

What I can do today, even without the science fiction ending, is to change my responses that might have swung into fears and whispered long-standing warning shouts of “don’t get it wrong!” today and tomorrow and tomorrow’s tomorrow?

Take some time to create from this question. Don’t rush or push or make it into “I have to do this,” write to it because it feels good to do so.

This writing was borne from Meditation Month of Blending Poetry and Meditation. I meditated on the quote in the graphic from Ursula Le Guin’s poem “Leaves” and this morning, 24 hours later, wrote this brief essay in one “writing as a meditation” swoop.

The poem "Leaves" by Ursula K. Le Guin shares this line, "Might as well say I am the shadow," which I used to center my meditative practice yesterday. The tree is the mulberry in my front yard, where I livestreamed on Instagram Live and Periscope.

Julie JordanScott has been writing since before she was literate by dictating her thoughts to her mother and then copying in thick crayons onto construction paper. She was a pioneer in epublishing and continues to reach readers through her blog, bestselling books, greeting cards and her essays and poems in anthologies. Join her for #5for5BrainDump beginning August 10- to experience the freedom of writing in an online setting. Join the Facebook Group Word-Love Writing Community to meet other writers and explore writing more deeply.

She also hosts or writing circles and a writing for social media program.

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What are You Looking Forward to in May?

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In a field of lavender, we begin our celebration of National Meditation Month. The banner states that claim and adds "blending poetry and meditation to create, make and live a more mindful, artfilled life."

I learned this morning May is National Meditation Month. Seeing how I had so much fun with April being National Poetry Month and March being Women’s History Month there must be something to woo my creative senses while at the same time connect me to something larger than me in the Virginia Woolf room pushing on letter keys to create some semblance of meaning during this strangely unfamiliar time we are living through right now.

In my world of no accidents, it makes perfect sense that May is for Meditation. My word of the month is Centering – that happened because I was reading a book about centering I had bought at a used book sale who knows when and the concept shouted “this is me!” and here I am, in the midst of being separate together with you and everyone else except my daughter.

Meditation and poetry is centering.

The planning me wonders, “How shall we optimize these wild synchronicities?”

The creative balanced with planning me says, “Well, naturally, you take poetry that you love by women which you are and you read a poem and allow the line that most centers you to be the focal point of wither a walking or sitting meditation every day in May!’

From Jane Huffman's poem comes the first line for meditation: "Like a pain, the truth is mine." It is from Ms. Huffman's poem. "The Rest" which you may find a link to in the article.

“Well, naturally” scoffs my “There must be a challenge facing me that I may gallantly solve!” or something like that and I realize I love this plan that for me sounds both a pure pleasure and a bit of stretch in daily commitment.

Tonight and until tomorrow I am focusing a line of poetry from “The Rest” by Jane Huffman, that goes like this: “Like a pain, the truth is mine.”

We will also be sharing videos like the one below, essays and poems and more written from the meditations and poetry.

The image is a picnic basket and the poem is a meditation itself - a villanelle written by Adrienne Su, who when hosting a party notices her guests were throwing away the "disposable" chop sticks she offered that were not, in her world, disposable at all.

Images will be posted daily on Instagram and on the Writing Camp with JJS Facebook page and in the Word-Love Poetry Community. Lots of support for you to grow and play and experience peace, calm as you create, make and life a more mindful, art-filled life in May.

That sounds like a heavenly way to spend May. Perhaps it does to you, too.

Tell me in the comments. How was your April? What do you look forward to in May?

Julie Jordan Scott sits on her porch drinking coffee from a Lowell Observatory mug

Julie JordanScott has been writing since before she was literate by dictating her thoughts to her mother and then copying in thick crayons onto construction paper. She was a pioneer in epublishing and continues to reach readers through her blog, best selling books, greeting cards and her essays and poems in anthologies. Join her for one of her upcoming #5for5BrainDump programs or an upcoming writing circle or writing for social media programs.

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