One of My New Favorite Poems

Saint Francis and the Sow

by Galway Kinnell


The bud

stands for all things,

even for those things that don’t flower,

for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;

though sometimes it is necessary

to reteach a thing its loveliness,

to put a hand on its brow

of the flower

and retell it in words and in touch

it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;

as Saint Francis

put his hand on the creased forehead

of the sow, and told her in words and in touch

blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow

began remembering all down her thick length,

from the earthen snout all the way

through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,

from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine

down through the great broken heart

to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering

from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them:

the long, perfect loveliness of sow.

Creativity as Mediator Between the Worlds

Creativity is a mysterious journey that connects us to the unseen worlds. There was a time when all people had access to the unseen worlds, although it was the shamans, story tellers and healers who mediated between the worlds as they journeyed into the Mystery and interpreted the images found there. Today we have our contemporary journeyers into the cosmic unseen worlds--many creative people are such journeyers--but as a culture we have lost the connection to our instinctual nature. With the development of the human brain and the march of history, the pendulum has swung so far that an overwhelming majority of people do not consider the journey into the unseen worlds a possibility, much less a necessity.

It has become trite to say that modern society has lost its soul, but in truth, that's just what has happened. Soul is something that cannot be experienced in the outer world. It cannot be understood, evaluated, judged. Soul is the groundswell of the inner world, and the eyes with which we view the outer world are blind when turned inward. It is only with the eyes of the heart--the instinctual nature of our deep internal knowing--that we traverse the inner landscape and find our way to soul.

If our outer eyes are perceptive, however, and guided by our inner knowing, we can see the outcome of mystery. This happens when, for example, the invisible becomes suddenly visible, or the impossible becomes suddenly possible in ways that cannot be explained by the rational mind. Such things often happen on both a small and large scale, but in Western culture we are quick to attribute them to coincidence; if coincidence isn't sufficient, then the doubting Thomas is convinced it can "figure out" a rational explanation of the mystery.

How much richer life can be when we are open Mystery. But to do this, we must be brave warriors of the spirit, with creativity both our fire and our sword.

Guidance for the Inner Critic

Here is a letter that Irene Kessler wrote to her Inner Critic. I was so moved, I asked if I could reprint her.

Dear Inner Critic,

What you have said to Irene is not reality and harsh and there is no reason to be harsh. The best things happen when you come from love. Love and honor yourself always and you will do fantastic work. You have it in you and you see that in bits and pieces of writing you have already done. Before you write, love yourself. Fill your being with compassion for yourself and the world. Shine a light on yourself and the universe. Know they are there to help and guide you and that is the strongest force there is. Nothing can override it. Go and write my child, and be happy.

The Inner Critic and the Creative Unconscious

The Inner Critic is terrified of the creative unconscious because it is the home of feelings, emotions, images and it is chaotic and unexpected. The Inner Critic likes order and loves the status quo, which is antithetical to the creative unconscious. That's why if you "fall down the rabbit hole" the Inner Critic won't follow you! Free of the Inner Critic, you have the possibility of experiencing real creative freedom and passionate stories awaits you. Only then can the true dance begin!

Sacred Question

What is the deepest longing of my life?

The answer can be heard only in the stillness.
Can you feel its call...

Opening to Creativity: The Land of Betwixt and Between

Traveling to the Land of Betwixt and Between. A Cosmic Journey!

The land of Betwixt and Between is the boundary of neither/nor, the place where objects touch, auras blend and energy is transformed. It is midnight, the betwitching hour, the time of neither day nor night but mysteriously both. It arrives unannounced like creativity itself.

The place of betwixt and between is the magic, the mystery, the essence of creativity where nothing is what it seems and everything is possible.

The time of betwixt and between is the waxing of the moon becoming the waning of the moon becoming the waxing of the moon. Appearing full for three nights, absolute fullness is only a moment, then passes into the land of betwixt and between.

What else is betwixt and between?

Fog, mist, clouds and all that is elusive, wandering, shapeless, shifting from something, disappearing into nothing–– elusive as creativity itself. Like dawn and dusk, it appears, fills us and is gone without a trace.

Where else is the betwixt and between?

The water's edge betwixt and between the shoreline and the horizon, the air and sea: three worlds coming together. Air, water, and earth changing, ebbing, flowing elusive.

Betwixt and between is that invisible world between the wave and the beach, the fire and the log, the root and the soil, the bud and the stem, the drop of rain and the leaf, the new crust of snow and the old.

• Can you travel to these places of betwixt and between?
• Can you know the spirits that dwell therein?
• Can you leave your body and enter the essence of betwixt and between?
• Can you fly free into wild creativity that is the essence of life?

Light a candle and breath deeply. Watch the rise and fall of your breath. Can you find the betwixt and between in the rise and fall of your breath? Breath deeply as you gaze into the flame. Can you send your creative essence in between the flame and wick? What creativity lies there?

Go to the places of betwixt and between. Fly free and enter possibility. What stories, what adventures lie there??

A Message from the Muse

“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”

~ Joseph Campbell

On Intuition

Intuition is a choice to look within and trust the unknown is not the enemy.