SOULFUL INTIMACY DURING SOCIAL DISTANCING
/“ Staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection”.
~ Brene Brown
On January 17, 2019 the beloved poet Mary Oliver died. Her poetry has been an inspiration to so many of us for so many years. Whether I read her poems silently to myself for sustenance, or I heard her words spoken aloud in a circle of women, Ms. Oliver was a regular presence in my life. She was and still is a messenger, mentor, teacher, friend, and guiding light to many of us as we “talk story” or dance beneath a dazzling moon.
In my Process Poetry classes, I endeavor to create an emotionally safe container where we come together and express ourselves with language. And sometimes I like to facilitate writing practice by suggesting we have an imaginary conversation with another person or spirit, a kind of playful “call and response”. It is a fun and fluid way to get our pens moving on the page. A disarming way to write, as if we are simply in conversation with a beloved friend, a compelling song, a provocative photograph, an evocative quote, or perhaps even another poet’s poem.
In ordinary life, we are constantly in conversation with others, and just as frequently, we are talking to ourselves, inside our own busy heads! Now that we are living in these extraordinary times, where social distancing and sheltering in place are the new normal, we can sometimes feel isolated and perhaps even overwhelmed. It is vital that we discover new ways to connect and commune with each other. And it is essential that we do this in an atmosphere where we feel safe enough to be vulnerable.
I welcome you to join me in a creative conversation, a playful call and response, where social distancing can, paradoxically, be an invitation to soulful intimacy. This current landscape asks that we be creative and explore outside the box. New paradigms and opportunities for connection are literally at our fingertips.
The “call and response” practice is one of the many that I like to do with students in my writing classes, and it is available to you, right here and now with me! It works beautifully as a catalyst to generate original poetry and prose. This way of writing is a direct conduit to our souls. And because our inner Muse loves to play in this sandbox of the imagination, there is absolutely no way to do it wrong!
From now until the end of May, I am offering free consultations to support you in developing and sustaining your creative self-expression.
Please contact me: meriswalton@creativeresonance.me
Below I want to share with you an example of how I had my own imaginary “call and response” conversation, years ago, with Mary Oliver and her lovely poem, “Messenger”:
“MESSENGER” by Mary Oliver:
My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird-
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect?
Let me keep my mind on what matters,
Which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is that we live forever.
”My Response to The Messenger’s Call” by Meris Walton:
I say yes to this messenger
to her challenge here, now
in this present moment, how
to be present in this instant
is my holy work...
Blessed coincidence,
marvelous synchronicity!
For my task too
seems to be loving this world.
“Where two or more are gathered in my name,” it was proclaimed,
way back when, and ever since then,
we’ve been charged with being astonished.
Admonished to be still, to be silent, and to listen well,
to be equal seekers of sweetness, to remember daily that to live fully,
is to love specifically and universally,
and in that astonishing way,
we cannot help but live forever.
