When a person decides to go public with either their personal or political opinion,literature, poetry or recipes for food; he or she has just opened the door to approval, disapproval, critique, judgement and / or popularity.
So why did I start this blog!!
I mainly started it because I have always liked sharing. Isn’t humanity built on sharing? If we don’t share our knowledge and teach one another, how do we progress! I wanted to share recipes of food, because I have learnt from others how to cook and perhaps I can teach someone, something.
However when I write poetry, I become very selfish. I do not think about what others might like or dislike. I write for me, only me. With poetry I feel totally free. I am free from the opinion of others, free from expectations, free from obligations and it is purely time spent with myself. I wonder about other poets, do they feel the same as I do or are they conscious of their audience? Do they write for themselves or others? Where do they get their inspiration from, and do they edit, rethink, rewrite and analyse their poetry?
For me when I write poetry, thinking ceases and feeling begins. The poem basically writes itself. So what is the force behind this?
Is it a state of higher consciousness, or do I somehow manage in those moments to shut the brain and allow images to filter through? Paul Klee describes a creative moment as such: “Everything vanishes around me, and works are born as if out of the void. Ripe, graphic fruits fall off. My hand has become the obedient instrument of a remote will.” It is that void, that space where thoughts are no longer manifested in the form which we are accustomed to; instead they come in the shape of what is commonly referred to as inspiration. Creativity is born.
Ray Bradbury feels similarly to Klee and he instructs us the following: “Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things”. So this makes me wonder, what if more people stop thinking so much, stop being scared so much, stop being hesitant so much and instead simply do. I wonder how many more painters, musicians, writers, adventurers, travellers and poets the world will witness!!
To do or not to do, that is the question…
© Poem and Dish | All rights reserved.
Poem and Dish 
Hi Zeina
Thanks for your thoughts about poetry and creativity. My own experience is that when I am writing poetry I am both full of myself and emptied of my self (or perhaps my every day consciousness). It is the sweetest feeling.
As an aside, I suspect that too much thinking might be the genesis of depression.
On the other hand for me writing a poem is not without thinking. Perhaps the relationship between thinking and being (allowing the poetic to arise) is radically altered.
Thanks for your blog – love the beachside bars in Beirut.
Steve
“I am both full of myself and emptied of my self”. Steve, I loved how you expressed the experience of writing poetry, it is truly the sweetest feeling. Thinking is of course present but it takes on a different form. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. Zeina
Dear Zeina
I totally agree with you, thinking slams the breaks on creativity, let you soul fly like wings of passion who without, we can never reach the skies above, poetry is a conduit to to the world beyond our physical reach or mundane understanding, lucky are the few who can unlock its doors and share its secrets with us, this is an act of generosity not selfishness, how else can we travel to that world without? No need to justify or apology about the gifts that God have bestowed on you, the greatest lost is not sharing with us
I believe we are meant to play this role in life by accessing the spiritual world to the physical one, poetry is one key of the few creative keys to achieve that noble cause, I admire your courage in starting this public blog, yes it does take courage to expose one’s soul to the world, there are no guarantees that we can touch all who come cross our pass, but the greatest loss is to hide behind a veil from the fear of not being understood and thus in the process silencing the music of our heart, what a sad day that will be!
Truly
Paul Marsh
Thank you dear Paul. Beautifully said.