Mary Oliver
I daresay that Mary Oliver is speaking here of the craft of writing, poetry in particular.
Which doesn't stop me from thinking on how to apply this thought to making and creating.
In applying the word craft here, I am thinking of skill, wisdom, and knowledge that has been built up over time. I am thinking of techniques that have been finely honed, understandings of materials that are deep. I am thinking about familiarity with the patterns and ebbs and flows of how work comes into being that experience has shown us.
This craft of making is definitely what takes us out to the edge; to the boundary; to the liminal space between the known and the yet to be known. That place where our work pushes through some barrier which we may not even have been aware of.
The notion of breakthrough doesn't just happen. Even those moments where we think of as being struck by the muse; clear moments of inspiration, or easy discoveries of the way forward, we owe to our craft. To all the things we have gathered in harvest as we have come to be where we are now. All that has gone before enables and facilitates these moments of breakthrough.
Those moments that happen on the far edge of familiar territory...
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Like a rainbow comet over a familiar valley...
I have no words except that this has spoken to me so deeply and clearly - thank you and best wishes.
ReplyDeleteDear Lisa - it remains magical for me how words can reach across the globe and land just where they ought to, when they are needed. These thoughts are worth remembering as we make, struggle, create and succeed...go well.
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