Meeting+Archives

We will move previous meetings to this space as we report on new meetings and other developments.


 * First Creative Forces Gathering**
 * January 19, 2013**
 * Who: Susan Davis, HollyAnne Giffin, Barbara Porter, Jan Ott**
 * Where: Susan's kitchen and back yard**

Susan: Attempting to journal 15 minutes a day to develop a disciplined approach to creativity has not worked for me. As soon as school started, I lapsed due my "curse of practicality." Advice? 5-minute reflection or creative exercise is do-able, not so daunting -- Jan "We need to find comfort with discomfort or uncertainty." -- HollyAnne "I've learned to let [worrying about being creative] go. I trust that something is going to happen." -- Barbara We do feel the value of face-to-face meeting (and knoshing), enjoy the pressure and pleasure of a live audience, but also appreciate that sharing can happen in others ways. Expand this wiki and invite new members to participate -- our face-to-face gatherings may inspire others; online sharing will inspire us in future; interesting possibilities for give and take. Share exercises and discussion topics with others online, have them respond and meet online to discuss (chat, webinar, google hangouts) Invite new friends to join us.
 * Susan's Discussion Topics:**
 * How can we be mindfully creative?
 * How can we save and share our explorations of creativity (possibly expanding to an online format)?

Brainstorm with your creative friends to come up with one-syllable words that can be either nouns or verbs and add to the original list my husband and I generated when traveling from east Tennessee, up the mountainous spine of Virginia, and home to Baltimore. The idea is to focus on simple language as a basis for writing powerful poems. Then use 10 words from the combined list to write a self-portrait poem. (In retrospect, it might be useful to talk a bit about self-portraits first. Barbara shared her experience with a group journaling project that helped start us off.) We set a timer for 15 minutes, then added 5 minutes. We all shared our poems (see Susan's and Jan's below). Hint: It helps to take a minute at the beginning to circle the first 10 or so words that claim your attention.
 * Creative Exercise: Self-Portrait in Nouns and Verbs**

Original Word List: scratch, loom, stay, crane, rake, trip, cave, bark, will, coast, rose, gum, stock, brook, skate, catch, bow, gloss, shade, charm, pine, court, purse, beam, rock, twine, bog, scold, track, fool, sent, rank, stew, stage, slip, brace, net, face, blind, mint

We added these words: line, dive, hum, dove, toast, dance, hurt, run, skip, scarf, snake, grace, brain, walk, sex, drive, mold, stand, fold, nail, dog.

Jan's Poem: I live my life in grace or that's the intent. More to the point, I scratch at my divinity, dancing with my dog as I contemplate my existence. I walk in beams of light, grateful for the sun that brings life to all, looking at the future which looms in front of me, the work driving me away from my center and I cave until I take a stand to reclaim my will.

Susan's poem: Grace eludes me, the boggy breath of pure calm, the hum of quiet energy, the beam of light that will rise like a dove through the spine. Instead, I am dogged by a blind snake that charms the hurt stew of lost selves into my brain.

"Book Spine" poems. I refer to the ever-wonderful Brainpickings for further details on these delightfully physical incarnations of poetry and literature. - H Odes in the style of Neruda's Elemental Odes (see "Ode to a Red Solo Cup" below) Field trips -- museums, walking around with cameras, etc.
 * Other creative exercises to consider:**

Poem in Your Pocket Day and spin-off of sidewalk poems (Jan's idea) Word, Word, Words -- Susan's "Self-Portrait in Nouns and Verbs" as assigned to students
 * Creative Ideas Specifically for School:**

Toby Keith's "Ode to a Red Solo Cup" (Barbara) -- just google it for the YouTube video (babes and beer somehow not the right thing for our wiki, perhaps) and all the spin-offs Yamodo exercise (HollyAnne) -- apparently there is a commercial version, but this is not really needed. Perhaps HollyAnne can describe the rules on her page. Here is the Yamodo website. - H Colored Pencil exercise (Barbara) -- very interesting creative exercise involving writing in colored pencils and free associating about the color used. Photography site for digital storytelling : poetryforpeople.net (HollyAnne) Jonah Lehrer's //Imagine //(Susan) One Word -- one word writing prompts (Susan) Exquisite Corpse (Susan) -- linked drawing exercise used by the Surrealists. Found Magazine -- found photos, notes, grocery lists, etc. Progoff Intensive Journal Program (Jan) -- add more about this? (Silly side note: I totally thought she said "pro-golf journaling." Interesting, perhaps, but certainly different. - H) Noah Scalin's //Unstuck// (HollyAnne)
 * Stuff We Shared:**

Inspired by guerilla knitting (also known as yarn bombing), Susan's encounter with Yoko Ono's "Peace Tree" at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice (but apparently they are all over), Barbara's fascination with found art, Jan's description of her friend's May Day project (see Jan's page) and HollyAnne's project with students that involved leaving "blessings" around her school for others to notice (idea via Operation Beautiful). We are thinking of launching a project of leaving positive messages, blessings, around Houston (or other places?) for others to discover. We want to make the blessings, leave them in public places, and try to document some of the discoveries. Possible variation: Ribbon bombs? Gorilla in logo?
 * Possible Group Project: Guerilla Blessings**