Following the Earth's Lead with Creative Practice
Jacqueline Suskin on creative practice changing with the seasons
“The earth is bountiful with guidance when it comes to how to be better in my practice, how to rest in my practice.” —Jacqueline Suskin
Preview: Episode 99 Turning to the Earth to Guide Your Creative Practice
“Everyone’s searching for this rhythm that suits them best,” says poet and creativity coach Jacqueline Suskin. “and in my practice of searching, I wonder when is the best time to get things done, when is the best time to be relaxing, when should I be pushing for it … and I turn to the earth for answers no matter what I am searching for.” In her newest book, A Year in Practice: Seasonal Rituals and Prompts to Awaken Cycles of Creative Expression, Suskin explores the cycles of a creative life—which, she suggests, is every life. In this episode, she and Rosemerry explore the nature of devotion, the challenges and rewards of aligning our practice with the seasons, connecting with the natural world in urban/suburban environments, and how this season of autumn might guide your creativity.
Jacqueline Suskin is a sought-after poet and educator, recognized by Michelle Obama as a Turnaround Artist, who regularly leads writing and creativity workshops for Commune, Insight Timer, and InsideOut, garnering press in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Atlantic, Better Homes & Gardens, Spirituality & Health, the Huffington Post, and beyond. She is the author of eight books and lives in Detroit.
What We’re Reading and Listening to:
Rosemerry:
I am newly in love with Shakespeare’s sonnet 29, “When, in Disgrace with Fortune and Men’s Eyes” … a poem that really speaks to comparison and how deadly it can be … and the power of love.
Also blowing my mind lately is this poem, Crossroads, by the recently deceased Louise Glück, a poem she wrote of making peace with the body as we meet our own mortality.
Christie:
I just read Raja Shehadeh’s haunting memoir, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I, and I can’t stop thinking about it. At its core, this is a heartfelt book about a complicated relationship between father and son. The title refers to the author’s realization, many years after his father’s murder, that it could have been otherwise. They could have been friends. The story is also rich with Palestinian history, which is devastating at times. Everything feels devastating right now.
For Undark Magazine, I just reviewed a hilarious, highly informative and cheeky book, “A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?” by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith and I absolutely loved it. It’s funny and the sketches by Zach are fantastic.
The Eye of Consciousness
We call the moment brutal, tallying death
as we mark history, losing traction, watching
the whole function of the free world loosen
its grip on erratic reality. But consciousness
is an open eye that witnesses everything
without cringing, without blinking, ever aware
and curious. It does not have a body; it floats
through us, the cosmos, taking note. Even now
it stares unfazed, receiving the current
chaos, recognizing familiar devastation.
Awash in the constant rush of information
that will soon again change, it leaves this small
point in time for the next, all past held
in pupil, all knowledge in iris, weightless
and traveling onward with ease.
—Jacqueline Suskin, from A Year in Practice: Seasonal Rituals and Prompts to Awaken Cycles of Creative Expression
A Note About Paid Subscriptions:
First, we want to thank ALL our subscribers! We are so grateful you join us in this conversation about what it is to engage with yourself, the world and others in a creative way. And a BIG thank you to our paid subscribers. You make this podcast possible. Starting this month, only our paid subscribers will receive our bonus episodes as a thank you for their financial support.
This week, Jacqueline Suskin talks about the role of imagination in creative practice, how writer’s block is a function of focusing on “outcome” and how to reframe writer’s block, and the pleasures of recreating ourselves and our creative careers. If you are not yet a paid subscriber, you can go now to our website, EmergingForm.substack.com, or by clicking the button below. Thank you!
Two Questions:
(share your answers with us here on Substack or in our FB group)
How does autumn affect your creative practice?
What role does imagination play in your creative practice?
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