“Die before you die. That is my passion right now. Doesn’t matter how hold you are— practice the divesting of [your] identities and behaviors and discovering for yourself first hand, what is here, what is shining through.”—Kim Rosen (photo by Finn Trommer)
Preview: Episode 71 Kim Rosen
So much of our creative life is spent building and creating our story, but eventually we reach “the dénouement side of the plot.” What does this change in our creative story look like? How do we meet it? That’s what we explore in this week’s episode with poet, performer and teacher Kim Rosen. When our sense of value comes from what we are doing or making, what happens as this changes? How might we let go of our creative identities as we age? And why is this essential work?
Kim Rosen, author of Saved by a Poem: The Transformative Power of Words, has awakened listeners around the world to the power of poetry to heal, awaken and disarm individuals and communities. As a ritualist and guide of inner exploration, her current passion is weaving poetry, music, teaching and self-inquiry to invite us to turn towards aging, death and letting go. Her upcoming Fall audio release, Feast of Losses, is a collaboration on the same theme with cellist Jami Sieber. She is the co-creator of several recordings of spoken poems and music and her writing has been published in The Sun Magazine, O Magazine,The Texas Review and Spirituality and Health Magazine. In 2007, she spoke a poem to a group of Maasai girls in Kenya who had fled FGM and Early Childhood Marriage, and that moment became the seed of the Safe House Education (S.H.E.) Fund.
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What We’re Reading and Listening to:
Rosemerry:
The five-line poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu have long entranced me. They are portals into the Heian court of imperial Japan—an era in which many of the recognized poets of the day were women. Their poems, gathered and translated in Ink Dark Moon by Jane Hirshfield, are erotic, spiritual, attentive to the natural world and full of passion, loneliness, curiosity and intimacy. I’ve had this book for many years and recently picked it up again and fell in love all over again.
If you’re a foodie, and even if you’re just a food lover, you might love Life is Meals: A Food Lover’s Book of Days as much as I do. Written by James and Kay Salter, it’s smart, it’s yummy, and it’s been living on my kitchen counter now for a few months surprising me with daily tidbits of history, recipes, definitions and celebrations of food and beverages.
Christie:
Please take a moment to read this gorgeous visual story about how “a river always reclaims” from former Emerging Form guest Sarah Gilman.
Caitlin Moran is not afraid to speak truth. In this interview, she explains how “If she wants children and a job, a woman’s life is only as good as the man or woman she marries,” Moran writes. “That’s the biggest truth I know. All too often women are marrying their glass ceilings.”
Jesmyn Ward’s devastating essay about the death of her beloved slayed me, and stuck with me for days.
Writing in the Washington Post, Sólveig Eva Magnúsdóttir makes a compelling case that it’s time to appreciate domestic artistry like sewing and baking.
Ellen Barry on how Russian trolls divided the Women’s March. Russian operatives “did not invent these social divisions; America already had them,” but Russian disinformation programs are like “an evil doctor who expertly diagnoses the patient’s vulnerabilities and exploits them” to prolong illness and speed patients to an early grave instead of a cure.
The Departure of the Prodigal Son
—Rainer Maria Rilke, translation by Kim Rosen
Now to walk away from all this entanglement
that is ours and yet does not belong to us,
that, like the water in an old well,
reflects us trembling and distorts the image;
that hooks us again and again, like thorns– to walk away from this and that
we long ago stopped seeing
(So commonplace were they, and so familiar)
then to look back once and see at last – tender, forgiving as if for the first time, so close –
how impersonal is the suffering that comes to all of us that fills childhood to the brim:
And then to walk away, rending hand from hand
as if to re-open a wound,
and walk away: where? Into the unknown,
far into an unfamiliar, warm country,
that, whatever happens, remains indifferent
as a backdrop: a garden or a wall;
and walk away: why? From zeal, from mission, impatience, dark expectation;
from not knowing and not being known:
To take on all this, to let go all hope
to let fall whatever you may still be holding onto, perhaps to die alone, not knowing why –
Is this the opening to a new life?
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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, Kim talks about why it’s okay to not have a daily creative routine, how failure can foster creativity, and how Rumi’s words have guided her practice. 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 do you notice your creative practice changes as you age?
Who has been your most important teacher in creative practice? What did they teach you?
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