The Annual Epiphany Episode
Rosemerry & Christie reflect on creative practice in 2025
“Discomfort is an essential part of our practice.” —Rosemerry
Preview: Emerging Form Episode 154 on the Lows & Highs of 2025
It’s the epiphany episode! For the sixth year, Rosemerry & Christie think back on the year in creative practice—what were our so-called “failures?” In this week’s episode (out this Thursday) we discuss: Where did we surprise ourselves? What did hope might happen … and what actually happened. So many revelations in this episode! Lots of teasing and laughter and also vulnerability. We also reveal our new words for 2025 to help guide our process—and perhaps yours, too.
What We’re Reading and Listening to:
Rosemerry:
I was recently gifted “The Comfort of Crows” by Margaret Renkl, and I am loving this collection of weekly noticings, philosophical thoughts and poetic investigations. It’s a glorious invitation to be more present in our own back yards.
Why do we write? And who will receive our words? How does writing help heal us? How can we help heal others by receiving their words? I love this 8-minute film about Japan’s Missing Post Office. I recommend sitting beside someone you love and inviting the presence of someone you love who isn’t here, too, to watch this thoughtful, heart-opening, heart-aching film …
Christie:
Jason Parham’s Wired Magazine story, “DEI Died This Year. Maybe It Was Supposed To,” is an absolute must-read. “Lawson put it another way: “My job was not to cure racism.” Not long after Floyd was killed, the company she was working at tasked her with finding recommendations on how to better support Black employees. “We came up with the real ideas—better pay and promotions. I brought it to the head of HR and they said, ‘None of this seems like it’s going to give us a headline. I need something that’ll help get us a headline.’” That’s when she realized what was actually going on. “The corporate function of DEI is not to actually make things better—it is to pacify.”
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller is a character-driven novel that takes place in rural England in the early 1960s and follows the lives of two couples who are neighbors. The wives are both pregnant and also feeling adrift in their marriages, facts that helps create a bond between them. The characters really start to come to life during a Boxing Day party hosted by one of the main characters. The legacy of war and atrocities of the Holocaust are never a focus, but provide a backdrop, as several characters were irrevocably shaped by the war. The book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
Because
Christie speaks in this upcoming episode of wanting to make a difference … and that’s at the heart of this poem. Enjoy!
This video, made by the incredible Holiday Mathis, was made from one of the tracks of my new album, Risking Love, a collaboration with guitarist Steve Law, which you can listen to on Spotify, iTunes or anywhere you listen to music. Or watch all the videos from Risking Love that Holiday made here.
So I can’t save the world—
can’t save even myself,
can’t wrap my arms around
every frightened child, can’t
foster peace among nations,
can’t bring love to all who
feel unlovable.
So I practice opening my heart
right here in this room and being gentle
with my insufficiency. I practice
walking down the street heart first.
And if it is insufficient to share love,
I will practice loving anyway.
I want to converse about truth,
about trust. I want to invite compassion
into every interaction.
One willing heart can’t stop a war.
One willing heart can’t feed all the hungry.
And sometimes, daunted by a task too big,
I tell myself what’s the use of trying?
But today, the invitation is clear:
to be ridiculously courageous in love.
To open the heart like a lilac in May,
knowing freeze is possible
and opening anyway.
To take love seriously.
To give love wildly.
To race up to the world
as if I were a puppy,
adoring and unjaded,
stumbling on my own exuberance.
To feel the shock of indifference,
of anger, of cruelty, of fear,
and stay open. To love as if it matters,
as if the world depends on it.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
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. Only our paid subscribers receive our bonus episodes as a thank you for their financial support. This week Rosemerry shares poems on the new year, plus poems inspired by Christie and Rosemerry’s words from last year and for the year to come.
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)
What was your creative high point from 2025? And what did you learn from it?
What was your creative low point in 2025? And what did you learn from it?
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Emerging Form is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.