What emerges from the most difficult time of your life? Some reflection, an invitation to see what is really here, and the choice to make art out of the unthinkable. (photo by Finn Trommer)
Preview: Episode 70 Rosemerry & Christie revisit the past year in creativity, trauma and personal growth
Almost exactly a year ago, Rosemerry and Christie released a very personal, very difficult episode that spoke of the recent stroke Christie’s father had suffered and the death of Rosemerry’s son. In this episode, the podcast hosts talk about the past year and how the challenges of facing uncertainty and the death of a loved one have affected their creative practices. They talk about the dangers of expectation, the importance of perspective and reflection, how a creative practice can lay the groundwork for healing, the importance of community and reflective practice, and much more.
What We’re Reading and Listening to:
Rosemerry:
A few years ago, I heard about this beautiful children’s book, This Is a Poem that Heals Fish, text by Jean-Pierre Siméon and illustrations by Olivier Tallec, translated by Claudia Zoe Bedrick. Published by the beloved Enchanted Lion Books, this is a book that opens a giant conversation about what is a poem and how do we learn (and relearn) to see the world. It’s definitely a book for all ages … whimsical and hard hitting at the same time.
I have long been a lover of nature poems, and quite honestly, it’s not easy to find a great collection of them. But Earth Song: A Nature Poem Experience, is one of the better ones I’ve found. It just came out this summer, and with poems by so many greats—Gerard Manley Hopkins, William Wordsworth, Wendell Berry, Wallace Stevens, Rabindranath Tagore, Robert Frost and Jane Hirshfield, it has some real chops. But there are plenty of poets I didn’t know, too, (and truth be told I have a poem in there, too). I was so impressed with this collection, curated by Sara Barkat. For anyone who loves this planet of ours …
Christie:
I absolutely loved Gabrielle Zevin’s new novel, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. It’s an expertly observed and insightful exploration of a friendship between two creative partners, and it provides a window into creative process. The characters are well-developed and interesting and it’s a sharp observation of the time periods (1990s and beyond). My favorite book of the year so far.
There are many great insights in this story published in Nature about a group of scientists who spent a year encouraging each other to say no (one of them even “whimsically suggested we make a game out of saying no by challenging ourselves to collectively decline 100 work-related requests”). “Tracking our decisions introduced a moment for us to pause and make a conscious choice,” the authors write. It’s reminiscent of our episode on saying no.
A friend recommended the new Amazon Prime series Paper Girls, and it does not disappoint. Based on a comic book series, it follows four girls (they meet through their jobs delivering newspapers in the late 1980s) as they navigate a time-travel crisis. The sci-fi storylines are fine, but it’s the personal stories of the girls and their relationships that carry the series. The show does a fine job of exploring the chasm between who we become and who we’d hoped to be and the reasons for caring about anything in the first place.
Circumventing the Busy Self
What I need tonight is a chair—
the big upholstered kind
that sighs when I sit into it,
the kind that holds me the way
I used to imagine a cloud would hold me—
downy, cozy, comfy, secure
and filled with light.
I need a chair that will make me
not want to get up to do
whatever important thing
I think I must do.
Why do I always think I need
to do something? Why
is it so hard to just sit?
So, I guess, what I really need is a chair
and a seatbelt, the kind
they have on helicopters
with five straps that meet
in the center—though
I think those are self-release,
and we all know I will soon
feel driven to rise and rush,
no matter how cumulonimbus-ish
that chair might feel, no matter
how insistent the straps.
So tonight, what I really need
is a soft chair and a five-strap seat belt
and a giant weighted blanket—
not heavy enough to crush me,
but one with enough gravity
that being still feels like the only
real choice. And if I am still, very still,
and not accomplishing anything for a while,
then perhaps I will meet this grief
I am escaping—not that I am trying
to escape it on purpose, it’s just
there is so much important
stuff to do and, perhaps,
let’s say I’ve noticed that when I just sit,
just sit,
with nothing to read and nothing
to do, the grief sits with me
and asks nothing of me except
that I meet it. In that moment,
I remember turning toward grief
is what I most want to do.
In that moment, there is nothing
on any to do list that could deter me
from meeting this grief.
Oh world, I remember.
I remember right now,
so please, what I need most tonight,
it doesn’t matter how soft,
is a chair.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
A Note About Paid Subscriptions:
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This week, Rosemerry shares how metaphors can be a powerful tool for meeting grief and trauma. She reads six poems and talks about how the use of metaphor helped her to heal, the importance of paradox, plus she offers her formula for making metaphors of EVERYTHING. 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 has a difficult emotional event influenced your creative practice?
Choose any object and consider three things it has to teach you about grief.