The following poem is by Saint John of the Cross. I am very much drawn to ecstatic spiritual poetry because it seems to be a wonderful description of the creative act, which is like entering in the realm of the unknown, the unknowable. When the writing is going well, it is like a moment of transcendence.
I entered in, I know not where,
And I remained, though knowing naught,
Transcending knowledge with my thought.
Of when I entered I know naught,
But when I saw that I was there
(Though where it was I did not care)
Strange things I learned, with greatness fraught.
Yet what I heard I'll not declare.
But there I stayed, though knowing naught,
Transcending knowledge with my thought.
Of peace and piety interwound
This perfect science had been wrought,
Within the solitude profound
A straight and narrow path it taught,
Such secret wisdom there I found
That there I stammered, saying naught,
But topped all knowledge with my thought.
So borne aloft, so drunken-reeling
So rapt was I, so swept away,
Within the scope of sense or feeling
My sense or feeling could not stay.
And in my soul I felt, revealing,
A sense that, though its sense was naught,
Transcended knowledge with my thought.
The man who truly there has come
Of his own self must shed the guise:
Of all he knew before the sun
Seems far beneath that wondrous prize:
And in this lore he grows so wise
That he remains, though knowing naught,
Transcending knowledge with his thought.
The farther that I climbed the height
The less I seemed to understand
The cloud so tenebrous and grand
That there illuminates the night.
For he who understands that sight
Remains for aye, though knowing naught,
Transcending knowledge with his thought.
This wisdom without understanding
Is of so absolute a force
No wise man of whatever standing
Can ever stand against its course,
Unless they tap its wondrous source
To know so much, though knowing naught,
They pass all knowedge with their thought, ...
Why I think this poem is applicable to the creative process:
1--It is something you ENTER, not something you do.
2--If you bring too much KNOWLEDGE to the process, you can kill your creative source. Somehow, you must TRANSCEND what you know, or think you know.
3--If you transcend knowledge, you will discover STRANGE THINGS, wonderful things, that have been trapped in your unconscious. There in your unconscious, you will find SECRET WISDOM that will inform your writing.
4--To come to this place of secret wisdom, you must shed your GUISE. You can't pretend to be another person (or another writer!). You have to shed the faces you put on in your daily life and write from your center, your true self.
5--The truths that you tell will be an ABSOLUTE FORCE that others are waiting and needing to hear.
*Note--Of course writing is a recursive process. At points knowledge is useful, during the editing phase for instance when we shape our poems or narratives and correct mistakes. Most writers go back and forth between these acts of creating and shaping/correcting.
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3 comments:
When I would write I could not get out of the editing phase. I would not be satisified and so the final never resembled the beginning. I would not be satisified so I would destroy it with the editing.
It's all a matter of perspective, I think, and very subjective.
1. I don't enter the creative process. It entered me with my genetic makeup. I do various things that are creative. I can't not be creative.
2. Whatever knowledge I bring to the process is whatever is in my head and I've never given it much thought. I'm a rather subconsciously creative person and I rarely think about it. Except when discussing it with folks. But never when I'm actually creating something. And it's never a conscious decision to not think of it. I simply decide that today I feel like writing or painting a box or drawing or whatever.
3. I guess I have too much of a practical, pragmatic nature to know what transcending knowledge could mean. :)
4. See #3. I have no idea what this means. Secret wisdom? My Guise? I am what I am, which is many things.
5. Truth is a nebuloous truth and can be perceived in various ways. My truths are no more valid than anyone else's. I don't write or create things with truths in mind. I write or create with the idea that something is cool or tells a story or simply appeals to me. Others can like it or not. That's up to them.
I've always been more interested in the specifics of process, the practical side of writing than any philosophy behind it, I guess.
You hit the mark, writing is the ability to tap the universal force. It takes a great deal of courage to do so. It is not for the faint of heart. Courage writer to write the truth.
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