Maybe this life is really death and death is really life?And in fearing Death, am I really afraid of my own resurrection?

What did I leave beyond that veil?
Can those buried uncanny memories
seep into this leaking heart?

Can I laugh gazing inward to converse with the dark?

The unknown...

Images trickle from this creative void
and whatever interferes with that 
serene, sustaining stream blocks the crystallization of love in my heart.

The Mystery spirals from this space
of shifting stars
as I reflect its sacred emptiness.

Can I step fully into the birth of my visions?
Can the rapturous archetypal imagery
reflect on the gray walls of this inner well?

This brief vibration of life begs me to move slowly so it can all become more real,
yet I rush with incomplete images clambering after...

I want these heart inscribed images to grind and meld, an orchestra of seeds and stars that tugs at me everyday pressing like rocks changing coal to diamond.

We are all wounded; we are all wounded by life
so we ask, what are we?

Just collections of imagery arising 
in a strange world of cosmic dust?
No! No!  We are not imaginary.  
We are not imaginary!

We are living impulses realizing 
that we are all creations creating creation...

The symbols of rebirth fill our lives.  There's the Phoenix rising from the ashes, the snake shedding its skin, the butterfly flying free of the cocoon, the season of winter slowly encroaching on the land, the moon disappearing from the sky to join with the sun.  In pondering the way things fade and die I wrote this poem and realized the potency of creativity.  


We are all creations creating creation!


Creativity is such a potent path of exploring your relationship to the images that live in your heart.  And these images actually connect you with the divine spirit.  The creative process is so transformational.  You literally rebirth yourself from within when you engage your creative abilities.  The journey changes you because you're taking thought energy and transforming it into art forms that other people can experience and be moved by.  It's like an atomic bomb in reverse.  Instead of transforming matter into energy you're doing the reverse, changing energy into matter.  No wonder they call it brainstorming!  Whether you create a child, write a book, or paint a picture, you won't be the same person who started the journey.  The process regenerates who you are as you become more of who you truly are.

Percy Shelley once wrote:

"Poets are cradled into poetry by wrong; they learn in suffering what they teach in song."

Sometimes the pain and adversity drive us to find our song.  

Walt Whitman wrote:

"The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse." 

So what will your creative song be?  What images live in your heart longing to be expressed?  Your child's heart holds the answer.  Your inner child who once played and enjoyed life from the heart.  You cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven, unless you become like children, trusting, innocent, flowing, loving, spontaneous, and very disciplined and responsible about play and joy!  I have a young son named Arian Brazenwood who's named after the elven hero in my fantasy adventure novel.  I gave him a different last name and everything.  When we play together I feel like he knows exactly what he's doing.  He doesn't need instructions.  He just plays, a master at play.

The creative journey will destroy your old familiar, habitual self.  And because of this, people are afraid of taking any step at all and they become masters of excuses and to-do lists.  They think it's not worth it unless the play generates lots of money.  They forget that they journey is the destination, the journey is the reward.  It doesn't matter what peak you're called to climb.  Once you get there, you'll find other peaks to play on.  There's always that dark presence in the world that gives people the perfect excuse not to step out boldly and passionately into their bliss.  I'm not denying that evil exists in the world.  Innocent people are dying and being abused every day.  The fear arises and chases you like a raving demon.  So I wrote the next poem in the series to get to the bottom of this issue.  It's called The Dark Presence and it's inspired by a story written by an old Chinese sage named Chuang Tzu.