Sharon Creeden has been my good friend for thirty years.
She was a King County prosecutor, a right-brained person in a left-brained world. I would describe her as a person with one toe deeply rooted in the earth, and an ear bent toward Heaven. No wonder she left law, and went on to become an acclaimed storyteller and author. Fair is Fair: World Folktales of Justice was awarded the American Folklore Society’s Aesop Prize, as well as a Storytelling World Award.
Her brilliant anthology, In Full Bloom: Tales of Women in Their Prime (foreword by Naomi Baltuck!) is well known in the storytelling world.
But at heart she has always been a poet, and a visual artist.
Sometimes both at once. Her work, Generations, is a collage featuring a vintage photo of four generations of the women in her family. Having grown up in Kansas, Sharon chose to include the quilt pattern called “Kansas Troubles.”
On the back of this piece–and at the heart of it– you will find her poetry.
Writers, poets and artists, teachers, mothers and grandmothers…hell, everyone occasionally needs a boost.
I am fortunate to know creative people with whom I can retreat and reenergize.
To share ideas…
To feed our spirits…
To get the creative juices flowing.
To create a quiet space to write….
…and write…
…and write.
Whatever it takes!
Last week I felt overwhelmed by the enormity of the next writing project I have committed myself to. Sharon said, “Before dawn this morning, I was stewing about my resistance to starting a new painting and was reading Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of ARTMAKING. And this poem came:
I am more than the sum of dried paint tubes and stacks of attempts and tries.
I am the breath of color on canvas,
I am the vision of something never before.
I am the incessant urge of “one more time”.
Sharon transported me from that space of uncertainty. I felt cradled and spooned by the good women in my life. I felt bound not by blood and bone, but by our passion for language, story, and the incessant urge of “one more time.”
I know I can and will do whatever it takes.
One. More. Time.
Click here for more interpretations of The Weekly Photo Challenge: Admiration.
c2013 Naomi Baltuck.
Please allow me to introduce you to another friend. Jamie Dedes is the founder and managing editor of an inspiring blogazine called INTO THE BARDO. Above all, Jamie is an incredibly talented poet, whose words give pause, bring smiles, tears, and moments of breathtaking recognition. You will find her poetry on her blog, THE POET BY DAY, the journey in poem. Another good woman.
Writing Between the Lines 