So much good advice has fallen into tired phrases and cliches. We share proverbs and anecdotes with good intentions, yet they erode with overuse.
It’s something to ponder: You can hear the most profound wisdom, but unless you are disposed to truly receive it for what it is, you might pass it off as common sense, something everyone already knows.
But framed in a profound experience, the same words or the same statement would reveal a whole other side of itself to you.
Sometimes when something is brought to us in the form of a poem we grant it a kind of extra license and spaciousness and are better able to receive it.
That said, here is a poem from the Wen Fu that expresses something of the beauty (and challenge) of the creative path.
XV. The Inspiration
The time comes when emotions
strangle, though every stimulus
demands response;
there are times
when the spirit freezes.
The writer feels dead
as bleached wood,
dry as a riverbed in drought.
For a way out, search
the depths of the soul
for a spirit;
beg, if need be,
for a vital sign of life.
The dark inside the mind
lies hidden;
thoughts must be brought out
like a child from the womb,
terrified and screaming.
Forcing emotions
brings error
and error again;
letting them come
naturally
means letting them come clear.
The truth of the thing
lies inside us,
but no power on earth can force it.
Time after time,
I search my heart in this struggle.
Sometimes a door slowly opens;
sometimes the door
remains bolted.