Tick, tick, tick…clock is ticking to get something written. Deadline. Someone once pointed out to me that “deadline” is a “dead line”. Why rush to that? So, slowing down here I will offer you another view. Muses exist outside of time -- or, through time. The muse has been invoked in the works of Virgil, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and currently as the name for a British rock band “Muse”. We’ve just spanned the First Century BCE to today. Muses just keep appearing.
Charise’s turn:
I have a collection of poetry I’ve written which I was going to title “The Insistent Muse”. I’ve since scrapped that title because it’s offensive. It portrays my muse as bearing down, demanding. It came from a feeling that I have no control of my creative process; it has me by the arm and shakes me at will.
Here’s an example: lines for a poem running through my head while I’m driving. I wasn’t even alone; my daughter was in the back seat of the car. I had to pull a scrap of paper and pen from my purse and jot down bits of phrases every time I came to a red light. That poem was called “The Muse Delivers” because it seemed that I was just the body she had picked to birth a poem.
I’ve since made peace with muses. I make more room for musing in my life and for receiving inspiration. As Mary Oliver points out in A Poetry Handbook, if you wait expectantly for your muse to show up like Romeo beneath Juliet’s window, she will. If Virgil, Homer, Dante and Shakespeare needed to invoke the muse, it’s certain that anyone of us who has a desire to find a creative spark and set it alight would be wise to follow their lead.
Get Fired Up:
Step away from the idea of a “dead line” and find a more inviting place to meet your muse (especially if you have a project to finish):
What about in a garden, in a café, while going for a walk, riding your bike, listening to music?
Then ASK your muse to drop in on you; ask your muse to announce her presence so you’ll recognize her in whatever form she takes.
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