Meditation Monday: Meditation, Prayer, and Writing Poetry

Kamal (Perfection), 16 Mashíyyat (Will), 172 BE - Monday, October 12, 2015 about 3:02 PM Pacific Daylight Time

For the past six or seven days I have attempted to write a sonnet. I begin with a specific theme in mind and attempted to push the theme even thought I could not get beyond the first line. Today I changed my tactics. After beating my head against the proverbial wall, I turned off the computer. I then found one of my prayer books, opened it to a specific prayer, and said the prayer. After saying the prayer (according to the directions) I meditated. After that I was able to begin the poem.

I chose another theme. Instead of writing a sonnet about the holy books (I will keep this theme for another poem) I wrote about my muse. I am using the voice of my muse to write the poem. That is I am writing the poem in the first person with the I being my muse or rather the poet's muse. This approach is working well and I now have two stanzas with two more stanzas to go.

I know better then to attempt to write a poem without a prayer and meditation session before I begin. I also know better then to attempt to force a theme when my muse or my subconsciousness (use whichever word you want) has other ideas. My problem is that I can get so focused on one idea that I forget that sometimes it is better to let the theme of the poem flow naturally.