On the Birthday of Emily Brontë

Passionate. Disciplined. Wildly imaginative.

Growing up isolated on the moors of England, Emily Brontë found the inspiration for her masterpiece Wuthering Heights in the cold and windy hills of her own back yard. I remain spellbound.

Bronte

Spellbound

The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,
Wastes beyond wastes below;
But nothing drear can move me;
I will not, cannot go.

Emily Brontë     1836

Writing Your Own Creed with Poet and Novelist D H Lawrence

“This is what I believe: That I am I,

That my soul is a dark forest,

That my known self will never be more than a clearing in the forest,

That gods, strange gods, come forth from the forest into the clearing of my known self, and then go back,

That I must have the courage to let them come and go,

That I will never let mankind put anything over me, but that I will always try to honor the gods in me and the gods in other men and women, 

There is my creed.

dark forest

                                                         Redwood Forest by Jacalyn McNamara 2014

A creed is a set of beliefs that guide your actions. Many adopt the creeds of a formal religious group or an organization to which they belong. But freethinkers must generate creeds of their own since they are originators in the world. 

What set of beliefs guides you as artist and writer? Take time to think on this and share your creed with me or on your own blog.

presence and attention

A reminder from Franz Kafka:

You do not need to leave your room.

remain sitting at your table and listen.

studio reflection

writer’s studio–inside and out                                                                                               jacalyn mcnamara 2014

Don’t even listen. Simply wait.

Don’t even wait. Be still and solitary.

The world will freely offer itself to you

to be unmasked, it has no choice.

It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.