Imagining The Beauty For Which We're Being Prepared
It can be overwhelming to wait for clarity to come in times of suffering. Like silt mixed up into clear waters, no effort can speed the settling of obscuring factors. Gravity has to do its slow work and stillness is required. The poet Pádraig Ó Tuama suggests that in times of difficulty, “small narrative rafts” can carry us, allowing us to breathe, get our bearing, and stay alive. These little stories allow us perspective, distance, and buoyancy when catching our breath feels impossible. One reason I like poetry is its ability to hold space for multiple interpretations. Good poems ask more questions than they answer, asking the audience to co-create the meaning. The questions they raise can provide motion when we feel stuck, or offer direction when we feel lost.
One such “small narrative raft” is the poem I wrote titled, “The Beauty For Which We’re Prepared.” In order to find breath in the breathless exhaustion of ambiguity and transition, this poem asks me several questions. What if we could see ourselves as implements of creativity? What would it feel like to be a paint brush? What compassion would I offer a tool in the work of beauty? What if I am experiencing the preparation that an artist’s instrument would experience as it was readied for use?
In these questions I can find solace, spaciousness, and even wisdom for enduring the experiences that threaten to drown me. In this space of curiosity I find those small narrative rafts that allow breath as I travel across unclear and unsafe waters. (listen to this poem for free on Patreon)
The Beauty For Which We're Prepared
The head of the brush,
half-drowned in water,
plunged into the pigment,
thrown in a whirlpool,
pressed into disfiguration, and thrust
into unfamiliar emptiness
cannot imagine
the beauty for which
it has been prepared.
Have heart little tussle,
your becoming will soon take shape.
-Bjørn Peterson
(Read more poetry for free or become a patron at patreon.com/bjornpeterson.)
What does this poem mean to you? What phrases or images stand out? What sort of artistic instrument might you be? What small narrative life rafts have carried you?
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