What a fabulous visual. You may be over there, and I (or he or she or they) may be over here, but at the universal level, we are no different than two neurons in the brain, passing electrical signals back-and-forth, sharing ideas and feelings, inspiring each other, waking each other up, and prodding each other to create, create, create!
Nice! Made me think of Jung's Synchronicity and Sheldrake's Morphic Resonance - both have yet to be proved scientifically but it does not matter to me because I know from personal experience it is a real thing - interconnected psychic web.
This makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks for drawing these comparisons. As a species of scientists (among so many other roles), we are constantly uncovering more and more layers to reality. It wasn't very long ago that we didn't have much direct evidence for other galaxies, let alone exoplanets and neutrinos and quantum physics and all the other subtle aspects of our universe that our brains and bodies don't easily detect. This is not hocus-pocus woo-woo stuff; this is hard science now.
As Pete Damon here on Substack has said, I think there's (another) paradigm shift happening. Our instruments get sharper and sharper but we still have no real ideas for what the basis of consciousness/experience/mind is. Sure, it's the brain, and maybe we are getting more and more detailed maps of the *correlates* between different aspects/regions of the brain and different mental states, but that's a very different thing from actually having a causal explanation for "what it's like to be me."
There was a time when I would have laughed at those who suggest that consciousness itself (or its fundamental components, whatever they may be) could be the more "base" layer of reality, rather than something that's created out of atoms and forces. Now, I take that position quite seriously.
Yes - there are serious thinkers to consider panpyschism the base of all consciousness. Don't know if you have this but it's a pretty cool PBS break down of the latest science info on where we are in the universe. If you don't like clicking on links I just posted the video link in my Notes flow.
Lately I've been thinking a lot about poetry as simply honesty. If at our cores, beneath all the layers of fear and conditioning, we are all honest, which we are, then we must all be poets. And as you say - only "is" is real. Whatever we can honestly feel, that is our poetic essence, and it's our choice to reveal it. Personally, it's my mission to reveal it.
Another thing I love is all the redness. I noticed recently that both of our little blog images are this powerful red color. It's totally a thing. "Totally a thing." So poetic. Ha!
Thank you, Faye! Everything you say about honesty and poetry makes a ton of sense to me. It at once affirms what I have been discovering while teaching me something new. The best kind of interaction!
And yeah, I've been a fan of RED for my whole life. I'm always shocked at how few people choose red as their favorite color. (China gets it.) Perhaps it's too intense for most people. But I love to stare at the sun. Been listening to "Too Much" by Dave Matthews and "Gold Guns Girls" by Metric, both of which are big songs about being too much, which is exactly what I want. My wife and kids are both big on "too much" too, and though we often drive ourselves insane/exhausted, we wouldn't have it any other way. Last night my kids and I put on a trampoline show we called Monster Metal where we played City by Strapping Young Lad (very heavy album) and just let our inner animals loose until we were tired and ready for rest. All of this is what red represents to me. And come on, it's the color of wounds, the color of blood, the color of meat, the color of sunrise and sunset, the color of arousal...what's not to LOVE?!
The best kind of interaction, indeed! I'm honored to be growing and learning in this creation space with you. It is what I envision, too... part of the reason I started a substack was to create a space where we could all swirl in the language beyond language together.
Woah I used to be O B S E S S E D with Dave Matthews and somehow the existence of that song what with all my "too much" escaped my memory. Bout to listen to that and the other music you mentioned.
That experience with your kids sounds like the healthiest example of parenting I have ever hear. Like, ever.
Poetry prognostications of the universe. The unbuttoned blouse that exposes the snowflakes crystal to the world of the iris micro-macro scope magnification of the open portal of the human imagination. Worldly color palette allowing fine tuning of texture in one page or two to release endorphins my way and start the day with two hours sleep. I feel I am still dreaming. Coffee waits, the elixir to see the day.
It's spooky magic isn't it sometimes? To see other writers and poets put words on the same things or concepts or emotion we are trying to describe. It's both disconcerting and reassuring all at the same time!
Makes sense! Our neighborhoods within this hypothetical creation space are fairly strongly connected in recent months! Or it's a coincidence. Or there are no coincidences...just causal chains too complex to measure or model. :)
This is a fine poem, Mike, and it ends so perfectly given what has gone before. I remember the great Seamus Heaney writing: "You are whatever you feel yourself to be ... "
Thank you!!! I try to pay attention to detail and having an artist of your level notice it all is just unspeakable. Poems really are my favorite form of communication. We could chat until we’re blue in the face but it will never quite duplicate what poetry can convey. If you know, you know.
Beautiful! The poem and the illustration complement each other perfectly. I particularly enjoyed experiencing it with your voiceover. I feel the use of red in your wife’s painting beautifully captures the depth of your words. Thank you for sharing this with us. The lines that resonated with me the most were: 'We define reality as precisely what we feel.' 💙
Whoa, that artwork at the end is stunning, I love the colours. I don't know if I'm going crazy (or if I'm not and someone else has pointed it out already) but I love how if you look at the petals on the sides they almost look like a pair of closed eyes. That realisation makes it so much more soothing to me.
"Should has no hold here. Only is is real," are lines I won't soon forget. This whole post, from the writing to the aesthetic, is excellent
Thank you, Daniel! I shared your comments with my wife, the artist of that watercolor. I don't think either of us noticed the closed eyes, but now we see it!
A very mystical read. I love the way you handle the abstract. My favorite lines were:
"This is where true freedom
and bliss exist.
We are so grateful
to play
within this
pulsating embrace,"
Strong word choice and it feels like the reader is being welcomed into the creation space.
Divine pulse on page.
Thank you so much, Daniel! This piece is important to me, and I'm so glad you pick up what I'm laying down.
What a fabulous visual. You may be over there, and I (or he or she or they) may be over here, but at the universal level, we are no different than two neurons in the brain, passing electrical signals back-and-forth, sharing ideas and feelings, inspiring each other, waking each other up, and prodding each other to create, create, create!
Beautifully done, Mike.
Yes, Don! You get it! Thanks for being a powerful force in my local neighborhood of the creation space.
Awaken each other, through signals.
I connect, lightning bolt style, to that.
Universal dialect. Ours to translate as writers.
In all the diverse ways we do.
Yes, Sea!!!
Nice! Made me think of Jung's Synchronicity and Sheldrake's Morphic Resonance - both have yet to be proved scientifically but it does not matter to me because I know from personal experience it is a real thing - interconnected psychic web.
This makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks for drawing these comparisons. As a species of scientists (among so many other roles), we are constantly uncovering more and more layers to reality. It wasn't very long ago that we didn't have much direct evidence for other galaxies, let alone exoplanets and neutrinos and quantum physics and all the other subtle aspects of our universe that our brains and bodies don't easily detect. This is not hocus-pocus woo-woo stuff; this is hard science now.
As Pete Damon here on Substack has said, I think there's (another) paradigm shift happening. Our instruments get sharper and sharper but we still have no real ideas for what the basis of consciousness/experience/mind is. Sure, it's the brain, and maybe we are getting more and more detailed maps of the *correlates* between different aspects/regions of the brain and different mental states, but that's a very different thing from actually having a causal explanation for "what it's like to be me."
There was a time when I would have laughed at those who suggest that consciousness itself (or its fundamental components, whatever they may be) could be the more "base" layer of reality, rather than something that's created out of atoms and forces. Now, I take that position quite seriously.
Yes - there are serious thinkers to consider panpyschism the base of all consciousness. Don't know if you have this but it's a pretty cool PBS break down of the latest science info on where we are in the universe. If you don't like clicking on links I just posted the video link in my Notes flow.
https://youtu.be/1lPJ5SX5p08?si=EQlTHFEsddZAXZt6
Yes
I love this!! And yeah, the recording is great.
Lately I've been thinking a lot about poetry as simply honesty. If at our cores, beneath all the layers of fear and conditioning, we are all honest, which we are, then we must all be poets. And as you say - only "is" is real. Whatever we can honestly feel, that is our poetic essence, and it's our choice to reveal it. Personally, it's my mission to reveal it.
Another thing I love is all the redness. I noticed recently that both of our little blog images are this powerful red color. It's totally a thing. "Totally a thing." So poetic. Ha!
Thank you, Faye! Everything you say about honesty and poetry makes a ton of sense to me. It at once affirms what I have been discovering while teaching me something new. The best kind of interaction!
And yeah, I've been a fan of RED for my whole life. I'm always shocked at how few people choose red as their favorite color. (China gets it.) Perhaps it's too intense for most people. But I love to stare at the sun. Been listening to "Too Much" by Dave Matthews and "Gold Guns Girls" by Metric, both of which are big songs about being too much, which is exactly what I want. My wife and kids are both big on "too much" too, and though we often drive ourselves insane/exhausted, we wouldn't have it any other way. Last night my kids and I put on a trampoline show we called Monster Metal where we played City by Strapping Young Lad (very heavy album) and just let our inner animals loose until we were tired and ready for rest. All of this is what red represents to me. And come on, it's the color of wounds, the color of blood, the color of meat, the color of sunrise and sunset, the color of arousal...what's not to LOVE?!
The best kind of interaction, indeed! I'm honored to be growing and learning in this creation space with you. It is what I envision, too... part of the reason I started a substack was to create a space where we could all swirl in the language beyond language together.
Woah I used to be O B S E S S E D with Dave Matthews and somehow the existence of that song what with all my "too much" escaped my memory. Bout to listen to that and the other music you mentioned.
That experience with your kids sounds like the healthiest example of parenting I have ever hear. Like, ever.
Cheers to the RED of life!
Poetry prognostications of the universe. The unbuttoned blouse that exposes the snowflakes crystal to the world of the iris micro-macro scope magnification of the open portal of the human imagination. Worldly color palette allowing fine tuning of texture in one page or two to release endorphins my way and start the day with two hours sleep. I feel I am still dreaming. Coffee waits, the elixir to see the day.
I appreciate your dreamy reflections, Richard!
I started composing a poem last week just like this! Beautiful!
It's spooky magic isn't it sometimes? To see other writers and poets put words on the same things or concepts or emotion we are trying to describe. It's both disconcerting and reassuring all at the same time!
That’s a great way to put it Sea.
Makes sense! Our neighborhoods within this hypothetical creation space are fairly strongly connected in recent months! Or it's a coincidence. Or there are no coincidences...just causal chains too complex to measure or model. :)
This is soooo good ❤️🔥❤️🔥
Please tell Jamie I love the watercolor!
"But should has no hold here." ❤️❤️❤️
This is a fine poem, Mike, and it ends so perfectly given what has gone before. I remember the great Seamus Heaney writing: "You are whatever you feel yourself to be ... "
OH MY GOD THIS WAS INCREDIBLE! The words, your voice over, your wife's painting - immaculate!!!!
Thank you!!! I try to pay attention to detail and having an artist of your level notice it all is just unspeakable. Poems really are my favorite form of communication. We could chat until we’re blue in the face but it will never quite duplicate what poetry can convey. If you know, you know.
It is just a KNOWING isn’t it!! poetry is the ultimate language!
Beautiful! The poem and the illustration complement each other perfectly. I particularly enjoyed experiencing it with your voiceover. I feel the use of red in your wife’s painting beautifully captures the depth of your words. Thank you for sharing this with us. The lines that resonated with me the most were: 'We define reality as precisely what we feel.' 💙
Thank you, Sneaky Footprint! This poem is meaningful to me, so I'm glad it is to you as well.
Lovely
Yes to the voice-over over over over ver ver ver er er er r r!
Thanks for listening!
Beautiful!!
Whoa, that artwork at the end is stunning, I love the colours. I don't know if I'm going crazy (or if I'm not and someone else has pointed it out already) but I love how if you look at the petals on the sides they almost look like a pair of closed eyes. That realisation makes it so much more soothing to me.
"Should has no hold here. Only is is real," are lines I won't soon forget. This whole post, from the writing to the aesthetic, is excellent
Thank you, Daniel! I shared your comments with my wife, the artist of that watercolor. I don't think either of us noticed the closed eyes, but now we see it!
Once it popped out, I had to mention it. I'm glad I wasn't going crazy, and that you guys see it too 😅