Daily Obstruction: Thelema

 

Thelema

 

 

Use me as Thou wilt.  I’m yours.

Resistance is folly.

You have broken me.

You have opened me.

You have sounded me.

My will has left me bereft.

Your will is all I have left.

Carry me upon the cosmic current

like so many sparks of light

coalescing in the darkest night.

As you form me, ephemeral though “I” may be,

ʼtis Your energy to fashion as You see fit.

Far be it for the flame to rebuke the fuel.

ʼTis not for the fire to take the wood to task for its use.

ʼTis all that You sustain me now,

dependently arising within a universe that, like a tidal river, ever ebbs and flows.

Daily Obstruction: Composition

 

Composition

 

As a pen in the hand of an author, so the “artist” is to The Author.  Thus it is written.

 

Daily Obstruction: “My Pains Were Their Own Reward”

 

“My Pains Were Their Own Reward”

 

What profit, asks the prophet, what profit do you reap from the work of your hands?  He who looks to the fruit finds it not.  She who delights in the labor discovers self-fulfillment.

 

 

Daily Obstruction: Almanac

Almanac

 

Fallow and fecund.  Dormant and prodigious.  Back and forth the artist’s pendulum swings, just as with the farmer’s field.  Like the farmer, the artist too fears the day of declining yield.

Daily Obstruction: Artistic Bent

 

 

Artistic Bent

 

The most intense adversity can act as a crucible for creativity.

Daily Obstruction: Writing Exercise in Futility

Writing Exercise in Futility

 

Alone in my cell, I use imaginary paint to cover the walls with the images of my dreams for no other reason than to forget for a brief moment that they imprison me in my solitary confinement.  Or is my cell a figment of my imagination?

 

Daily Obstruction: Hidden to Oneself

Hidden to Oneself

 

Buddy Rich couldn’t read music.  Once he asked his friend and my former teacher, Al Miller, to teach him.  Al responded, “I could, but it would only make you a worse drummer, not better.”  Sometimes, especially for an artist of genius, knowing what you do is a hindrance to doing it.

 

Daily Obstruction: Logos

Logos

 

Writing completes the work of creation.

 

Daily Obstruction: Nemesis

 

Nemesis

 

Beware your archenemy because he knows your every move, your every foible, your every weakness, all your strengths, plans, desires, and where you keep your greatest treasure hidden.  He is as smart as you, as cunning, as quick on the draw.  Beware, for he lingers in the dark awaiting your defenselessness.  Beware, for he will pounce just when you thought you lost him.  Beware, for your archenemy is you.

Daily Obstruction: Élan

 

Élan

 

Live Vitally.

 

(A Brief Explanation: This is the one ethical injunction, the one imperative of my ethical system that I call “Vitalism.”  It sounds like a tautology since the word “vital” means living.  But, to live vitally is no simple platitude enjoining one to do what one is already doing, viz., living life.  Rather, it derives its sense from the array of meanings of the term vital: essential, of the essence, critical crucial, key, indispensable, integral, urgent, pressing, burning, compelling, of the utmost importance.  In other words, remove from your life anything extraneous, unnecessary, anything that is an encumbrance.  And in another sense of vital: lively, energetic, spirited, exuberant, dynamic, vigorous, lusty, with élan, ecstatic.  It is an injunction to live life, not just by default, but with a lust for life, a life lived to the fullest, deepest, darkest, brightest, and best.  It is to live life as one would make art – not simply duplicating what has already been done, but creatively doing what has never been done, never been dared.  Not making a living, but making a life.)