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: 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: Travels

Travels

 

If dreams are the highway to the unconscious, then art is the byway from the unconscious.

Daily Obstruction: A Different Sort of Writer’s Block

 

A Different Sort of Writer’s Block

 

 

My writing is an obstruction to my producing my writing.

 

Daily Obstruction: Artist’s Tao

 

Artist’s Tao

 

Just as a sculptor works with the inherent faults, flaws, and grooves of the raw material, so too do all artists work with the natural inclination their chosen medium.

 

Daily Obstruction: Artist’s Struggle

Artist’s Struggle

 

Just as a sculptor carves out of wood or stone a form only seen by the artist’s eye, so too all art is the struggle with what exists to draw out something new.