Exploring
insistent blessings
i set out with eagerness and swagger,
my stride lively,
sure as can be that in my hands
i hold the nascent heart of a poem
only to stumble with blinding speed
headlong into a pricker thicket.
i fight
wrangle
resist
complain
wrestle
struggle
lash out
whine
oppose
defy
throw punches
and cry.
until i don’t.
drained and outmatched, i become still:
lower my shoulders
loosen my arms
unclench my hands.
i inch myself out of the tangle into a clearing,
roughed up, humbled, curious,
and grateful—grateful for the sting
of punctures and scratches on my skin,
for landing beyond what i thought i knew,
for my poem idea now broken open
on the ground
—dotty seiter
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7 x 7″; ink and water on paper
abstract design
2026
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Notes about poem and art:
• So much to learn when writing a poem. So much. I’m thriving on the learning, enlivened by the creative process. For fun, I’m enumerating here a bunch of words that ended up on the cutting floor when I worked on “insistent blessings”: allow, belligerent, conviction, deflection, discomfort, embracing, essential, flow, form, intention, invitation, joy, obstruction, portal, push, receptive, release, slack, slams, shove, surprised, terrain, unfamiliar, unknown. Into the recycling bin they went!
• Humbled and Curious is another water-and-ink investigation. So much to learn every which way I turn!
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9 responses to “Exploring”
My first impression was….. did this happen in the mind or actually on the walk….. Was Dotty so concentrated on her newborn seed of a poem that she did stumble…. or is this just metaphoric? I hope the later…. I am in awe of the amount of real “work” that goes into the writing of a poem. I compare it to a beautiful painting that grabs us in and allows us to investigate every corner, not knowing the behind the scenes that went into the work! The process is in the editing!
Thank you Dotty for showing us some of the process!
Love your experimentations! So much to learn with letting go to the materials at hand. The dark shapes seem to be some asemic writing from the far east!
On this eve of our New Year wishing you and your a Happy Healthy and Creative New Year. Shana Tova!
Logging In!
Carol, your comments are a gift! Thank you! They shine light on many gifts of the creative process—the mystery, the unanswered questions, the “work” that is the pure joy of it, the door open to wild and differing interpretation, the immersion, the presence.
In partial answer to some of the internal questions you posed to yourself, let me say that a year ago I barely grasped the concept of a poetic conceit, and could barely and only with effortful self-conscious struggle approximate one; now, I often end up with one in my lap, having written it intuitively without metacognition, having had grand fun en route.
Showing some of the process in my notes tickled me!
Thanks for encouraging me to keep experimenting. I’m grateful to ride that energy. Asemic writing from the far east—love that!!
Wishing you a Happy Healthy and Creative New Year, Carol. Shana Tova!
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Like Carol, my first thought was did this really happen? I carefully read and reread the poem. Then I I read Carol’s comment…and your response…and I still don’t know. I’m often the one in the room who doesn’t quite get it and have long ago made peace with that.
But what my simple understanding does know is that your poem took me on a painful journey that ended with blessings and gratitude. And that is all that matters. That is your gift.
Your Humbled and Curious piece seems to hold all those words that ended up in the recycling bin. That is your gift.
MaryAnn, as was the case with Carol’s comments, yours are also a gift—thank you. I so appreciate your thought-ful responses. Regarding “getting” a poem, I think folks receive from a poem whatever they receive, and the interpretations may be many and varied. That is part and parcel of what a poem is—a collaboration first between poem and writer, and then, as many times as it is read or heard, a collaboration between poem and receiver. TOTAL YES to that painful journey ending with blessings and gratitude!
LOVE that Humbled and Curious holds all the words from drafting “insistent blessings,” words now ready for recycling : )
Thank you, thank you.
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That POEM! OMG! I am standing right there with you in the pricker thicket! GAHHHHHHH! And also feeling that familiar sensation when a painting (or a blog post) does not flow easily from head to hands to paint or words. OY!
And the art is FLIPPING EXTRAORDINARY! Love its graphic starkness and punchy impact. xoxo
Lola, not that I’d wish a pricker thicket on you, but HOWDY!!! Kinda tricky in here, yes? And yet, we find ourselves here AGAIN and AGAIN : )
oooo, thank you thank you for the graphic starkness/punchy impact/flipping extraordinary feedback. You’ve got me pumped to keep on experimenting. Dropping ink onto a wet page with one hand as I sign off here with the other …
xoxo
WOW! I am so pulled in. Can’t stop reading. Yes, I wonder was it real or metaphoric. How proud you must be, Dotty. To look back and view the poetic road you have traveled. And to realize that your struggles have really been gifts. And here you are!
And here we are, enjoying it all! Awesome poem. Awesome art. xoxo
Sheila, I’m smiling knowing you were “so pulled in” and that you can see this poem as representing the poetic road I’ve been traveling. Yay! I have SO been thriving and continue to thrive on these poetic travels, the whole shebang a tremendous gift. As you, too, experience through your art : )
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