Guided Writing Session Directory
Below, you will find recordings for each Guided Writing Session dating back to August 2021 when the sessions began.
Take a moment to review the Usage and Guidelines Folder below for information on how to post work and use the directory.
Use the Independent Entries Folder for submissions not specific to a monthly program or Guided Writing Session.
More About Guided Writing Sessions
Using my imagination
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Quote from Deleted user on July 2020, 12:49 pmI can use my imagination to uplift me or to provoke me into depression. I can use it to worry or to dream. I DO use it for all these things and now I see I have let it run amok and almost felt that I was at its whim all this time. Until now, having listened twice to this month's call.
I was accused of having a "wild imagination" as a child, and it clearly wasn't praiseworthy! I have not seen, until now that I had power over that. I could probably put a winning case for needing that wild imagination to escape the trauma of my childhood, but perhaps I got lost in it. I think I allowed that habit to take me either to worry and fear or more regularly (once that was shamed out of me) into fanciful imaginings of who and how I could be. I remember when getting on a plane from England to Canada, aged 16, taking my seat and thinking "I can be anyone I choose to be", as the person sat down next to me. Only now do I realise the biggest freedom would have been to have taken off all the pretending and to have chosen to be me!
I have used my imagination to escape the here and now, the present moment, the reality of my day to day. To escape pain. I have used it to dream about a future elsewhere. A vast amount of my time has been spent resenting 'here' and dreaming of 'there'. I can use it to worry, to rehearse conversations, heck to even have conversations that are long over! Sometimes I have used it usefully to rehearse and plan, but mostly not particularly constructively. Mostly just to perseverate on an issue.
Now I view imagination as a powerful and useful ability that I can consciously choose to harness, but not get carried away by. If I choose to stay present in mind and body, not let imagination the free rein as some addictive escape, I can then also use it as the creative force that it is.
When I have written well, it has felt like "forces unseen" at work. I have labelled them as outside of me. I have been scared of them. I have even shied away, feeling out of control. Now I see this differently. I see that ability as a force of nature within me. I am a natural being and the spark that keeps me alive also is where creativity lies. My own tiny thread of divinity perhaps. Connecting me to all and everything. (At the risk of getting esoteric here, but it feels real to me in this moment). When I sit down and "write poetry", I see now my imagination is at work. It feels like it comes through me, I hear people talk of channelling good work, but what if it is my imagination - imaging my Self. And I control with my mind, with my conscious choice, as to how I utilise my imagination. It is not in control of me.
I can put it to good use. Harness its power. But not get "carried away" by it, losing myself and my reality.
Last week I wrote this poem. It came freely and clearly, I subsequently edited some and might some more. But it speaks to this fresh new understanding that I now have of my imagination.
Why poetry, you ask? Why breathe, I respond.
To capture inner changes I barely perceive.
To explore the flavour of spaces between my words.
To jump off bridges into adjective and adverb —
gladly, potently.
To open my heart —
then write myself forward onto open page.
To elaborate when doldrummed —
investigate where doll was drummed into me,
exquisite wonder fashioned out of me,
As I declare I am lost.
Here I am found with pen tip caresses —
the swirl and curl of my unfurling mind.
I flow onto flat paper cupped in its splayed hands.
I can use my imagination to uplift me or to provoke me into depression. I can use it to worry or to dream. I DO use it for all these things and now I see I have let it run amok and almost felt that I was at its whim all this time. Until now, having listened twice to this month's call.
I was accused of having a "wild imagination" as a child, and it clearly wasn't praiseworthy! I have not seen, until now that I had power over that. I could probably put a winning case for needing that wild imagination to escape the trauma of my childhood, but perhaps I got lost in it. I think I allowed that habit to take me either to worry and fear or more regularly (once that was shamed out of me) into fanciful imaginings of who and how I could be. I remember when getting on a plane from England to Canada, aged 16, taking my seat and thinking "I can be anyone I choose to be", as the person sat down next to me. Only now do I realise the biggest freedom would have been to have taken off all the pretending and to have chosen to be me!
I have used my imagination to escape the here and now, the present moment, the reality of my day to day. To escape pain. I have used it to dream about a future elsewhere. A vast amount of my time has been spent resenting 'here' and dreaming of 'there'. I can use it to worry, to rehearse conversations, heck to even have conversations that are long over! Sometimes I have used it usefully to rehearse and plan, but mostly not particularly constructively. Mostly just to perseverate on an issue.
Now I view imagination as a powerful and useful ability that I can consciously choose to harness, but not get carried away by. If I choose to stay present in mind and body, not let imagination the free rein as some addictive escape, I can then also use it as the creative force that it is.
When I have written well, it has felt like "forces unseen" at work. I have labelled them as outside of me. I have been scared of them. I have even shied away, feeling out of control. Now I see this differently. I see that ability as a force of nature within me. I am a natural being and the spark that keeps me alive also is where creativity lies. My own tiny thread of divinity perhaps. Connecting me to all and everything. (At the risk of getting esoteric here, but it feels real to me in this moment). When I sit down and "write poetry", I see now my imagination is at work. It feels like it comes through me, I hear people talk of channelling good work, but what if it is my imagination - imaging my Self. And I control with my mind, with my conscious choice, as to how I utilise my imagination. It is not in control of me.
I can put it to good use. Harness its power. But not get "carried away" by it, losing myself and my reality.
Last week I wrote this poem. It came freely and clearly, I subsequently edited some and might some more. But it speaks to this fresh new understanding that I now have of my imagination.
Why poetry, you ask? Why breathe, I respond.
To capture inner changes I barely perceive.
To explore the flavour of spaces between my words.
To jump off bridges into adjective and adverb —
gladly, potently.
To open my heart —
then write myself forward onto open page.
To elaborate when doldrummed —
investigate where doll was drummed into me,
exquisite wonder fashioned out of me,
As I declare I am lost.
Here I am found with pen tip caresses —
the swirl and curl of my unfurling mind.
I flow onto flat paper cupped in its splayed hands.
![Devon Burris](https://gravatar.com/avatar/70e164aaa903d3e9b3b4e49b0071519c?s=400&r=G&d=https://theseekersforum.com/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-member/assets/img/default_avatar.jpg)
Quote from DevonB on July 2020, 1:25 pmThanks so much for sharing this piece, Emma. I love your conceptualization of imagination as a tiny thread connecting you with divinity. I felt energized by your words, and found your poem full of images that spoke to me. “...where doll was drummed into me” and “I am found by pen tip caresses “ were my favorites. I enjoy your postings and look forward to the next one.
Thanks so much for sharing this piece, Emma. I love your conceptualization of imagination as a tiny thread connecting you with divinity. I felt energized by your words, and found your poem full of images that spoke to me. “...where doll was drummed into me” and “I am found by pen tip caresses “ were my favorites. I enjoy your postings and look forward to the next one.
![Mark Matousek](https://theseekersforum.com/wp-content/uploads/ultimatemember/2104/profile_photo-80x80.jpg?1725758786)
Quote from Mark Matousek on July 2020, 4:11 pmThanks for this, Emma, and don't even get me started on the subject of channeling! In my humble opinion, having witnessed a good deal of so-called channeling in my long life, what people call channeling is actually just giving voice to parts of themselves they're not familiar with (including material available on subtle levels of consciousness). Because we define ourselves so narrowly, as the iceberg-tip of the body-mind that we are aware of, we attribute everything below (and above) this tip as material/information from another entity, lifetime, or galaxy. This reminds me of something a wise man said to me years ago regarding miracles, that if we understood the laws of the universe (natural law) -- and I paraphrase -- we would know that there is no such thing as a miracle.
But I digress. The point is that imagination and inspiration don't come from outside of us (as you sometimes feel when you "receive" a poem); instead, you are opening to territory/voices/wisdom that have not been revealed before. This superpower can be used for good or ill, as you observe. "Now I view imagination as a powerful and useful ability that I can consciously choose to harness, but not get carried away by. If I choose to stay present in mind and body, not let imagination the free rein as some addictive escape, I can then also use it as the creative force that it is." Bingo.
Mark : )
Thanks for this, Emma, and don't even get me started on the subject of channeling! In my humble opinion, having witnessed a good deal of so-called channeling in my long life, what people call channeling is actually just giving voice to parts of themselves they're not familiar with (including material available on subtle levels of consciousness). Because we define ourselves so narrowly, as the iceberg-tip of the body-mind that we are aware of, we attribute everything below (and above) this tip as material/information from another entity, lifetime, or galaxy. This reminds me of something a wise man said to me years ago regarding miracles, that if we understood the laws of the universe (natural law) -- and I paraphrase -- we would know that there is no such thing as a miracle.
But I digress. The point is that imagination and inspiration don't come from outside of us (as you sometimes feel when you "receive" a poem); instead, you are opening to territory/voices/wisdom that have not been revealed before. This superpower can be used for good or ill, as you observe. "Now I view imagination as a powerful and useful ability that I can consciously choose to harness, but not get carried away by. If I choose to stay present in mind and body, not let imagination the free rein as some addictive escape, I can then also use it as the creative force that it is." Bingo.
Mark : )