Stuff we talk about around here:

Destuckification: working through the stucknesses that get in the way.
Mindful biggification: the art and science of getting your work into the hands of your right people without feeling icky or weird. With fairy dust.
I also write about my conversations with walls and monsters, and what it's like to work on a pirate ship. Good times.

This poem really doesn’t need a title. Also it’s not a poem.

It’s called Playing with Time. Or maybe it’s just about playing with time.

And it would be astonishingly pretentious except for the fact that, you know, I wrote it.

Kind of.

Oh, and that it’s not actually a poem.

Well, it’s really just a fairly bizarre collection of somewhat incoherent scribbled notes that came into their confused existence while I was teaching a teleclass last week on the topic of “playing with time”.

Because when I look at my notes, I have no idea what I was thinking (or talking about), but it does sort of look like poetry. If you squint. Anyway …

A poem that is really just a fairly bizarre collection of somewhat
incoherent scribbled notes that came into their confused
existence while —

well?

replenish and re-fill

filling up with:

the power of falling apart

without dissonance

time lost

time lost to the yuckiness, the overwhelming, the hurt

but then —

scheduling in time for all of it

for the freakouts and for the coming-down

for rollerskating and ritual and finger painting with pudding

scheduling a temper tantrum

scheduling time to make inappropriate noises

scheduling time to ask: what needs to happen now?

scheduling time to ask: what does this need?

because boundaries give spaciousness

because quality restorative time is a valid component of work

and I can block out time to go and daydream by the river

even if there is no river

because freedom, creativity, simplicity

dissolve guilt

taking time and talking to time and talking about time is investing in my work

it’s dancing between the drops

I want a beautiful timer

to remind me about the river

13 Comments on “This poem really doesn’t need a title. Also it’s not a poem.”


  1. Havi, this is such a lovely non-poem poem!

    “Finger-painting with pudding” sounds like great fun, as does scheduling a temper tantrum. :-)

    Love, Hiro
    .-= Hiro Boga´s last post … Sunday Poem #4 =-.


  2. Havi,
    What beautiful images you have evoked in your permission to yourself to take the time you need for self-restoration!

    “Rollerskating, and ritual, and finger-painting with pudding” is my favorite line ad that sounds like an enormous amount of fun.

    I love the image of daydreaming by the river, even if there is no river. The fact that we can create the “river” is an important reminder to me to make the space where I can do that.
    .-= Carole´s last post … Conservation Gardening in Practice: How to install a dragonfly pond =-.


  3. Enchanting peaceful boundaries here!

    Dancing between the drops …
    you have the sun
    and the moon to set the time.
    .-= Barbara Martin (@Reptitude)´s last post … Be More Creative by Being in the Moment =-.


  4. As one given to writing poetry that is not poetry, I say SCREW convention, and “yay, ‘poetry’!”


  5. Beautiful imagery about time, and interacting with it more compassionately.

    “taking time and talking to time and talking about time *is* investing in my work”

    Such a big lesson for me – that taking time for things not work can be a better use of time than “work” itself.
    .-= Victoria Brouhard´s last post … Hedgehogs, Dancers and What Ifs =-.

  6. Miriam

    Thank you Havi!
    That was actually relaxing just to read.


  7. My favorite lines: “I can block out time to go and daydream by the river / even if there is no river”… Oh and, in my magic ball I do see a beautiful timer with your name on it. Can’t wait to hear about it.
    .-= Heidi Fischbach´s last post … Missing: My own business. Have you seen it? =-.


  8. Thanks, guys!

    It’s always good to know that you don’t think I’m completely mad.

    And I want to know about my timer too.

    @Victoria – hedgehogs!


  9. Wow – there are SO MANY reasons I needed to read exactly this exactly now. Thank you.
    .-= Lean Ni Chuilleanain´s last post … Very Secret Mysteries, no. 3: Crochet =-.


  10. This is seriously lovely, the rhythm of it is incredible. Personally I believe it IS a poem just like you ARE a writer, but that’s just me.
    .-= Briana´s last post … Finding your thing in the sweet spot =-.


  11. I LOVE all of this Havi.

    Now I’ve finally realised I CAN fall apart without dissonance….
    Beautiful.

    AND I just ordered my Shiva Nata kit at long last, with an impatient request that it reach my kitchen table instantaneously. Of course then I got the message with the download info oh so totally instantaneously. More time miracles.

    Thank you.


  12. Ooh!! The timer… beautiful timer. I love it! And the river too, even if it doesn’t exist.

    You are magical Havi!
    .-= Nathalie Lussier´s last post … International Green Smoothie Day =-.


  13. Love! I almost never get poetry (looks like my brain isn’t wired for it, or it’s a genetic defect, or something), but this? Love! Thank you!
    .-= Josiane´s last post … Retreating to write – and being treated to so much more =-.

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