You Have a Voice
Nature tells us so.
This is what I heard in the back of my head this morning on my walk. I wasn’t asking any questions. I wasn’t really expecting any commentary. I don’t know if this happens to you but sometimes, I just hear a phrase in my head out of nowhere. (Yes, I’ve seen my doctor lately - all is well!)
I don’t think such random phrases that pop up are quite so random. Our brains are constantly processing information and making connections between different concepts and memories on a conscious and unconscious level.
Sometimes, random words may pop into your head as a result of stress, anxiety, or other emotional factors. Fatigue, lack of sleep, or overstimulation can also impact cognitive functioning and lead to a greater occurrence of random thoughts or words popping into your head.
Long ago, I decided not to try to figure it out and instead, I use these random pop ups as a cue for creative writing. So, I came home and wrote this:
You have a voice
I hear the green towering soldiers breathing again.
I get lost in their cadence; the downbeat of their exhale.
There’s a comfort in the enormity of their fanning foliage,
Especially without a soul in sight.
In comes wafting of farmed and cured as my feet pass,
a neighbor’s aroma; a customary Saturday morning commodity,
ushered by the wind in her pirouette; another attempt to woo me.
Her eagerness pursues without invitation, but -
I’m not repelled by her enthusiasm.
Again, I see the the pathway of the morning star,
It is slow, faithful and dignified as it emerges to its public,
confidently flickering past what before were obstacles between spaces,
which bow now like a curtain pulling back to reveal
the star’s long beaming stage.
My camellia greets me with a welcome again.
I touch its waxy leaves in appreciation.
As I feel its playful knowing between my fingers,
I want to photograph it and seize all understanding
that all earthly matter of here and now,
has a voice.
"Inspiration arrives like a passing shadow, momentarily illuminating thoughts we had yet to fully understand. These reflections—whether captured in verse, essay, or prose—are fragments of that light, moments framed by the mind’s lens and the quiet whispers that stir a pause."
All photos ©www.juliettemansour.com
I, too, know that phenomenon – a word, phrase, or a rhythm for a poem. Even a shape that need to be put down on canvas.
It seems to me that, like you indicate, it is connected with what is already happening in the mind, conscious or not, so that during periods where I paint, I get more painting ideas, during periods where I am in a poetic mood, such details pop up.
Ideas come from somewhere, and they come when the right inspiration for them is there, so being in an inspired mood, like when going for a walk in the nature, it is – to me – obvious that more ideas will appear. The beauty of the world, or strange impressions, or anything else that sparks thinking will add to the cocktail of thoughts and ideas already boiling in the back of the head, and both useful and more strange things can come out of that :)
The first photo has a deep, painterly feel. Very nice.