Sunday, November 6, 2011

when the future presents itself

scenes from margaret's garden (ii)



i'm at an interesting place in my life and i'll tell you what i can about it
i believe that the work i do is honourable and worthy
and that
(through a lovely and serendipitous coincidence)
it brings goodness to me
just as i bring goodness to it

in fact both
exist
almost entirely
without condition

and yet
i already know
the name
of the work i need to do
which in my strange iteration
of my experiencing of this world
melds into
"the work i need to become"

i can feel its fingers on my shoulders
i can see its eyes
feel its breath on my face
smell its perfume

even as it stands
wings held still
not moments away
from me

and my heart
holding its own wings
as still
as still can be

flutters
like a small bird
cupped
in my own hands

looking inwards
and outwards





i was listening to "i dormienti" by brian eno when i wrote this piece
i like to use this piece of music when i paint

16 comments:

R. Burnett Baker said...

the line "the work I need to become" is a particularly profound one, as if to say you are being molded and shaped by other forces, and by you yourself. They aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, for I believe that we are guided as we guide.

In reading this beautiful piece, I'm reminded that currently I'm neither: I must work harder.

Rick

Delwyn said...

someone (Richard Nelson Bolles - what colour is my parachute- I think) once said the your work lies at the intersection of your talents and the needs of the world. That should be our guide.

Lorenzo — Alchemist's Pillow said...

I trust there will be a gentle continuum between the good work you now do and the work you need to become — a fascinating concept, as if aspiring (rather successfully) to be both the sculptor and the sculpted work at the same time. Happy chiselling to you, Steven.

erin said...

the work itself, i suspect, isn't as obvious as one might think. it has less to do with any one job and more to do with a way of living, or so it is with me.

xo
erin

hope said...

It's nice to think of life as a fascinating journey rather than the tedium of everyday interspersed with occasional spurts of conflict.

That's why I like it here; your positive thoughts rub me the right way. :)

steven said...

rick "we are guided as we guide" is beautifully expressed! steven

steven said...

hi delwyn - i think that echoes rick's observation in some ways. the world and i are like clouds intersecting and then melding, almost indistinguishable at times. we tell and are each other. steven

steven said...

lorenzo that's what i wish for also. some features of the work i do now will carry into the next piece for sure. it'll carry a different purpose in terms of its nature and my availability to it. steven

steven said...

erin - it's all about a way of living - which in part of my presence here gets expressed in labour of the kind i receive remuneration for as well as that which extends outside and inside that work. steven

steven said...

hope - that's life in essence. swimming through possibility and allowing some possibilities to gather and coalesce for however long i can bring goodness to them. when that state ends then so does that work. then it's time to move on. steven

Valerianna said...

Oh how I know this feeling... this becoming - right now more than ever as I wait and wait for the studio to be built. THEN I can bring out the new work/me bursting inside me.... and I know I will have that reciprocal goodness. I'm curious about what is shifting in you?

ellen abbott said...

and what is the name and when do you start becoming?

steven said...

hello valerianna - the studio had slipped my mind and i remember a posting some time ago in which you described it and i bet you are so entirely jazzed to see it and work in it!!! the shift is the remembering of some beginnings that were left to fade and rest and wait patiently - very patiently - mostly to do with creative work, and then also work in the area of social responsibility and bringing more practical goodness into the world. steven

steven said...

ellen - before i was born i had no name. i can't name what's right before me to be honest although in my comment above to valerianna i've defined some of its features. a while ago you sent me links to support my wish to one day work with glass. i've kept them. they're a piece of all of this. steven

aguja said...

And you have painted a beautiful word picture of the emerging you that will blossom in the future, along with the important work that you do ... never to be lessened in any way.

Pauline said...

This. Is. Perfect.