I found a quote that rings so very true to me.
“Many artists can only produce because they don’t know what they are producing: the moment they know, the creation is completely stopped. For then they begin to reflect; then they feel responsible and cannot play like the gods, unless they fulfil the psychological demand that they dissociate themselves from the creation, from the archetype, from the creative impulse itself. If they can do that, they can go on creating; then they can allow the god to play.”
It’s from Nietzsche’s Zarathustra: Notes of the Seminar given in 1934-1939 by CG Jung.
Most of the flash and prose poetry pieces you see on this blog are written without intention. There’s usually a vague theme or a starting sentence in mind, but no fixed idea on structure and certainly no plot. This is the kind of writing I am passionate about. It flows freely from somewhere deep inside. It feels authentic and untouched by the ego’s passing desires for popularity or income.
This kind of writing is difficult to sustain for long periods. It always comes in bursts, rarely more than 500 words, never more than 1000. But then, each piece is as long as it needs to be. If I consciously try to extend them, try to bring in devices or make them more accessible, I have crossed over into the realm of knowledge and reflection and responsibility, and the creative spirit begins to fizzle.
Creative spirit cannot be looked in the eye; it must stay in the peripheries. It is made from dreamstuff, like our archetypal representations of people and situations we encounter in our nighttime dramas. Try to look at them directly, try to see them clearly as just one thing at once, and they disappear completely.
C.R. Dudley 