Category Archives: creativity

Inspiration in a Crisis

In early December we got news that a dear friend was in the hospital and doing very poorly. Her husband called and it sounded dire. Stephen and I were supposed to attend a Folkstage concert that night (Buskin and Batteau at the WFMT radio station in Chicago), but my husband had the flu and couldn’t go. I was upset, but he encouraged me to go on my own, as the music often moves me and we have made many friends there. During the concert, this poem began in my head for my friend, Barbara, expressing my love for her. (She gave permission to share this poem.) I am very happy to say she has recovered! The line “choose joy” came from one of the songs they performed that night, because Barbara is one of the most joyful people I know.

12/4/10

For Barbara and Me

Begun during Buskin and Batteau

Choice-time.
Choose to stay,
choose to live,

take care of yourself
as if you were someone else,
as you took care of me

so unselfishly
able to put aside
all other consideration.

Choose that
for yourself
my sparkle girl

(it takes one to know one).
And if you choose to go
know I am grateful

for you here
up to now.
But stay,

choose to live,
choose joy…
“Missing you already”

you wrote to me
on a flower post-it
stuck where I would find it

when you left for home.
Love you forever
whether days are short

or however long.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
©2010

IWWG at BROWN, part 2

Spent the week recovering from the flu. Came on suddenly right after I did my last post. I trust all is well with you. Here are more poems I wrote at the IWWG Remember the Magic writing conference at Brown and a few photos. Includes two more from my self-guided project on doors poems and photographs. Providence is a lovely place. Inspirational.

Let me ask you. What is the purpose of poetry? Do any of these poems or pictures evoke a feeling or memory for you? Are there any doors in your life that are closing or opening? Let me know below.

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8/4/10

Home Body

Some choose looks
over feeling,
unaware or ingrained,

mind over body,
emotion over body,
anything over body.

Body, the second class citizen,
mundane matter subject
to vagaries and whim.

Body that speaks one language
to get attention:
discomfort escalating to pain.

What is this disconnect
from home?
Why are feet not planted

firmly on the ground?
Pulled, lulled ever outward
attention paid to everything but….

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

8/4/10

Dramatic Reading

The words dictate
how to be spoken
to go out and sink in.

More than that emphasis
is drama, pleasing to the actor,
overlaying the meaning,

attention now on the reading.
What remains after
in the retina of memory

is not the words, but acting.
Do the audience a kindness
to remember them.

Deliver the lines,
no more, no less,
that is enough.

I acknowledge
different styles and cultures
different training and shaping influence,

not all of them resonant with me.
And so I listen, open,
and get what I can.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

8/4/10

Anything

What do I have to give up
to do what I suspect is expected,
to get my money’s worth?

I could head back
to class, to the grid, the schedule,
but this day stretches out

before me, hot and sweet.
Once set in motion
I want to follow where it goes

and where the energy flows,
I flow too.
Anything can happen.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

8/4/10

Doors (2)

Doors open, closed, locked, hidden,
the center of attention,

carved, worn, splintered, cared for,
spectacular, plain, old, new, fresh-painted,

peeling, wood, glass, all hard protection
against what might come.

Down steps, up steps, even with the street,
all colors or none, reflective, shiny or matte.

Inviting, inhibiting, used for everyday,
only for show, friendly, forbidding, functional,

what is behind, what stories told or unfolding
what crime, what passion, what apathy,

none of it in relation to me
except as the threads play out

and I am ensnared in a sticky web
not entirely of my own devising.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

8/4/10

Doors (3)

Back doors, front doors, side doors,
creaky doors, easy-slide patio doors,
temperamental doors depending on the weather.

From inside looking out
from out, looking in
perspective is everything.

Certain door types found in certain areas of town,
but the most worn so far, with the hole
in the bare wood splintered step

is one short block from the college dorm
and the chichi, multicolor-trimmed,
ornate pillared-porch door.

Doors with transoms, doors with fanlights,
double doors, single doors, slim or wide,
doors with chains, doors with brass handle locks,

doors with deadbolts, doors with beveled windows,
doors with gates, doors with peepholes,
gates with latches, wrought iron elaborate

or parallel bare bars like a fence,
multi-panel doors, or flat veneer or select fine wood,
revolving doors, automatic doors, doors to push or pull.

Doors that stay open, doors that swing shut
doors that slam every time, screen doors,
doors with jalousie window slats and aluminum frames.

bathroom doors, kitchen doors, bedroom doors,
doors where the top separates from the bottom.
In fifty-eight years, how many doors have I walked through:

school doors, library doors, store doors, church doors, restaurant doors,
house doors, rest stop doors, apartment doors, car doors,
public doors, private doors, doors to keep out or let in,

revealing or concealing everything.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010


8/4/10

Empty Being Filled

Going down a path
willing to be directed

willing to take what comes
to make decisions

to avoid the valleys
by listening

I tell you
a thought is powerful

I am filled
with manifesting

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

IWWG at BROWN, part 1

One of the good things for me last year was attending my second International Women’s Writing Guild Conference, held in 2010 at Brown University in Providence, RI. I was still recovering my resilience and stamina, but I was determined to go. I had new writer friends to see again and I gave myself permission to do whatever I wanted. I had never been in Rhode Island, I could be a new me. Each day I had inner guidance about an “assignment”: someone to talk with, or something write about. I gave my first reading at one of the nighttime open readings. I met new women. I sold my books and CD at the book fairs at the beginning and the end. I worked on a poem/photo project about doors, inspired by one sentence a teacher said at the opening. I took care of myself. And every day I followed the energy. It might mean doing an energy healing for someone I met at lunch or it might mean taking pictures or sitting in reflection on the quads. Here is about the first third of the writing from that lovely week with a few photographs.

7/31/10

Grounding in Earth and Sky

For Diane and me

How much trouble
you can get in
not listening to your own wisdom

giving away power
to make decisions
then saying…later…

I knew all along.
See now how strong you are,
no longer a beginner.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

7/31/10

For Hannelore

Reflection,
introspection,

change in direction,
some follow, some lead,

some drop out and circle back,
some stay away forever and sulk,

some are drawn in who never were,
change is a requirement for living.

Adaptation with the blowing wind,
continual evolution,

so it is for all living things
including people and organizations,

the desire to exist, to keep on.
Nourish the whole

and the courageous ones
will risk it all following the larger vision.

What is important is not each tiny detail,
but the rich and nurturing conversation.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

7/31/10

After the wise women
must come the young ones
who care, who bear the

accumulated lessons
with learning of their own
in context of their times.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

7/31/10

Adventure After Waterfire

Lost
but not lost,

knew where we were
but not how to get

where we were going
back to temporary home.

Stopped for directions at a waterside bar
on the wrong side of the river

and from two characters in the parking lot:
a right, 5 lefts, over the red bridge

and down Angell Street,
which improbably turned out to be right.

Disorienting dark
with inconstant moon as talisman!

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

8/1/10

Healing Lunch
After Sue

There is the linear way of things
and there is the other,
order inherent in apparent chaos

where what comes together
has invisible purpose,
and what comes to us

leads back to wholeness.
There is no separation,
energy is energy whatever the spectrum.

To allow this process to happen,
to graciously let go
the smoke, the veil, the illusion,

to be content and at ease
in this insistent skin.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

8/1/10

Starving for Solitude

The nothing
in which to shape
something

of my own invention
is missing
all space filled

all days overflowing
even into night
More than one

chance to choose…
otherwise.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

8/1/10

Choosing a Teacher

Be careful who you select
as teacher, not to swallow
everything you hear,
paying attention to your truth-sense.

Be aware of how you feel—
discomfort tells you something
not good/not bad
necessarily, but check in:

Who resonates, who is kind in assisting,
strengthening the emerging voice,
not stamping on tender shoots
barely emerged from germination.

Who would never douse the heart-fire
and disperse your dream
back to the swirling primordial mists
it trustingly came from.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

8/3/10

Doors (1)

What is behind Door #1
unknown

What is behind Door 2 and 3
however elegant or shabby?

And all the rest: 14, 22, 637…?
Step through

close off or circle back
and see what happens

who do I want to be
and want with me?

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

8/3/10

To Protect My Luminosity

and not feel guilty

to be drawn to or away from
listen and let it be

What I am here for
who I am I see:

to gaze at the stars
to stand in the sun

no more, no less
to speak and sing and be silent

to flow as colored silk on the wind
to be truth as I know it

to catch, to throw, to be kind
to lead, to follow, to be still.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

8/3/10

To Be

An experiment
yet untried,

quite funny really,
to be myself fully for a week

day in day out, moment to moment,
to listen and act from

inner wisdom,
to pay attention aligned

and balanced, in harmony.
To act as if I am healed

and realize it
is true…

extensive laughing is involved
and weightlessness.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

8/3/10

Yes, I Noticed You Being You

What can I say of friend Amy
who spoke tonight so well and courageously,

who opened arms wide, glad to see me
before I even stepped through the door.

And who generously watches out for me
and graciously accepts me.

How fine a friend is that!

Amy, who paints her sad tale so vividly
parts of it are funny,

disconcerting when she feels more the tragedy,
but she pulls us into the humanness of the story

and humor allows us to keep looking,
to keep listening to what was imaginably unbearable.

A skilled weaver, illusionist, wordsmith,
she makes me care…what happens next.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

8/4/10

IWWG Conference

In coming together
opportunity
to see the places
both healed and raw still

To be who we are
built on what we have chosen
to be better than
wild and playful imagination

Whoever, up to now,
you have been
or considered being
come here…and choose

and choose again.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

Priming the Pump

One of the delights in 2010 were the amazing performers I heard and met at live Folkstage concerts on many Saturday nights, (also heard on WFMT just before The Midnight Special. Both shows are masterminded by Rich Warren.) My husband, Stephen, and I have been members for a while and really look forward to the music and the company (and the treats). Recently the concerts have stimulated my writing in a big way (priming the pump). I’ll be sharing some of those poems (and artists) with you.

12/5/10 Sunday

Buskin and Batteau

(at Folkstage)

If I had known you better
before I met you,
before I heard you sing,

I might not have
gathered the courage to speak,
taken advantage of opportunity,

grace, and graciousness.
But I didn’t know of your vast accomplishments
(of course discounting my own)

I only heard the call of the song,
the stories that sprang out apparently
fresh and unjaded when you weren’t looking.

I only knew the music, the dance, the vibration.
And because I was there alone last night, which is unusual,
and because it was the first big storm of the season

and because I had just heard bad news
that pierced me, shaking my defenses,
taking away any semblance of invulnerability,

because I had been waiting in some essential way
to speak to you, to give to you just a bit
and to receive what you offered perhaps surprised.

Well then, the Universe made the set up
and I walked through the open door.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

More about David Buskin and Robin Batteau can be found here

Often Unsung Heroes

What a pleasure reading my poem, “Mantles of Transformation,” (see previous post) for the large, enthusiastic group that showed up at the Artists Reception for the Women’s Journeys in Fiber Retrospective Exhibit! It took place in the old Dole mansion built in the 1860’s that is slowly being restored by the community. Very cool! Interesting contrast between the 100 pieces of vibrant, colorful art with the intricate wood trims and their peeling paint, the lofty ceilings and crumbling walls (not yet restored). The art and the good company nourished me yet again.

In one of those pre-sleep flashes the night before, I remembered I had written a new poem for Jan Gerber, the curator and coordinator of ten years of these fiber arts projects. I read the poem to see if it seemed “settled” and gave it to her as a surprise.

Then I began my reading with this recent poem. What of yourself do you see in her?

11/23/09

For Jan Gerber

You are the seed crystal,
the often unsung hero,

the gatherer, the glue,
the creative spark,

the tranquil reflecting pool,
the gypsy fortune teller.

The one who risks,
the nurturer,

the shock absorber,
the way seeker,

the book maker,
the curator, the midwife,

creator of the grand design,
the one who keeps on.

The dreamer
and follower of the dream.

Trust, patience, truth,
good humor, good heart,

intelligence, hope,
inspiration, courage.

Listener, speaker,
avid student, natural teacher.

Persistent. Determined.
Enthusiastic. Resilient.

Kind and generous.
What of myself

is mirrored in you?

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010