The Poetry of Your Passing Thoughts
Issue #50 - a free workshop recording, reframe the familiar + illuminating links to explore
THE QUEST DIGEST by Creative Quests is a treasure chest of ideas & stories exploring what it means to live an illuminating, creative life. Written by Sam Furness and delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
Dear Questers
Thank you to all who came and participated in last week’s Quester Exchange session with poet and Quester, AngieDoe. ‘Finding Gold in the Grey’ was a beautiful space to be in for one hour. Angie is such a natural facilitator and has an incredible way of holding a space for creative exploration that breeds courage and realness.
🍿 Watch the workshop here:
If you’d like access to the communal poetry document mentioned in the session: please comment on this post and I will send it to you! Read & submit your own.
Turning Observations into Flow
Angie guided us through her poetic technique of turning everyday ‘observations into flow’. It’s a simple exercise, inspired by Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages. The daily practice of emptying your thoughts onto a x3 pages unedited, helping you clear the mind and often find the heart of what it is you are currently working through.
In The Artist’s Way, there is a strict instruction to never look at your pages again once you’ve written them. Angie’s method works a little differently, recognising that in these observational brain dumps there might just be some gold to mine (I agree!). All we need to do is look at them a little differently.
Try it!
Take a sheet of paper and draw out two columns
Title one of them ‘Observations’ and the other ‘Flow’
Spend 2/3 minutes writing out your Outer Observations (I.e - in the world around you). Sights / Sounds / Smells etc.
Then spend another 2/3 minutes writing out your ‘Inner Observations’ (I.e - your thoughts / feelings / sensations)
These two lists can just follow on from one another in the same column.
Now move to your Flow column and experiment with mixing and matching your Observations to create poetry. You can add in new words/phrases to connect your observations and use poetic devises like metaphor and simile to bridge your inner and outer worlds.
Spend 5 mins on this max - the goal isn’t perfection, it’s practice.
During Angie’s session I was reminded of some creative principles that have come up a lot in Quests over the years:
‘Reframe the Familiar’ and ‘Name it / Frame it’.
🤿 Reframe the Familiar
One of my favourite activities in the world is snorkelling. I wrote about it a few issues ago. The simple act of donning your snorkle goggles means you are open and ready to marvel at the visual wonders of the world.
On land we tend to wear goggles that have the opposite effect.
The Googles of Familiarity are perhaps the biggest blockers to wonder, inspiration and connection we posses. Screen time also gets a notable mention here.
To re-enchant our surroundings is to learn how to notice with more intention and appreciation. Seeing things as they are and as they aren’t all at the same time.
Every day is filled with opportunities to be amazed, surprised, enthralled—to experience the enchanting everyday. To stay eager. To be, in a word, alive. What we do with our attention, in short, is at the heart of what makes us human.
- Rob Walker
Perhaps the world’s most notable ‘Reframing Artist’, Banksy just dropped a series of new street art works. An interesting series of wild animal silhouettes popping up around London. Seeing things as they are and as they aren’t.
But what if we did this for our internal world too?
What if we reframed our everyday thoughts as artistic? What might seem like a completely normal thought to you could be profound for someone else. As Angie says in the workshop recording; everyones truth is different.
I would argue that the best artists in the world have got extremely good at noticing the artistic merit of their internal chatter and recontextualising it in their chosen form.
Artists like David Bowie and Tom Yorke use a technique called ‘Cut Outs’ to write lyrics: jotting down random thoughts/phrases onto different pieces of paper. Jumbling them up. Pulling at random to create new lyrical collages. A simple reframe.
Their is poetry in our passing thoughts.
p.s - I wrote a short piece about this idea in 2020, which was then directed by Georgina Warner. It’s one of my favourite ever Quest related projects. Fun fact - it’s working title was ‘Real Life As Magic’.
🗣️ Name It / Frame It 🖼️
Anyone who has been through our ‘Questlab’ process will be familiar with this one. It’s the notion that when you give something a name or a frame, it begins to take on an energy of it’s own. The act of separation from ourselves gives us a different perspective to view the idea from.
🗣️ Naming:
In society - to give someone a title is to give them an elevated status. In perception at at least.
It works the same with our ideas. When we give them names and titles - we give them status and sort of creative respect. They graduate from ‘that thing I’m working on’ to a being with it’s own aura.
As soon as I have an idea for a project or even a simple piece of art / music - I give it a name. Usually it’s a working title, meaning that it’s prone to be changed at some point as the idea itself changes. It’s quite fun seeing how a project/piece name can evolve over time.
🖼️ Framing:
Just like the proud parent putting their child’s very abstract multi-coloured-verging-on-brown art piece on the fridge - we can do the same with our creations.
Don’t wait to frame the masterpiece. Frame the everyday acts. Frame the thing that took you 10 minute to make. The journal entry that meant something. The melody you wrote and sung into your phone.
Frames can come in many forms. You can frame something by:
sharing it in conversation
giving it to a loved one
taping it to the wall above your desk.
posting it online.
or simply, buying a really nice frame for it.
Imagine if you framed 10 small creative acts you’ve made / done? An achieveable to build a body of work and celebrate the important every day steps of living a creative life.
A round up of curious finds from our Quester world.
✂️ David Bowie on using ‘cut outs’ to write lyrics
🧬 The Biocreative Index is a directory of people working at the intersection of biology and a creative discipline.
🏫 Schooling Beliefs: the hetero-directed and conventional education that still lives inside you via Alex Bretas
❤️ The world’s very first medieval electronic instrument by ever-amazing teenage engineering. Also… that’s how you do a promo video.
☎️ Willie Nelson announces is 153rd album. Yes you read that right. The link between age and creative curiosity is a choice.
👵 Speaking of which… Reimagining Ageing: A Quest. Adore this piece and project.
🪦 Artist and writer Andri Snær Magnason created a symbolic glacier graveyard in Reykjavík, to give attention to glaciers and the important role they play on our planet.
💭 How to re-spark your imagination: a Ted podcast with Superflux founder Anab Jain
Finally…
I love hearing from readers in the comments, and always value feedback.
If you enjoy The Quest Digest I’d love it if you shared it with a friend or two; you can send them here to sign up.
❤️’s and comments make me feel good too!
Creative Quests is on mission to instigate a worldwide ripple of creativity, curiosity and connection.
Big love,
Sam
Quest Guide / Founder
@saaamfurness
THE QUEST DIGEST by Creative Quests is a treasure chest of ideas & stories exploring what it means to live an illuminating, creative life. Delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
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Love reading your newsletters, Sam! A spark of curious joy!
Another nice quest digest.
Realize I’m training myself to reframe for some years now…and that I’m ‘framing’ my artworks by posting and sharing them 👍
Thank you!