Morning Has Broken — Again!
This morning, as soon as I awoke, I could hear Cat Stevens singing inside me:
“Morning has broken – Like the Frst Moning!” – Cat Stevens
I painted the above image after a long nap — otherwise know as a creative block — I couldn’t paint — I couldn’t write, until I did. I painted my Morning Has Broken in February 2021. By that time, I had suffered Creative blocks so very many times that I recognized my problem, and I painted my way out of it–a painting a day until the poisons were drained.
In October of 2015, I was probably even more creatively blocked, but I found a free poetry class, and I wrote myself out of that block: several poems a day. On October 15, 2015, I wrote the following:
The Long, Autumn Nap
by Jacki Kellum
I just took a nap for my mind, to see,
For flickering fae breath to come set me free.
Blessings from heaven — have showered down on me–
I’m singing a soft, silver song.
Visions of sugarplums, a miracle to be,
Moonbeams and crystal shards lit up the sea
Soft webs and angel hair strung from a flea
Toy-tugged my leaf-boat along.
Copyright Jacki Kellum October 11, 2015
The Donkey’s Song came to me in a flash in October of 2015.
“Angels from the Wings of Glory” — Undoubtedly, those words, which became a book, were one of God’s gratest gifts to me–but there have been others–and still, I know that I never heard many songs–because I was fast asleep.
While I would like to curse the darknesses of my times that I have been creatively blocked, I must not. Like the fields that go fallow during the winter, my mind seems to crave creative rest–yet, time after time, I have found the strength and the energy to reawaken–by the Grace of God.
I am in another reawakening now, and as usual, I am prolific: but even as I bask in the sunlight, I know that more dark days will come. That is how the Seasons of the Mind work.y
Beginning August 1, I’ll begin to unwrap Natalie Babbit’s book Tuck Everlasting, which I believe was heavily influenced by the great wordsmith Ray Bradbhing ury. On October 1, I’ll begin to unwrap Ray Bradbury’s word treasure Something Wicked This Way Comes. Both Tuck and Something Wicked deal with the Seasons of Life — I suspect that all writers, painters, and creatives deal with seasonal fluctuations.
We only need to remember that after the winter, spring will come again.
“April Come, Come She Will” – Simon and Garfunkel
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