I am an intuitive painter, and I love the idea of intuitive poetry. I’ve always enjoyed writing, in particular poetry and short creative non-fiction. I recently started getting back into writing, and it’s interesting to see the similarities to painting in terms of the creative process. I wrote a poem called “Heart Song”' guided by my intuition and based on a journal prompt by Rupi Kaur. The prompt was to write from the perspective of your body: heart, hands, belly and shoulders. What did it feel like to close your eyes, breathe deep into that space, and feel what that part of your body had to say? This is very similar to how I approach painting. I like to start by closing my eyes, leaning into my body, and feeling the colors on the page. The poem is an expression of words instead of paint. It’s a different medium, but the inner process is the same. It’s about tapping into the intuition and letting the poem or painting flow onto the page.
I approached the exercise by writing free-form in my journal. I imagined what each body part wanted to express and say to me. I then looked at the words, rearranged different pieces, and formed the ideas for the poem. It is like the intuitive painting process where you find the painting as you go. I start my paintings by tapping into the intuition and then letting my feelings guide the piece. I wrote this poem in the same way. I find words to be more rigid than paint, and poetry more structured than abstract art. However, I love this process and having another medium to express myself. The poem I wrote feels perfect.
Heart Song
I gently peeled my heart open
with my hands, each petal
one by one
softly dropping into my belly
that deep, sacred space.
My shoulders were the mountains
protecting my heart
from above, because those petals
I tended to with my fingers
were so delicate.
I heard an echo one day
from the mountains,
so loud that it
rustled the heaps of petals
that sat in my belly.
My heart started to sing.