The Trials of Faith

A writer's imaginations can be subjected to dark influences which, if persistent, will become intruding factors in the development of a story. Feelings of doubt or inadequacy, of anxiety or of being overwhelmed by the task at hand can settle into the mind & create a shadow. If unchecked, this shadow begins to permeate, with potential to develop into lingering states of emotional melancholia, persistent impressions of inadequacy or in the extreme, the morass of a suicidal depression.

Does addressing the imagination with doubt pertaining to what it is revealing have any direct impact on the visions it projects? Is it possible to impose previously held concepts of truth or of right & wrong on the contents of what the creative mind projects across the inner screen?

The question may bear some fruit. If we are to acknowledge consciously, then mindfully the disconnect we feel when the imaginary aspect tells us something we know to be false or inappropriate, the same creative function might then take those reservations into consideration & work to include what is known or acceptable. Through an attempt to connect with imagination consciously & rationally, might we bring the projections closer to what is considered a keener interpretation?

Conscious awareness of negative conditions may be difficult to attain. Many creatives work from a place of negative inspiration; that willful demonstration of value at any cost; a capability of mastering goals set forward, come what may. In these instances, inspiration grinds from desires to ward-off judgement; motivation finds genesis in negative external influence.

{Images by Bert Kupferman}

For Old Time's Sake

Once the old imagination starts to spin & I have made all required adjustments to environment in order to offer the freedom of lending this mysterious mechanism all attention necessary to instruct the visions yearned for capture into letters—why then & so often only then—the dissociation is sublime.

Under this rarefied influence, I forget embarrassing gratitude; wonder has silently taken the place of awe.

Where do we go when the mind opens potent avenues of creation? How is it that an organ inside the skull bewitches & transmogrifies the everyday into a vision creatively compelling?

Swimming amoungst conjured images, manufactured through privilege & fascination, the world I have struggled to comprehend crystallizes. It is here that the depth of feeling I read about becomes manifest; it is here where the potential I have reached for reveals the particulars of passage.

Through the act of creative writing, I begin to understand process.

The surface of imagination is invisible yet I envision an elastic thin skim—a seal across time & experience. Sometimes behind a poised intent or on other occasions lazily & for recreation, I break below that porous seal & all sense shoots full of wonder. Experience evolves; history waits to be embellished.

Over & over the mind dips into mysterious waters; time & again the same mind floods with scenes which I am only permitted to witness.

{Photography by Cecil Beaton}