Oprah Winfrey

"For all the major moves in my life — to Baltimore, to Chicago, to own my show, and to end it — I've trusted my instincts.  I take in all the information I can gather.  I listen to proposals, ideas, and advice.  Then  I go with my gut, what my heart feels most strongly."

— Oprah Winfrey

American Actress, Television Talk Show Host

1954 -

When making decisions, one should always gather the information and opinions available.  But in the end, when it is decision time, one should listen to one's gut.  One must learn to trust that quiet voice deep inside.  Listening to one's gut requires silence.  At some point, one must shut out the voices sharing their opinions and make up one's own mind.

As artists and writers, this is important advice.  We must learn to trust ourselves.  There are friends, teachers, critics and even strangers who are happy to share their opinions about our creative works.  While it is important that we listen to what they say, we must learn to sort through the garbage and find a few nuggets of truth.  And in the end, we must listen to our own quiet voice telling us what to paint or write.

Here is a short video biography of Oprah Winfrey.

Robert Bly

"When anyone seriously pursues an art — painting, poetry, sculpture, composing — over twenty or thirty years, the sustained discipline carries the artist down to the countryside of grief, and that descent, resisted so long proves invigorating. . . . As I've gotten older, I find I am able to be nourished more by sorrow and to distinguish it from depression."

— Robert Bly

American Poet

1926 - 

I first heard Robert Bly read poetry in 1969 while I was in college and I still own a copy of his very first book of poetry, Silence in the Snowy Fields, which I bought when he was in town and is autographed by him.  He was majestic, expansive and seemed to blow the roof off the auditorium.  I fell in love with the poetry I read in that small sixty-page book, published by Wesleyan University Press, full of images of the midwest where I was born and raised.  Years later I had another opportunity to hear Bly read and I bought a collection of his prose poems, Morning Glory.  I own a number of his poetry books and his books of translated poems.  I even bought the book that made him rich and famous, Iron John, a non-fiction book I have never been able to finish reading.  

Here is a short poem that I love.  The last two lines have the feel of Japanese haiku.

Watering the Horse

How strange to think of giving up all ambition!

Suddenly I see with such clear eyes

The white flake of snow

That has just fallen in the horse's mane!

Here is another favorite poem of mine from his first collection.  This poem evokes the feeling of the rural countryside in which I grew up.  Anyone who grew up in the rural midwest will immediately feel at home.

Three Kinds of Pleasure

        

                   I

Sometimes, riding in a car, in Wisconsin

Or Illinois, you notice those dark telephone poles

One by one lift themselves out of the fence line

And slowly leap on the gray sky —

And past them, the snowy fields.

                   II

The darkness drifts down like snow on the picked cornfields

In Wisconsin:  and on these black trees

Scattered, one by one,

Through the winter fields —

We see stiff weeds and brownish stubble,

And white snow left now only in the wheeltracks of the combine.

                  III

It is a pleasure, also, to be driving

Toward Chicago, near dark,

And see the lights in the barns.

The bare trees more dignified than ever,

Like a fierce man on his deathbed,

And the ditches along the road half full of a private snow.

Ansel Adams

"When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs.  When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence."

— Ansel Adams

American Photographer

1902 - 1984

Sometimes words are not enough.  And sometimes pictures fail to communicate what we are feeling.  And all we have left is the silence.  If the writing is blocked, pick up a brush and paint a picture.  If the painting is blocked, walk into the woods and listen.  Life goes on even without the human voice.  Listen to the sounds between the silences.  Listen to the heartache in another human being.  The universe is bigger than mankind.  And yet the universe is contained in the soul of one individual.  We will not live forever.  And some day the civilizations we are so proud of will vanish and be replaced.  Change never ends.  Focus on what is possible and forget about what cannot happen.  




When we let the small things make us angry, we lose sight of the bigger picture — that in the grand scheme of things it will not matter a thousand years from now.  Where were you when Rome burned?  So take a deep breath and take the the beauty of the universe into your soul and create a masterpiece.  And give back to the universe a portion of what you have been given.  What is to be, will be.

Now, listen to Ansel Adams in his own words.

Arvo Part

Portrait of Arvo Part
(2011 by Michael) 

"I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played.  This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me."

— Arvo Part

Estonian Classical Composer

1935 -

Many of the poems I have written are full of simple words and simple images.  I spent seven years early in my career writing haiku, a Japanese poetic form, that has a maximum of 17 syllables.  Most of my haiku are less than 17 syllables.  Here is one with four words and six syllables.

pregnant —

    she weeds

       carrots

Here is one with three words and six syllables.

spider

    underfoot —

        squash

For me, it is what is not said sometimes that is as important as what is said.  Listen to the silences between the words — the silences within the images, the silences between the notes.  Some writers are lavish with their words and sentences.  One of my favorites is John Irving.  His novels are written as circles within circles — very complex in construction and development and I enjoy them.  Some writers, artists and musicians seek simplicity in their work.  Arvo Part, the Estonian composer, is one of them.

Here is a track from his album, Alina.  Enjoy the pictures as well as the music.

We need both the simple and the complex in our lives.  If you are complex artist, seek simplicity in a few of your works.  If you are a simple artist, seek complexity.  And don't be fooled into thinking simple works are not as good as complex works.  Sometimes simple works are harder to create than complex works.  In a 500 page novel, you can make a few mistakes and nobody will notice.  In a haiku, one wrong word will ruin the haiku.

Here is a short poem, I wrote back in March 2011.

Your breath,

a feather

of love,

touches my ear.

I listen

to the moon

and cry softly.

(The portrait of Arvo Part above was done by Michael.  Check out his blog, Red. Yellow. Blue.)

Leopold Stokowski

"A painter paints pictures on canvas.  But musicians paint their pictures on silence."

— Leopold Stokowski

1882 - 1977

British Orchestral Conductor

Have you ever listened to silence?  These days it is hard to find silence, because there is so much white noise.  Even in nature there is little silence.  We hear the wind, the insects, the birds and the animals.  We fill our days with noise from the moment we wake until the moment we sleep.  We turn on the television, plug in our I-Pods, and turn on our computers.   And some of us are afraid of silence.  If silence appears in a conversation, we become nervous.  Many of us can't be home by ourselves without turning on the TV or the radio so we have noise.  And cell phones allow us to stay connected to human voices so we don't feel alone even if we are deep in the woods.  I believe silence is a good thing and that we need to find ways to enjoy it more.  As an artist and writer I need silence to hear the voice of my muse.  Too much chaotic noise blocks the sweet voice of my muse.  Do you run from silence or have you learned to appreciate it?

Here is a video of Leopold Stokowski conducting Tchaikovsky.  Watch his hands paint the silence.  Fantastic1

   

Harold S. Kushner

"If we put our soul into our work, if, rather than just going through the motions, what we do flows from the deepest part of our being, then after a burst of creativity, we need to replenish our souls."

— Harold S. Kushner

American Rabbi, Author

1935 -

Sometimes we need to rest — to replenish our spirit.  We cannot work all the time.  How do you replenish your spirit — restore your energy?  Exercise?  Walking?  Reading?  Visiting friends?  Loafing?  Good farmers know the importance of leaving a field fallow so as to restore the nutrients in the soil.  How do you restore the nutrients in your soul?  Do you take the time to be with yourself without the noise and chaos of the world in which you live?  Do you spend time with your soul in meditation and prayer?  Have you learned how to relax — to slow the pace of your life?  Take time today to pause for a few minutes and listen to the spirit within your flesh.  Find comfort in the small acts like the dance of a child, the breeze in the trees, the scampering of a squirrel or the hug of a friend?  Gently love the world in which you find yourself.

Harold S. Kushner wrote a book, The Lord Is My Shepherd: Healing Wisdom of the Twenty-Third Psalm, in which he meditates on the meaning of the twenty-third psalm.  The words I quoted above come from the chapter entitled: He Restoreth My Soul.  Kushner tells the story of a group of people who were on safari in Africa and hired porters to carry their supplies.  After three days the porters insisted on stopping for a day to rest.  The porters claimed that they were stopping not because they were tired, but because they had walked too far too fast and they needed time for their souls to catch up.  Have you traveled too fast and left your soul too far behind?  Do you need to wait for your soul to catch up?

As a speaker, I travel a lot — both by car and by plane.  I am currently in the midst of five weeks of travel.  Every time I return home, it takes me a day or two to renew my spirit and allow my soul to catch up.  And sometimes I feel like my soul does not catch up with my body before I am back on the road chasing the tiger.  In my case, my writing of poetry helps my soul to find its way back to the body and restore my sense of who I am.  







The Twenty-Third Psalm




The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul.

He guides me in straight paths for His Name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil

For Thou are with me.

Thy rod and Thy Staff, they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

Thou anointest my head with oil,

My cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

"Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose."

— Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Swiss Psychiatrist & Author

1926 - 2004

Silence is where our work as creative leaders begins.  We must go back to the well of silence again and again to refresh our spirit and restore our sanity.  There is a lot of noise in our society today that will cloud our thinking and hinder the flow of creativity.  The noise of multiple voices rises from the traditional media: newspaper, radio and television.  And the noise is multiplied a hundred times over today by the cell phones, the internet and social media.  Each of these technologies has value and can contribute to our success, but we must manage and control their use, not let them control us.  We must sometimes go silent and cut ourselves off from the noise.  We must go deep inside and experience the silence.

And in the silence we will know and understand our purpose.  If we lose sight of our purpose, we will lose our way and become lost in the noise and chaos.  The silence allows us to find ourselves and to stay focused on what is important and why we are here.

Are you in touch with your purpose?  Do you know why you are here?  Do you know what lessons you have learned and what lessons you still need to learn?  How are you going to make a positive contribution to the world at large?  What are you giving back to society?  Seek to know who you are by knowing your purpose for being.  Embrace the silence and stay focused on your purpose.

e. e. cummings

"most people are perfectly afraid of silence"

— e. e. cummings

American Poet/Artist

1894 - 1962

e. e. cummings

1933

Writers and artists require silence to focus on their work and, yet, many people are afraid of silence.  Silence helps us find our way through the maze of life.  Silence opens like a flower in the morning.  Take time to enjoy the silences of your life.  The hardest silence to find is the silence of the mind.  We are constantly talking to ourselves even when we have silenced the voices around us.  Learn to slow your mind down and quiet the voices talking inside your head.    Rid yourself of your mother's voice.  Your father's voice.  The voice of the critic.  The voice of the editor.  Learn to love silence. 

Theodore Roethke

"May my silences become more accurate."

— Theodore Roethke

American Poet

1908 - 1963

Many of us are afraid of silence.  We have a need to fill the the air waves with noise — television, radio, music.  And for those living in cities there are the sounds of cars, trucks, sirens, airplanes and neighbors fighting.  I enjoy external silence because it allows me to think, but I rarely experience internal silence.  My thoughts are always bubbling to the surface, brandishing their weapons.  Can you hear the silence when you are painting?  Do you listen to the silences between the words that you utter?  When I teach people to speak in public, I talk to them about the importance of silence — of learning the pregnant pause, of giving your audience the time to catch up with your words.  Storytellers understand the power of silence.  We must learn to appreciate silence, to enjoy its many flavors.  Sometimes we can learn more from silence than all the words ever spoken or written.