A Creative Force

"As my sufferings mounted, I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation — either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force; I decided to follow the latter course."

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Problem of Describing Color

                 "If I said — remembering in summer,

                 The cardinal's sudden smudge of red

                 In the bare gray winter woods —

If I said, red ribbon on the cocked

                    straw hat

                 Of the girl with pooched-out lips

                 Dangling a wiry lapdog

                 In the painting by Renoir —

                 If I said fire, if I said blood welling

                    from a cut —

                 Or flecks of poppy in the tar-grass

                    scented summer air

                 On a wind-struck hillside outside

                     Fano —

                 If I said, her one red earring tugging

                    at her silky lobe,

                 If she tells fortunes with a deck of

                    fallen leaves

                 Until it comes out right —

                 Rouged nipple, mouth —

                 (How could you not love a woman

                 Who cheats at the Tarot?)

                 Red, I said. Sudden, red."

                    — Robert Hass

                           From Time and Materials:

                           Poems 1997-2005

Creativity

A PASSAGE — "The most useful definition of creativity is the following one: people are artistically creative when they love what they are doing, know what they are doing, and actively engage in the tasks we call art-making. The three elements of creativity are thus loving, knowing, and doing; or heart, mind and hands; or, as Buddhist teaching has it, great faith, great question and great courage."

— Eric Maisel, Ph.D.