Monday Muse Medicine - Skin To Bark

A question/announcement, prompts to ignite your creative life, and a poem for the woods of your wild soul

Hello dear one!

I was thinking of sending you Creativity prompts, to inspire you to write a poem, or a story, or a short musing, or to paint or draw something, or to take a photo, or to dance - choreograph or freestyle - or compose a musical piece, or cook a beautiful meal, or record a conversation with a friend… anything your creative heart is inspired to do. And maybe we can cast a little circle and share. Would that be something you’re interested in? Let me know.

I’ll send you one of my poems every Monday along with these prompts.

I truly feel that the brilliant art of the heart’s creativity would carry us through these difficult times, and help us carve a path through. I believe we humans can receive inspiration from anything and everything. Struggles can ignite great art. So I’m committing to it. Here with you. Let’s do this!

You know what, why don’t we start today? I’m gonna drop seven lines for you, and you can turn it into whatever your muse guides you to make. Rearrange and change the words if Muse tells you to. These lines are just something to bounce off of. This will be our Monday Muse Medicine. Comment with whatever creative swirl this takes you into…

Below the prompts is my poem Skin to Bark.

Prompts:

When you were a leaf I____

Wind on____ skin, you_____

The space between_____ and____

The bark of____

What was seen____

I gave the____

And the ____ knew____

I want you to know your presence here is a huge gift! I value your intelligence, your imagination, your inspiration. I am so grateful to have you here! And I want to be in conversation with you!

Please comment with whatever these prompts inspire in you.

Share this with your loved ones. Invite them to join you on this Monday Muse Medicine.

And if you’re not subscribed, please subscribe! I’ll be back next Monday with more Muse Medicine. (I’ll probably be back with something more before)

Also, check out the notes I leave - short form little nibbles of inspiration throughout the week. You’d normally see them in your feed on the app. You can find the previous ones under my publication’s Activity. If you see them and they speak to you, put a heart on them and restack them - it’ll help them become more visible and that would be super supportive of my work, and I would appreciate it so much!

Thank you for being here! Have a muse filled Monday!

XOXO

Hagar

Skin To Bark

Between the greens I find a reality of belonging

Skin to bark becomes a sensation of inseparable

Of a universe unfolding

Of beingness becoming more of existence 

In the forest I breathe an I into a whole

Skin to bark breathes new configurations

Of identity through timelessness

Of time within no self at all

Of space signaling time to weave

A vastness greater than what we can 

Comprehend 

Hands grow roots in soil 

Soul softens skin into bark

Aging in the forest becomes a sacred bond 

Death devours doubts of worthiness

Delicate lines cross and no

One thing is a thread unbound

Interwoven elegance spreading sentiments 

Of freedom and

Interdependence

Plants surround a me far gone

Bark and skin and breath and birdsong

Gone yet here

I’ll raise the children that came through me

I’ll see them into adulthood

Love will saturate hearts

Grateful for this human form that 

Birthed life and fed and nourished

Like the earth beneath those hands

Make sure to look into their eyes and smile

Make sure to tend with tenderness

To this fleeting spark

In dirt I put my thoughts

Skin surrenders to bark’s hold

And nothing holds together 

The unraveling of self and other and more 

The intermingle of seed and soil

Water flows from sky and under

Ground

What will grow next in the forest of this life?

This life and that life interweave

Decay feeds cycles of becoming 

Leaves and branches and insects and stems

Skin and bark inseparable

Decomposition 

Reformulation 

Undone 

Make this a delicious run