Thursday 18 October 2012

Dancing in the rain

Audience participation, the two words I used to cringe at when someone uttered them or eluded to them. I would start to slouch down in my seat and pray that my eyes would not connect with the torturer.

Something in me has changed, I don't know if it is blogging or the direction my working life is taking (I employ audience participation on a frequent basis) but the words kind of fill me with excitement now. Although I am not sure I could get up in front of hundreds of people and karate chop a lump of wood (I saw that once in a Shaoulin Warriors show!). So when Tangled Lou at Periphery shouted audience participation I got all excited and shouted how high (ok whimpered I'll have a think).

Cliché's love them or hate them they have become ingrained in the way we communicate. They are useful in some circumstances, but to tell someone with short or no hair to 'let their hair down' is absurd. That is about as insightful as I seem to be getting on this subject. However, my mind does work in very mysterious ways and this is what I did come up with, I hope you like it:
 
It's time I kicked these shoes off
and go dancing in the rain
It's time I let my hair down
and live life with no shame.
 
It's time I stood on my own two feet
not wait for a hand to hold
It's time I opened the other door myself
and get used to feeling alone.
 
I'm tired of walking a mile
in someonelse's shoes
It's time I put my own back on
and enjoyed my slice of now.
 
 
If you read my post on Tuesday you will know I was dithering over doing something that scared me a little, something just for me. Please don't think any worse of me, remember I did say I am a wus, I was scared of driving. I know, I know stupid right. I was going to avoid something I enjoy just because it meant driving to a city that I have never driven in before and worse still having to do it alone!
 
Well I 'bit the bullet' (sorry Lou) and I went. I took myself to Liverpool and had a morning all to myself. I had a danish and a coffee walking through the city shops. I wandered down to the dock side buildings and stood for a moment; the breeze on my face, the taste of salt in the air, the sound of seagulls drifting around. Relaxed and energised I enjoyed an hour of beautiful art work at the Tate Liverpool. An exhibition of impressionist art work was what I had gone to see. The later paintings of my favourite artist Monet, mentioned before here, were on display along with some work from Turner and Twombly.
 
 
I may post about the exhibition and the thoughts it stirred in me at a later date. I will however say that; I smiled, I laughed (quietly to myself), I sat and floated with the waterlilies, I cried (see definitely a wus) yes a painting brought me to tears! I don't know if it is the memories I have attached to the Monet pieces, or the way the Twombly works seem to depict the turmoil I feel of the here and now but I have become an emotional wreck in the space of one day. It is as if someone has messed with my emotional switch. I have felt more creatively alive in the last 24 hours, I am just not sure why it has to come with an emotional roller coaster ride!


8 comments:

  1. Huzzah! That poem is one of the best uses of cliche I have seen in a long time. I loved the way you took them and shook them out and turned them inside out. How exciting.

    Also exciting: weeping in public over great art, going someplace just for you, eating danish.

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    1. Seriously, I thought it was drivel, so thank you for liking it!

      I spent a lot of time on just me yesterday (I had a reading and writing afternoon and sometime with an artist in the evening). Altogether a nearly perfect day just means today the bottom dropped out of my world, does that ever happen to you after something great?

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  2. Love that painting .. saw it at an art exhibition at the library once..

    That day sounds absolutely divine and one day I hope to do the same. I'm a wuss. I failed my driver's road test and now I'm too much of a wuss to set up another one. Although I have begun setting dates for a couple of lessons and then will finally get a date for the test. I'm not afraid of driving. Just being tested on it. It drives me to distraction and makes me a nervous wreck. Just thinking about it gets my palms all sweaty. Wuss. Good for you for doing something that scared you! And I too loved that poem and how you used the cliché. Well done. :)

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    1. Now your turn, do something scary. You won't forget it ;-)

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  3. I love this poem! Good job! I was just sitting here thinking of something I could do alone, but wasn't sure I wanted to. This has given me to the get up and go to do it. Thank you!

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    1. Awww, I'm so glad. We should all take time for us and not let fears or laziness or any other ecuse get in the way. And thanks for liking the poem ;-)

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  4. Oh, how I love how you twist this phrase around and dance with it. Beautiful poem. I love that a painting brought tears to your eyes, and that your creative zone involves your emotions. Totally makes sense to me. Use it, eh? It helps me/us feel what you're feeling.

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    1. I think art-writing-music-my emotions are all inexplicably linked for me and whenever I write I usually have a piece of art or a photograph and a song in mind that all go hand in hand (sometimes I remember to note it down, sometimes I don't).

      I am glad I make sense to someone!

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