Water Of Creativity

In the falling snow

A laughing boy holds out his palms

Until they are white

Richard Wright’s work helped redefine race-relation discussions in America during the mid-20th century. In his later years, he became enamored with Haiku. This African-American author wrote over four thousand poems. In 1998, his book, Haiku: This Other World was published.

Haiku is an art form that few of us recognize. It lives outside the boundaries of accepted thought. Haiku redefines the imaginative lines of desire, creativity and expectations. When we are immersed in these poems, we find ourselves searching between those lines for the meaning. The meaning is in plain sight, but our sight is fixed on the words not the meaning.

We have the impetus for incredible creativity within us. We know this impetus exists, and we give it an exalted name. We project this impetus outward and make it stand on its own in order to visualize it, but it is never a separated from us. Just like the laughing black boy in Wright’s poem the impetus to be what we desire to be is an innate state of being.

Our innate knowledge retains the memory of this state. Within that knowledge is the impetus for change, survival, creativity and development. Just like the falling snow that contains the water of creativity, we sense the whole gestalt that formed our impetus.