Issue 29, Let There Always Be Light
How am I prioritising my time in 2022 and poems from an Astronomer
We are survivors of immeasurable events, Flung upon some reach of land, Small, wet miracles without instructions, Only the imperative of change. ~Evolution by Rebecca Elson
Hello friends,
Happy 2022 - I hope you’ve had the chance to rest, recover and unwind over the holiday season. It’s hard to say what exactly changed this year but I finally feel like I was able to switch off completely and take a stock of where I am at and where I need to be going.
Doing any kind of planning or goals has been anathema to me over the last few years, mainly as a reaction to a life lived from milestone to milestone without ever really taking the time to enjoy the journey. But this year, after all that we’ve been through, I felt a huge impetus to expand again, perhaps precisely because our lives have been made small and fearful over the last couple of years. This is a pattern I am now able to recognise more easily than before - the rhythmic expansion and contraction, almost like each year is a single breath; it goes out and comes in.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect this year to be easy - but I do expect there to be change. And as things change around us that are outside our control I want to make some changes that I know will be intentional. So I thought I’d share these here, for accountability, and hopefully some of you will be able to relate.
Prioritise art - Art is a potent vitamin. This year I want to actively engage with, participate in and create art with less self-censoring.
Daily movement - Movement clears my brain and it’s crazy how my fear response forces me to freeze. Movement can be a powerful antidote in those moments of anxiety.
Plan for financial freedom - A lot of the artists I know are only able to work as artists because of the privilege they are born with. I never had that privilege, but now having earned it, I want to explore ways of achieving a sustainable lifestyle that lets me focus on living a creative life.
I am looking for freedom, for nourishment and for fire. What are you looking to change in this new year?
On this note - today I want to share with you a poem from Rebecca Elson who was a poet and an astronomer who researched extensively on ‘dark matter’. In her compiled notebooks (titled ‘A Responsibility to Awe’) she made inferences, poems and notes on her understanding of ‘known human forces, love & hunger, fear & hope’.
Let There Always Be Light
by Rebecca Elson
(Searching for Dark Matter)
For this we go out dark nights, searching For the dimmest stars, For signs of unseen things: To weigh us down To stop the universe From rushing on and on Into its own beyond Till it exhausts itself and lies down cold, Its last star going out. Whatever they turn out to be, Let there be swarms of them, Enough for immortality, Always a star where we can warm ourselves. Let there be enough to bring back From its own edges, To bring us all so close that we ignite The bright spark of resurrection.
Your bi-weekly download of Awe
This past week I managed to watch Disney’s Encanto. Having not been much into Disney movies before the pandemic, I found myself watching all of them to reconnect with my inner child, to appreciate the wonder and awe I used to feel watching animated movies as a kid. I absolutely fell in love with how beautifully done the movie was; the lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda for “Surface Pressure” blew me away and I found myself gasping all the way through the movie. I highly recommend a watch – or a listen below.
I’ve been playing around with Procreate on the iPad and Apple Pencil over the last month or so and have found getting into a more regular habit of sketching, letting go of perfection and just playing around so much easier to do on the software. It’s an incredibly well-designed software that has reduced so much friction in my journey back to an artistic practice.
I want to thank each of you for sticking with me and this newsletter through the last couple of years of sometimes inconsistent, sometimes dark, often hopeful, occasionally raw poems I have shared with you. That you continue to read and find value in these words makes me believe in the power of poetry that much more. If you have any feedback or comments on content you’d like to see more or less of, any recommendations of poets I invite you to leave me a comment below.
Happy New Year to all of you poets ✨
x
Sana