Episode 34: Creative mindfulness with James Crews

How might stillness and a heightened sense of awareness infuse your creative endeavors? In this episode we speak with poet, editor and writing coach James Crews about how a daily mindfulness practice can help us meet creative stumbling blocks such as self-judgment and writer’s block with more clarity, curiosity, acceptance and even surprise. Can mindfulness be a hindrance to creativity? Are there “rules” for how and when to to do it? Can being quiet really help an art that depends on words? How might your creativity infuse your mindfulness? James Crews is the author of four collections of poetry, The Book of What Stays, Telling My Father, Bluebird, and Every Waking Moment. He is also the editor of two anthologies: Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The Sun, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, and have been reprinted in Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry and featured on Tracy K. Smith’s podcast, The Slowdown. Crews teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Eastern Oregon University and lives with his husband on an organic farm in Vermont.John Kabat-ZinnSharon SalzbergJane HirshfieldNaomi Shihab NyeDarn Luckyfor James CrewsIt happens, you know—the day opens itselflike a tulip in a warm room, and you meet someonewho amazes you with their willingnessto be a thousand percent alive, someonewho makes you feel grateful to be you.And it’s as if life has been keeping a beautifulsecret from you—like the fact that they makeelderberry flowers into wine. Like muscadine.Like the yellow-green floral scent of quince.Like the perfect knot for tying your shoes.And it turns out life does have wonderfulsecrets waiting for you. Even when the newsmakes you cry. Even when some old pain returns,that’s when you will meet this new friend.Someone wholly themselves. Someonewho makes you smile in the kitchen, a smile so realthat when you go out, the whole world notices.It’s enough to make you want to wake up in the morning.To go into the day. To be unguarded as a tulip, petalsfalling open. You never know who you might meet. --Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingform.substack.com/subscribe