19 Comments

For one who doesn’t much care about perfect sentences, you sure have a way with them. Maybe that’s the secret. Like those people who stop looking for love, and suddenly it appears.

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Not sure you could ever have enough imperfect clay salamanders. Like dogs. The more the better. xo

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My mediums are also clay and writing. For me clay came first. Seeking what the clay was offering and removing everything else... the same with writing which came later for me. Savoring the words and following them as they appear on the page. Thank you, Abigail for What Comes Next.

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That is creating: having the clay or the fabric or the pen ready to receive. And what complete the arc is never what you expect. Sometimes it even approaches perfection.

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Love this Abigail! Yes, the artist's space is one of unknowns. Now in my late 60s it is a place of pure joy. As a young person it was fear, it might even have been terror.

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Perfection is pompous and paralyzing. Fuck that shit! :-) Moving in messiness is much more satisfying and eventually joyously productive.

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author

Oh boy, I agree with that. Thanks. There is nothing more interesting than a mess.

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Thank you, Abigail! I needed this today! I think I have a salamander essay that desperately wants to be Pegasus. Or vice versa. This gives me the courage to let it be and become whatever it wants!

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author

oh how wonderful!! can't wait to read it.

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founding

I love the full permission here.

Why this? Why now? What’s the root of this new thing?

It feels Iike detective work that doesn’t have to be solved

just looking

Following

👀

Curious

Salamanders

The nose to the sky

Scrawny arms

Thank you

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author

Thanks. I have a salamander tattoo. Scrawny arms. Loved that little poem.

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founding

That is so cool that you have a salamander tattoo. My girls have been trying to get me to get a tattoo and I want to perhaps when I’m 70.

Soon…

I like frogs

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author

I got mine when I turned sixty. Got another one when I turned eighty. FTS, which stands for Fuck This Shit.

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founding

Love that. Can I adopt FTS?

Honestly, I wanted to get a tobacco plant on my back and I chickened out.

Next time, I'll say FTS over and over again to see if it helps.

How's your hip?

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author

my hip is improving while my eyesight gets worse. Why are all the letters on this new machine so tiny? I will ask my savvy daughter. You keep writing.

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founding

I’m glad to hear about the hip

I cannot read anything on my cell phone without reading glasses

I picked them up a few months ago. It’s incredible to be able to make up the words. But I still managed to miss a ton of typos.👀

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You had me at "Then I made five salamanders."

I love your trust in following an uncertain sense of whimsy which then rewards you by presenting something deeper.

Also, what you say about writing is so true. And my own curiosity has helped me through some dark times. I must try and get on better terms with imperfection :)

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author

Don't you think curiosity has perfection on the ropes?God knows there are works of art that are perfection. But curiosity may have been the inspiration. and what we make or write only has to satisfy the why--and the energy makes us whole, sort of, or satsfied, at least temporarily, until the next thing shows up.So we should keep making whatever we are making, right? Thats' all I ask. because it feels so good. Mostly because it feels so good hunting down clarity. And there's nothing wrong with hunting and failing..If this makes no sense, I blame it on not enough coffee yet.

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This makes absolute sense xo

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