Kundalini Splendor

The Creator

Consider Louise Nevelson,
how she kept on going,
how the shapes and forms
inhabited her dreams at night,
her hours of waking,
how they kept tumbling forth,
spheres, rectangles, squares,
complex shapes
of pentagons,
tetrahedrons,
things for which we
have no names,
all emerging
like images
from a photographic
solution
rising to the surface,
arranging themselves
in relationship
until what she had
was something
borrowed from
the beginning
of creation,
original form
coming into being.

Dorothy Walters
August 5, 2009

A question often asked of poets (and other artists) is, How do you write a poem (paint a picture, etc.) ? This poem "came through" this morning as I was beginning my slow movement practice, and I wrote it down immediately (I compose at the computer--that makes it easier to revise and also to read the text later.) This is the sequence of thought that led to this unexpected poem:

As I was moving, I was contemplating the mountains in the distance and thinking of a dream I once had in which "Shangri-La" (paradise) was located just up Boulder Canyon and slightly to the southwest, in a very special place. It was quite vivid, and I have often longed to find this edenic locale. Then I thought of a sculptor friend (now rather famous) who used to have a cabin in the mountains near this place. Then I thought of Louise Nevelson, a most powerful sculptor of abstract form, and how her creative energy continued until she was a very old woman and became a recognized figure over the world. Her picture in old age, with her extremely long, very dark eyelashes (obviously artificial) and her kerchief tied around her head, is extremely memorable. She is almost mythic in her appearance (like an ancient goddess or crone)

I saw an exhibit of her work a few months ago in San Francisco, and was most taken with the energy and force of her installations. (Photographs of her compositions do not do justice to them--you need to see her creations in person to get the full effect.) I am not an artist and sometimes have trouble deciphering modern abstract art, but I was captured by the power of these works. They spoke to me on a deep level.

And so, when her image came into my mind it made me think of other creative artists who continue to write or paint or compose well into old age, which, for them, is no barrier. And I "heard" the line, "Consider Louise Nevelson," and turned on my computer to capture the lines that were coming through.

Like many people, I think there is a close connection between Kundalini and creativity. This is not to say that all who have awakened Kundalini are by virtue of that turned into creators. But artists often seem to have an energy--a drive and dedication, as well as a highly active imagination--beyond that of much of society. Gopi Krishna thought Kundalini was the engine of human evolution, and that its full flowering turned us into geniuses. I don't know about the latter, but I do think it can help us reach a new level in our own spiritual and creative development.