Inspiration

Become a Thief.

February 26, 2013

By Jen Pastiloff.

I am not disciplined and I am a little lazy. I seek out inspiration when I can. I use anything I can. Or else I can’t write. Or else I can’t live. I don’t do the “just write everyday” advice very well.

Example: I am in this diner and there’s this man I watch a lot. Cheeks collapsed into his head and hollow as a balloon with all the air sucked out. The skin wrinkled and I’d love to touch it I think. I’ve never felt a face like that before. He is my favorite old man to steal images from. Cleans his fork with spit.

My Own Personal Muse sucks on his poppy seed bagel. Scrapes out the dough, sucks on it to get it soft before he swishes it around in his mouth. Once a paste, he will swallow.

He’s very consistent in his habits. I count on him like a clock when I  feel like nothing is making sense in the world and that the irregular and erratic are gaining speed.

He grunts in broken English Too much cantaloupe! at the man mixing fruit behind the counter, Too much cantaloupe! Then, the part I will steal, since I am here shopping for images, the true gem is this: It is not a balanced fruit salad because there is too much of one thing.

I choke on my breakfast I am so defeated by the truth in this.

Most mornings I wait for him to do something fascinating. To inspire me to write a poem about him. Eight whole minutes and he’s still shining a fork. He finishes his bread. Amazingly, without help from teeth. After the bagel, he eats French fries with ketchup and mayonnaise. He doesn’t even use his fork after all.

He leaves and takes the fork.

There’s this other guy. Another old man shuffling in, with big teeth and gums and skinny legs. And he walks right over to my table. Like he’s been looking for me for days, or for years. He leans over eggs and into me as if to deliver some big news. Smart women he says cook with gas in balanced power homes. Then he walks away. And by the pies with a look says: Well, what do you make of that?

I’ve never lived in a balanced power home. Am I smart? Can I cook? Can I cook with gas? Have I ever even been in a balanced power home? 

I feel overwhelmed by this confession. And more fittingly, undone.

At home the power was never balanced. My father whistled in the morning for my mother to bring him his coffee with half and half. Nights he rang a bell for his Pepsi, his waffles with chocolate ice cream.

All these men: opera singers with objects stuck in their throats.

Useless, until the dislodging.

Until that Monday before he died, my father never even knew where we kept the glasses in the kitchen.

Where do you find your inspiration? 

Me, I am a thief.  (See? I even used the old men and the cantaloupe and the balanced power thing and the bagel.)

I will search in diners and in my past and through old men with puffy faces. I don’t care, I am not above this “borrowing”, as it were. Isn’t that how we make a life, after all? Isn’t it how we make our way in the world? We find what images grab us. We find what resonates and then we run for the hills with our discovery.

We change what need to.

If we pay attention the inspiration is right there, in every cup of coffee, in every face, in every lie, in every declaration by the pies. There is no such thing as a balance of power.

Take what you can and get out fast. Use what you need to. Be inspired by all of it. Even the rotten and the crotchety.

Look, you can use them. Use your past. Use what you can and run for the hills waving your flag that says I am an artist or I am a writer or simply I am a person in the world.

I am alive.

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The 12 Day Detox is here. Sign up now for May 25th cleanse. Space is limited. This detox comes at just the perfect time. Reprogram your body and mind as we move into the new season of spring. This is your time of rejuvenation and renewal.This is not a juice fast, or a detox based on deprivation.

Do you want the space and joy to get back into your body? To get into your words and stories?  Join Jen Pastiloff and best-selling author Lidia Yuknavitch over Labor Day weekend 2015 for their 2nd Writing & The Body Retreat in Ojai, California following their last one, which sold out in 48 hours. You do NOT have to be a writer or a yogi.  "So I’ve finally figured out how to describe Jen Pastiloff's Writing and the Body yoga retreat with Lidia Yuknavitch. It’s story-letting, like blood-letting but more medically accurate: Bleed out the stories that hold you down, get held in the telling by a roomful of amazing women whose stories gut you, guide you. Move them through your body with poses, music, Jen’s booming voice, Lidia’s literary I’m-not-sorry. Write renewed, truthful. Float-stumble home. Keep writing." ~ Pema Rocker, attendee of Writing & The Body Feb 2015

Do you want the space and joy to get back into your body?
To get into your words and stories? Join Jen Pastiloff and best-selling author Lidia Yuknavitch over Labor Day weekend 2015 for their 2nd Writing & The Body Retreat in Ojai, California following their last one, which sold out in 48 hours. You do NOT have to be a writer or a yogi.
“So I’ve finally figured out how to describe Jen Pastiloff’s Writing and the Body yoga retreat with Lidia Yuknavitch. It’s story-letting, like blood-letting but more medically accurate: Bleed out the stories that hold you down, get held in the telling by a roomful of amazing women whose stories gut you, guide you. Move them through your body with poses, music, Jen’s booming voice, Lidia’s literary I’m-not-sorry. Write renewed, truthful. Float-stumble home. Keep writing.” ~ Pema Rocker, attendee of Writing & The Body Feb 2015

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  • Reply flatlinerbooks February 26, 2013 at 10:09 pm

    We dropped by! Thank you for having us 🙂 We’d like to drop a postcard for your site.
    https://flatlinerbooks.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/i-wanna-go/

  • Reply yogirookie February 27, 2013 at 12:56 am

    I love this. Absolutely love this! I am a borrower too. I take what I need from whatever is around me and I start writing. I see a couple in love I write. I see my daughters first recital and the energy of tr dancers, I write. I meet a guy, I leave a guy, I drive past homeless people… I write. Every emotion or non-emotion that’s beautiful or ugly makes me run for the hills wanting to explore my discovery.

    Beautiful piece! Thank you <3

  • Reply barbarapotter February 27, 2013 at 1:38 am

    All artists or creative people use what they see around them for inspiration. That is what makes it all so unique and special. We all need that spark that comes from somewhere whether it be visual, auditory or touch. If anyone says they don’t I believe they fib.

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