For Keeps: Why I Don't Read Poetry - I Absorb It

On how to read a poem to mine for creativity (prompts included!)

*You can listen to the audio version of Joy Harjo’s “For Keeps” as read by Maverick L. Malone and follow along below.

“For Keeps” by Joy Harjo

Sun makes the day new.
Tiny green plants emerge from earth.
Birds are singing the sky into place.
There is nowhere else I want to be but here.
I lean into the rhythm of your heart to see where it will
take us.
We gallop into a warm, southern wind.
I link my legs to yours and we ride together,
Toward the ancient encampment of our relatives.
Where have you been? they ask.
And what has taken you so long?
That night after eating, singing, and dancing
We lay together under the stars.
We know ourselves to be part of mystery.
It is unspeakable.
It is everlasting.
It is for keeps.

Photo by Maverick L. Malone

When I read this poem, it instantly conjured spring in my mind: green flourishing meadows dotted with wildflowers, birds gathering ribbons for their nests, a gentle sun rising in a dark world that returns the light to my own.

What I love about spring (besides the obvious — this weather? Gorgeous), is the energy it brings. As cyclical beings, we tend to reflect the seasons. When everything’s in bloom, so are we (or at least we want to be). Spring is a time for new beginnings, and we can harness this energy to nudge our own creative growth.

Reading a poem slowly and intentionally is like planting a seed. The right poem can instantly spark something in us when we come at it from the angle of curiosity. I find that when I linger over certain phrases that pique my interest, let certain words soak in, the poem as a whole burrows deeper within me and eventually, out comes my own, expressing a previously undiscovered and wholly unique part of self. Magic in, magic out.

Photo by Maverick L. Malone

If we wish to cultivate more creativity, find more inspiration, and access more of our own unique wisdom and truth, we need only to do one simple thing: consume more poetry and change the way we interact with it. When we’re already immersed in the energy we want to cultivate, it becomes easier to access that within ourselves. If we’re reading more poetry, we’re inspired to write more poetry. There’s a long scientific and spiritual explanation for this, but the TL;DR version is that what we absorb becomes what we reflect.