ATTENTION + DISTRACTION - THE CREATIVE PROCESS

There’s a little romance, a forever dance, I see

that’s often suffocating and rarely ever free

between polarities of attention and distraction

how to get focused, centred, it’s just subtraction

create space that’s clean, minimal and ideally white

according to Rick Rubin, who’s mastered the light

of conscious attention; of creating creative acts

he’s integrated ‘flow and knows all the creative hacks

through meditation. mindfulness and presence

stuff I already do know, I guess my essence.

Underneath all the distractions it’s sat silently there

so quiet down all the noise, to feel free, be bare

Just show up, put pen to paper and it WILL flow!

I’ve done this, doing it now, a part of me just knows..

But my phone is calling me, friends are trawling me

into a spiral of distraction. to come out and play

when my soul wants to just sit still and be like clay;

to mould words into worlds, swirling in my head

since landing in London, and feeling this dread

of time moving on without me, leaving me behind

‘Get back to real work Mary, the hustle and grind’

But I’ve chosen a different path; my ease of mind.

all I have to do is show up and write, it’s truly fine.

But the fight of attention and distraction is very real

the war for our Attention is a battle, I regularly feel

But when I come back to my body, to the here and now

I just need to know Why, not every detail of How,

there is a forever dance between being here or there,

between myself and my other, this is my daily prayer.

To show up and be the conduit for spirit to work through me

to allow my words to create worlds through my creativity

So again, I chose stillness and brought back my attention

and wrote a little poem on process and mental retention!