Creativity is a way of moving through the world, every minute, every day … Noticing what you find interesting, what makes you lean forward. And knowing all of this is available to use next time you sit down to work, where the raw data gets put into form.

—Rick Rubin, “The Creative Act: A Way of Being”

•••

Holding hands with creativity
turns out to be a way of being in a world
it’s sometimes hard to be in,

a form of faith that says,
There’s something in here
that needs to get out—

through a pen to a page,
through a brush dipped in paint,
through a horn blown alone

or with others to make a joyful
or sorrowful noise. So many ways
to let creativity take us

by the hand and say, Here,
sweetheart. Sit here and just
for a little, let this leak out of you.

Maybe others will see it or hear it.
Maybe it will touch someone else.
Maybe it won’t. But really,

it’s for you. Always, only, for you,
this way of being—no other way to be—
which takes not so much belief

but trust that your voice
is worthy of the page, or
the canvas, or the place where

you put the horn to your mouth,
and notes appear to hang in the air
for the briefest of moments,

then disappear, until you make
more of them, and more,
and more.

•••

(For the painters like my brother-in-law Eric and the trombone players
like my nephew Kevin, and the actors and composers and sculptors,
for the photographers like my dear Dick Schmidt, for the writers
who write with me and the ones I admire from afar, living and dead,
thank you for your gifts of creativity.)