Broken by the Muse

Immersed in the Creative Impulse

OPENING VERSES TOON TELLINGEN from DE OPTOCHT (2016)
Kijk, daar komen mensen aan.

Ze denken dat er geen muren zijn, geen valkuilen, geen dodelijke omhelzingen op het midden van onze weg.

Pats!

En daar komen auto’s, fietsers, spreeuwen en muggen.

Pats!

Daar komen vrouwen, gedreven door lichtzinnigheid en plotselinge opwellingen, hun lippen rood van begeerte, hoor ze roepen hoe onweerstaanbaar zij zijn: ‘Wij zijn hier! Wij zijn nu! Wij zijn alles!’

Pats!

Daar komen mannen, met hun pijnlijke tekortkomingen en luchtkastelen, hun schrikbeelden en stemmingmakerij, hun zenuwtrekkingen en zelfbedrog, hun tomeloze aanvechtingen en opzettelijke misrekeningen, ze rapen al hun moed bij elkaar om raadselachtig om zich heen te kijken.

Pats!

En daar komen kinderen, ze zijn zo doorzichtig en zo ingewikkeld… hoor ze zingen dat ze groot zullen worden en grimmig en hun verstandelijke vermogens in dienst zullen stellen van rijkdom en genot.

Pats!

The above opening by Toen Tellingen from his epic poem De Optocht (The Parade) foregrounds a phenomenal stream of poetic consciousness, an incisive, descriptive, forensic dissection of a massive array of characters ambling through this impressive art work. Imagine a festival, the Notting Hill Carnival or even a protest march passing along in a seemingly endless procession.

My first encounter with the poem was at a week-long art festival camp, held at Buiten Kunst in the northern region of my home province, Flevoland in the Netherlands.

Despite my somewhat limited command of Dutch, I had opted to participate in the Theater Werkplaats workshop for the whole week. Essentially experts in the theatrical world lead and guide, in this case groups of up to fifteen people. Each day into various elements and activities designed to enable participants, to taste and experience what one might undertake in an actors training program.

On this occasion the group had three guides, assisting fifty people of all ages and abilities, including veterans of Buiten Kunst, amateur actors, aspiring teenagers and total newbies like me. I was almost a veteran apprentice in a strange world, where I hoped my limited grasp of the language would not show up too often, in too many ways!

So I was shocked, challenged plus a little lost and dismayed, to discover the task of the first full day workshop that I had unwittingly chosen. The objective being to build up a character based on a text. With me only later discovering the aforenamed poem above, was the masterwork Die Optocht.

As each would-be actor read random passages of the poem aloud, I was struck by an unbelievable number of words that tumbled out in a torrent of lyrical prose. Utilising long sequences and combinations of words that I had never ever heard spoken or used in Dutch. Then as we attempted to build our characters up and create mini scenes without speech or narrative, each group chose to read out loud the verses that described their specifically chosen texts/characters.

There was a friendly supportive atmosphere in the group but even the most literate and confident were often not entirely sure of the precise definitions of some of the words and had some difficulties translating their meanings into English when I enquired. Additionally In the lunch break I read aloud some passages to my Dutch wife and she struggled to comprehend the picture the poet was creating, due to the unfamiliar, eccentric, antiquated and hugely literate forms of expression conveyed by the author!

I was also struck by that in addition to the sheer density of this outpouring of descriptive poetry was the elegance, style and perspicacity that the author conveyed about the constellation of each character in the procession. It was as if the author was wearing x-ray specs and peering into the hidden shadows of each persona. Discerning at times, that which would normally prefer to remain hidden. Bringing to light unsavory dimensions hypocrisies, pettiness, devious motives, behaviours and speech. Tellingen was shining a poetic light on the Netherworld, that lies behind the normal social niceties, behind the politeness, self image and performance. Our group were beneficiaries of Tellingen’s relentless descriptive virtuosity, peeling away layer upon layer to reveal a raw humanity stripped bare of pretence

In this vibrant atmosphere our randomly assigned crews built our characters up. We created mini scenes with each group reading aloud again their chosen texts/characters before acting out the final versions of their vignettes

While simply listening to the flow of words and basking in this super abundant outpouring, of undiluted artistic dexterity. I was captivated by the stream of sounds of letters, syllable, rhythm and text. I felt no need to understand to grasp the meanings, I just let myself go into the tsunami of masterful description. Words ceased to function as normal. Instead, they became waves — pulsing with cadence, inflection, and breath. Meaning dissolved into movement, rhythm shaping expression beyond linguistic comprehension. As the sheer brilliance and aliveness of this foreign language work of art, made me realize the author must have been broken by words and or by the muse.

I mean by this that the artist had transcended his artform. That the writer as a small separate self, struggling to express his artistic inclinations had dissolved into the great sea of oceanic intelligence. He had become a vehicle for mega copious creativity that enabled the art form, the genus of words, to be transcended. As if the muse possessed Toen and liberated his lexical genius. No longer limited by convention, uninhibited by doubt or the usual self imposed restrictions. His poetic transmission engulfed me, as a super conductive force of pure creativity, a wild, glorious tribute to the best of what humans can create.

The source of all creativity to me, is a field of consciousness, of universal intelligence out of which everything that is and is not arose. My just previous Phenomenal Conversation with Eva Pomeroy on the ‘Fourth Person Knowing’ and upcoming event with Pamela von Sabljar titled ‘The Living Edge of Eros’ will involve dialogical exploration of this domain.If all goes well an experiential deep dive into the primal origins of the daemon of the muse or the shared source of all creativity!

Pats!

About the author Dave Pendle; I am synthesising almost 30 years experience in non profit enterprises with over 40 years of deep personal development experience. Passionate about enabling others’ sense of fulfillment, impact and trust, to engage wholeheartedly with inspiration and commitment to 21st century work and life.

My website Generative You, explains my interests in more in depth, so do sign up for my newsletter or express an interest in my services, or share there how you best like to connect with me. As stated above I run a monthly live in person conversation series Phenomenal Conversations co-exploring life defining topics, with pioneering changemakers who embody systemic and regenerative change in every aspect of their life.