I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day

Our morning literature study revolved around various selections from Dosteovsky's Notes from Underground - in guided conversation we considered the ramification of the underground man's central belief that enlightened man must sit idle, arms crossed; it's only the fool who acts. The contradiction is evident: Dosteovsky himself doesn't promote nihilism or else he wouldn't have written Notes, but his discussion of the relativity of truth dovetailed with Monday's exploration of Dickinson's imperative, "Tell all the truth but tell it slant - "  and we also considered Duchamp's choice to simply play chess and stop making art and the Situationist's manifesto that called for an end to artmaking. It seems the underground man isn't alone in arriving at inaction as a reasonable end point to a life of decisive action.

Carlos Aguirre performed his captivating beat box and rapped version of Poe's "Tell Tale Heart" before guiding us through several mini-lessons culminating in a group exercise: adapt a stanza from Gerard Manley Hopkin's poem "I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day" into a rap, add a beat, and perform it.

We are spending less time in structured assignments and more time developing ideas for our own work. This time together is short, but we will leave with works-in-progess, ideas in germination, and connections to mentors, friends, and collaborators.

Part of our ongoing process is to end the day writing a reflection of the day's work.  I have been considering my own creative process and the influence of others' approach to their work. I am trying to riff on an idea more freely and to even consider - incredibly - not overthinking things so much.