Crafting a masterpiece from our broken-ness

[woodsgnome]

I recently ran across this little gem by poet Chelan Harkin in her book called "Susceptible to Light". The poems are mind-bending without straining to get her drift. Anyway, I liked this poem for its ending, which reminded me of an approach to healing called Kint-Sugi.  More on that in a minute, but first her poem:


"TRY HUMAN
Forget perfection.
Go for messy, learning tender, whole.
Forget brand new.
Embrace cracked, broken open, worn, rich with story."

Though there's a popular legend about how Kintsugi originated, basically it refers to discovering the usefulness of not rejecting the smashed fate of, say, a broken vase or jar and its seemingly ruined collection of shards.

While its original object can never be entirely reconstructed, the smashed remnants can be rediscovered, worked with, and re-crafted into a piece that can often turn out better than the original broken pieces.

Well, we're all broken in various ways. And we're all either in the process or trying to find ways to mend our broken-ness. Repairing that broken vase often involved applying a gold lacquer to cover (not hide) the seams of the broken item.

The result -- perhaps a new usable vase, but also the possibility of creating a new beautiful artwork in which the old hopeless shards take on new life.

For another view of Kint-sugi, I've always liked the following short description via YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBUTQkaSSTY&ab_channel=TheSchoolofLife


Just some thoughts ... all inspired by Harkin's concise little poem.

May we all find ways to not just mend, but create new and meaningful art out of pieces so broken we'd given up hope of ever finding any good to help us carry forward.





~~ 

[woodsgnome]

Oops --  --  addendum to previous post:

But of course, in the process of copying the poem TRY HUMAN, by Chelan Harkin, I inadverdently missed getting the last part of the poem in. Talk about a Kintsugi moment! -- anyway, here is the end of the poem, repaired in my imperfect way:

"Forget polished.
Choose rusted, textured, nuanced, real.
Please cease this intimidating flawlessness
and become generous in sharing your sacred wound.
Forget Divine— try human."