Experiments with Wild Grace

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April 6, 2022

a project of ServiceSpace

A poem is where the flint of soul
strikes the stone of trauma
and makes a spark.

- Chelan Harkin -

Experiments with Wild Grace

"I had been in a place of acute hopelessness and inner anguish in which I felt so profoundly alone in the world and disconnected from even the possibility of authentic connection. Somehow amidst all that I found the wherewithal to listen to an inner prompting that urged me to try an experiment. This experiment was to allow myself to write a 'bad poem' every day for a month. Writing poetry had been an important practice of mine for several years. I felt its potential to unlock something essential in myself but without knowing how to use this powerful, mysterious key my process had felt strained and tense. I felt very insecure about sharing my work and would typically take about a month to stitch a poem together and longer to patch together the confidence to share it with others. The terms of the experiment were to give myself an hour to write this bad poem, and at the end of that hour, whatever I'd come up with I would share. My desperate hope was that somehow this permission to essentially mess it all up would nudge me out of the paralysis of perfectionism I'd been stuck in for so long. Perhaps some genuine expression in my soul could loosen itself from the foot trap of right and wrong to gain more expressive mobility." Chelan Harkin's poetry invites, "the fumbling, suffering parts of our nature and our divinity to meet for tea in the heart, to have a great laugh, and share a big hug." In this essay she shares her experiments with 'wild grace.' { read more }