How May I Unlock Creativity? Poem by Denis Martindale

How may I unlock creativity? I coax it to open itself to me. I make promises of undivided attention. I vow to be an avid listener. I beseech it to reveal its truths as well as its mysteries. I search myself for the answers already stored within. I scan the vocabulary of my youth and stir up the skills of my years. I lay them down before the greatest mystery of them all, which is creativity. For here is where the unbidden secrets exist, in wait for the most earnest writers and not the infrequent amateurs with twinkles still nestling in their eyes.

I coax forth the romances and the dramas, the lost loves and the pitiful stumblings of one's early years. I pluck the visions from the nearest and dearest stars. Regardless of the dark voids of space, those expanses still dimly splattered here and there, amid the stars, as if they were nothing and of no consequence. I see past the Universe itself and search the hidden majesty beyond.

Why then, creativity, resist such a human spirit as mine? I am here, ready, willing and able. Share the good and the noble as well as the divine, for this one span of life that is yet mine… I am here, yet the choice is yours, precious one, for I have already made my choice and that is to be blessed and to bless others. Can you resist such an offer? Can you dismiss this poet whose blood is the ink of the future endeavours, just as time is the page upon which such words are penned?

If so, then resist me no more… for I am a writer… a poet… and a mortal man while here, on this my steadfast home, the planet Earth. My portion is as limited as the approach of yet one more night of dreaming, yet visit me in my dreams… for I will be waiting there when sleep snatches me away to rest once more. Look for me… for I am not hard to find… I await the partnership and the fellowship of what is meant to be. Be patient with me and we shall both be rewarded by God in due season. Patience is the key, both yours and mine…


Denis Martindale,12th of February 2020.