not quite muses but... re: getting yourself out of your own way, and also, the freedom & strength that can come for positioning yourself as a conduit for Something rather than centering yourself: i've really loved this Robinson Jeffers poem since i first read it. ("does it MATTER whether you hate yourself" mostly it doesn't actually!!! you'll still be throwing the damn words down either way!!! the swans are still astonishing either way!!!)
and this one's cheesier but this old Martha Graham quote made it into a notebook of mine in high school or, hell, maybe in middle school, and while it was probably first copied down in a fit of my being vain and precious and such as a kiddo, as i've gotten older it's surprising how much it still. resonates. i feel like it's less obvious what "keep[ing] open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you" + "keeping the channel open" means when you're younger, because like, the entire WORLD is new and you're still figuring out what technique even IS and all that, and obviously technique/execution matters, but... way more important to me is having some space to think about The Sorts Of Things That Intrigue Me, and having some space to Play With That Shit, and keeping both those avenues feels like. the frightful scary-hard thing. but also the thing that makes everything else so much easier if you can pull it off even in a small way consistently.
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and this one's cheesier but this old Martha Graham quote made it into a notebook of mine in high school or, hell, maybe in middle school, and while it was probably first copied down in a fit of my being vain and precious and such as a kiddo, as i've gotten older it's surprising how much it still. resonates. i feel like it's less obvious what "keep[ing] open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you" + "keeping the channel open" means when you're younger, because like, the entire WORLD is new and you're still figuring out what technique even IS and all that, and obviously technique/execution matters, but... way more important to me is having some space to think about The Sorts Of Things That Intrigue Me, and having some space to Play With That Shit, and keeping both those avenues feels like. the frightful scary-hard thing. but also the thing that makes everything else so much easier if you can pull it off even in a small way consistently.