The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman

A friend and I were discussing 9/11. Where we were that day and what we were doing (I was living and working in Salt Lake City at the time). A few hours later, the first two lines of this poem came to me. Not sure where this is all coming from. I have little personal connection to the events of September 11th, but my imagination does what it wants and this is what came out early in the morning when I do my writing. Sort of an alternate reality where no one dies.

I suppose the word that describes me would be creative. In some ways more than others. In visual art I am somewhat creative in that I do paint so that in and of itself is creative, but most my recent artwork was sourced directly from pictures, so it’s less innovative than my poetry which comes directly from my imagination.

My biggest inspiration is Hieronymus Bosch whose creativity is almost unparalleled 600 years later. Who knows what weird place in his brain he was drawing inspiration from (we know very little about Bosch as a person). His work is largely religious, but then so was the majority of European artwork at the time. The paintings he created transcend being simple alter pieces, though. They are timeless and completely surreal and you don’t need to be religious to appreciate them.

I did strength training this morning for the first time in 2 weeks. I went back to 10 pound weights because I was feeling pretty unfit. It’s been really hard getting back into exercise after taking all of last week and most of the week before off. I got out of my routine and it’s hard to re-establish routines.

I’m also having difficulty with re-establishing my evening routine. Instagram and playing video games have become incredibly anxiety-provoking for me so I haven’t been doing them. I have managed to read and meditate, but those things don’t cause me as much anxiety. Why is it so hard for me to relax!? That’s all I’m asking of myself, an hour of relaxation a day and I can barely do 30 minutes.

At least my morning routine is mostly back to normal (except for the exercise part). Mid-day routine is not so much. I did take the dog on a walk on Monday, but I skipped it yesterday and I didn’t take her out at all last week. Today I need to mail a letter so I’ll for sure go out with her. It’s really irresponsible for me to not take the dog on her daily walk. Granted, she absolutely hates walks and probably doesn’t mind being a couch potato all day, but it’s not good for her to not have any exercise. We need to keep her muscular and at a healthy weight for the sake of her fragile spine (she had IVDD).