Creative Hell-Raising Pledge — May My Work Be So Damn Real.
Releasing L’Enfant Terrible
What a delicious French expression… the child who shocks and embarrasses loved ones with wild, anti-authoritative behavior.
Artistically, it conjures up visions of the unorthodox creative genius, wantonly breeding revolution and thought change in society. Gorgeously permission-less. Gloriously boundary free.
Oh, how I ache to be this child more often.
We have reached a point in time where we know that what scares us most is what we must pursue. We know that those too big, too crazy ideas are the very stories that need telling, not to mention the ones we desperately want to hear.
I often reflect back on the wars waged by my ancestors to gift me the freedom to sit here at my keyboard, day after day, telling my little stories. I know there are countless ancient warrior-women who totally had my back, long before my birth — who fought, feared, and foundered to give me the freedom to choose my own path.
I don’t know these women or their stories, but I feel them.
My path is words — art. This is what their blood has won me; the ability to commit to a lifelong exploration of creation. And if you have chosen a path, they have won it for you too.
But there is so much more to be done; I feel it deep I my bones. Don’t you?
There are still so many subjects that seem shocking to bring to light (even though keeping them in shadow is the most shocking of all). There are still so many things to be said, that must be said, that will be said.
But, when? And by whom? And will they be said in time to benefit our own sons and daughters?
Sweet mother of god; they must. We must.
The time has come for us to be terribly, childishly honest with the world.
If we are to create our own passionate legacy and break the archaic taboos that cling incessantly to our time, we must bravely go where we fear to tread.
And this is what I propose:
1. Let us ask less permission and demand more truth.
2. Let us risk, and receive just reward.
3. Let us bravely create. And do it now.
4. Let us dare to make every it we can dream up, bigger. And bigger. And bigger.
5. Let us raise our weapons, in the name of the unborn, towards the injustices and imbalances that we see with our wide-open, terrible eyes.
In this, I offer you my pledge.
“May my work be so damn real that they cannot un-see it;
So sense-numbingly beautiful that they cannot unfeel it;
So achingly naked that they’ll never, no matter how they try, be able to return to the world unchanged.
May I birth something that makes me blush in places I’ve never felt before; the soft spaces between the lines of my fingerprints, the sweetly-tuned sensors extending down the length of my eyelashes. Even the tiny strands of sinew that hold my heart in place.
May I blush so furiously with my creations that a me-shaped fire is set upon the world in irrevocable rawness.
May I release my primal roar.”
And in these birthings, in their messy, juicy rush, may each of us greet our own l’enfant terrible with loving face and open arms.
Join together our tiny, trembling hands, and set them wild upon the world.
*****
Crystal Davis is an author-poetess, Access Consciousness BARS™ Practitioner, Holotropic Breathwork explorer and honey tea-drinker. She wrote her first book at age four, and her debut published volume of poetry Azure Assurances hit the shelves in March 2014. Crystal now spends her time teaching women to connect to their inner deliciousness, and adoring her rare 1920’s antique typewriter. She loves the sight, sound, and sizzle of words, impromptu lounge room dance parties, and feelings that are too big for her body. When she grows up, she wants to be a troubadour with delusions of grandeur. Connect with her via her website, Facebook or Instagram.