How important is it in your life to do something creative?

I wrote a winning poem when I was 15 (1969) for a county wide contest. Supposedly, it is in a book of poetry, possibly in the library at the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho.
But I would rather be remembered, rather than just creating something.

@kritiper Time to ask the question “Will you please post a poem you wrote?”

To be creative is what it’s all about. Going through the motions of work and life is like living hell. May as well kill yourself and help save the planet.

I have embraced art as my ultimate calling. It has always been with me but I kept pushing it away because everyone was telling me what the point was. So after a long period of self-delusion, I finally said “fuck everyone, I do what I do. This is my life!”

But that leads to an intense fear: the fear of not being able to produce a piece of art. There is a lot going on in my life, and though irrational it may sound, I have a fear that eventually life will happen and I won’t have time to devote to art.

And then there is another fear: my art turns out to be too insignificant to be produced. Yeah, I admit this fear stems from a past of being underestimated, but it is very strong, and it makes me constantly question if I should be doing my art at all.

These fears haunt me everyday. I’m at the age when people are figuring out where they stand in life. I know I have that calling, so I’m one step forward. Now my only concern is whether I will achieve that dream, the dream that matters the most to me.

@mazingerz88 OK. Ready? This was one I wrote in 1982 to inspire my mother to diet.

Shirley was one who would hound
All the food she could have found
And the way she would gait
When she sat at her plate
Made her firm, bouncy, and round.

And then one day as she sat
Stuffing herself like a rat
The chair gave a creak
And she gave out a shriek
And she hit the floor with a splat!

So she went on a diet right then
Until she was thin as a pin
She lost every ounce
Til there was no more bounce
And vowed, “I will never be fat again!”

@kritycat love dem haikus.

@kritiper Thank you! That was very good. : )

Being creative is a part of my everyday life, as far back as I can remember. I can’t imagine a life without creativity. Either creating (myself), or experiencing (other people’s creativity). I don’t know what I’d do without music in my life. And I write, and cook (and create recipes) and draw, and paint, and other things that maybe most people wouldn’t necessarily think of as being creative. I make cards for friends and relatives, and make succulent gardens out of all sorts of things including tree stumps, and I take photographs.