In the Sunday newspaper, I saw a photo of a woman standing next to a long staircase in her home adorned with a needlepoint runner. Needlepoint! She had spent seven years making a work of art for people to walk on! I call that devotion. And joy.

I’ve had my little bouts with needlepoint. And knitting. And macramé. (Macramé?? Yes, I am that old.) In none of these activities did I discover devotion and joy. Impatience and frustration, yes. Anger and inadequacy, yes. How many little work-kits of unfinished projects have come and gone in my life??

I’m in awe of people who have the patience to pursue a work of beauty to the finish–whether a handcrafted home accessory or a painting on the wall at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I’ve come to believe that 99.99% of creativity is just sticking with the work. I have no research to back this up. But maybe you’ve had the same thought from time to time.

I’m a writer. I play with words. Sometimes I finish a poem. They are often short. In the lit’ry biz, they are called “lyric poems” because historically they originated as song. As a writer for Hallmark Cards, I knew that about sixteen lines was the limit for verse, and I fell into the habit. Or perhaps I just took seriously my old English professor, Dr. Eells, who leaned back, tented his fingers, and intoned: “Brevity is the soul of wit.” (Quoting Polonius in Hamlet–and there’s more to say about that….)

I usually write about things I’m actually looking at, or about factual events I know of. To me, the writing of, say, a novel that involves an unimaginable number of words and hours, with characters and stories that never actually existed–well, that’s what I call creative!

People I meet sometimes drop their eyes and demure: “I wish I were creative.” Trust me. When I see an achievement like that needlepoint staircase runner, or a painting like Richard Estes’ Central Savings in the Nelson (to name just one of 69,000 works in the collection), I tend to think, “Wow. I wish I were creative.”

Creativity is the nature of Nature. YOU are IT. Just live your life.
 

CREATIVITY
 
 
Repetitious nature
  began creating things:
Replicating butterflies
  with lavish velvet wings;
 

Multiplying maple trees
  with many-handed boughs;
Sailing fleets of common geese
  with quick and curious prows;
 
Lining up the little grass
  and teaching it to sway
To and fro in unison
  on a windy day.
 
Then capricious Nature
  chose another game:
Tried her hand at snowflakes,
  made not two the same.
 
 

Barbara Loots
The Lyric