This morning, just before I descended into my normal existential doubt-flood, I read this line from a Rumi poem. Normally, I read Whitman in the morning, but I’ve moved to Rumi for a while. He gets in that creative crevice in an entirely different way. This is the book I’m reading.
Please go to your local bookstore to buy it. If you simply must order it online, please try a local bookstore such as: RiverRun Books. They will treat you right. Anyway, back to the doubt: I can’t write. I have no time. The world gets in my way. I have nothing to say. The page is too blank. The words have all been used. Who needs more words? NO ONE! On the brink of those thoughts, I read this Rumi:
We must mix the varnish we have/and brush it on.
It’s the sort of thing I say to my students all the time–the sort of advice that seems impossible to internalize for myself. Get to work. You have yourself. You have your words. You have your path. You have all you need. It will be a lot of work. Don’t wait. Start immediately. Mix it up. Rearrange it. There exists in front of you a tiny crack in the world through which only you can see. No one else can get there.
Banish the doubt and get to work.
Clark Knowles 
Okay, now that I know to find you on Instagram, I will go there!
If you were following me in Instagram you’d see that we are in the same place. I am back on Rumi like an old drunk back on his rum. My Coleman Barks Essential Rumi is my trusted bible of truth. It got me through Serpent Box and the darkest days of my life and now I find him again in my time of need. The dervish speaks. I am swirled.