OctPoWriMo - Day 18 Perfectly Imperfect

The pressure of perfection looms large in today's social media driven world with the highly curated perceptions, filtered visions and auto-tuned words.  So often, this freezes my muse in her tracks - empty pages, blank canvases and stifled expression the result.  

So...Let go of the desire for perfection and relish in the beauty of imperfect.

The invitation today is to take a cue from the Japanese philosophy/esthetic of Wabi-Sabi - a concept that motions us to constantly search for the beauty in imperfection and to accept the more natural cycle of life.  It reminds us that all things including us and life itself, are impermanent, incomplete and imperfect.

Wabi - the beauty in a simple, perhaps rustic sense, often with intrinsic flaws or asymmetries.

Sabi - the beauty that stems from age; the patina, the changes due to use and time that renders something more beautiful.  Even the appreciation of the cycles of life as well as the careful, artful mending of damages like in the golden repair Kintsugi 

Poetry Prompt: 

Explore an aspect of Wabi-Sabi - perhaps the beauty of flaws or the beauty of the effects of passing time that you have observed.  The hands of your grandmother as she knits, the gap toothed smile of a laughing child, the once white picket fence...

Poetry Form:

Haibun

Word prompts:

Flaw

Asymmetry

Weathered

Patina

Release

Wrinkle

Remember, our prompts are only suggestions: you can find your inspiration wherever your muse leads you. Please visit the other participants, share the hashtag #OctPoWriMo on social media, and share your link in the comments below. Let us know how this journey into poetry is going for you and if this is your first year or if you have been with us from the beginning.

Happy writing!