It doesn’t feel welcoming. Not at first. An empty room in your heart and mind. A place you don’t visit often. It’s openness. Space unfamiliar.

So much fills our moments that when this much is emptied out, cleared away for a bit, we realize we are unused to the freedom that comes from letting our minds and hearts stretch out, breathe in, relax, inhabit a place without limits. What will happen when we give ourselves time and opportunity to regularly be free?

The reason I often write in the morning, usually in the dark, with only a dim light to see, is that I intentionally try to create space for my mind and heart to speak. I seek solitude, without the distraction of the outside world. This helps me listen–heed what it is my heart is feeling. Through this practice of listening to my heart, in a quiet space, I am better able to connect with my deeper emotions.

In these quiet spaces, poetry can come. Words and images will rise that express our heart. In silence, we can better engage with our heart’s attempt at communication, better able to listen and articulate its deepest whispers.

This week’s invitation is simple. Write from the place of mental and emotional wide-open space that comes with the practice of silence and solitude. Write only after first allowing your mind to clear, to relax. Get yourself in a physical area of quiet–or create one for yourself. Stay here and allow your mind and heart to rest.

Be attentive to what springs up after you have been in this space of silence for five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes (how long can you go?) Try not to be physically active. Relax. Breathe deeply. Get comfortable. Slow. Let your mind quiet. And then see what lines form in your mind, your heart. Inner silence is going to speak in ways that surprise you. See what poem rises from this.

And, if you’d like, please share your poem with the Loop Poetry Project community–either by including it in the comments to this post–or by sharing it on social media, using the hashtag #looppoetryproject. (And here you can find us on Facebook.) I can’t wait to read what springs up!

From this one true heart,

jennifer