A type of living poem.
For three decades Robert Monahan has been a disciple of poetry. The root of the word disciple is the same as discipline: not punishment, but devotion. He has practiced the relationship long enough that writing now comes almost as naturally as breathing. The transformation was real. Real enough to share.
It wasn't always this way
There were years of distance. From the practice, from the page, from himself. He always found his way back. He knows what it is to carry the wanting and not trust it. He knows the long quiet stretches when nothing comes.
The way back was not a technique. It was a relationship he repaired. Once he had walked it, he could see it clearly enough to walk it with someone else.
The truth is, I never really stopped writing. I took breaks. I drifted from it for months at a time, but it was always there. I don't even know how, but I think it's because I never gave up on the idea that I needed it in my life or that one day it would all be worth it. Has it been? Yes, but not because I've achieved everything I ever wanted to or because I'm finally a "great writer." Those things do come, I suppose, but I'm not going for achievement or greatness. I'm going for consistency. It's a practice like yoga or basketball. The joy comes in the act of doing it- daily- ideally. Putting in the reps and feeling the expansion of myself and my relationship to my art, words, and consciousness itself.
The work
To engage in any act of creation is to tap into something deep within and beyond yourself. In a certain sense, it is opening a conversation with God.
The belief behind everything he does: creativity is not a talent some people are issued and others are denied. It is a relationship. Everyone has the ability to make something true.
His job is to get you into the room where you remember that.
The life behind the work
The credentials are real: poet, facilitator, certified Somatic Breathwork practitioner, performance artist, master of ceremonies. He has published 13 books of poetry, opened music venues, and built creative communities and containers for more than a decade.
But the credentials aren't the point. The life is the evidence.
He doesn't claim to have it all figured out. I don't know and I don't need to know, he'll tell you. What I do know is that I can do whatever I imagine is possible.
That's the whole offer. Not a formula. The return of the thing that makes the next thing possible.