Wisdom from SORNE

Here’s a brilliant interview with my favorite living hero-poet.

And here are a couple choice quotes to get you interested:

OVRLD: It sounds like the way that you’re looking at it is universal enough that no matter where you’re at in life, the themes are still applicable.

Sorne: Absolutely. I totally believe that it’s simply drawing from a well that we all drink from. It’s about trying to be present in the moment, and not stand in the way of that creative spark. I like that Julia Cameron book, The Artist’s Way. It’s been really popular the last few years, but she speaks to that idea of stepping aside and allowing for the universe or God or whatever you want to call it to be the active part of the quality of the work. Where you just need to focus on making. Getting up in the morning.

I don’t know if you ever saw that TED talk that’s been floating around by Elizabeth Gilbert? She speaks to this idea of genius and after she wrote Eat Pray Love, with its success people were like, “How are you going to outdo that?” And she was like, “It doesn’t matter. The fact that people responded to it is great.” She spoke to the idea of genius and in the very literal sense to Greeks and to Romans a genius was a gnome or a nymph that spoke through you and essentially when someone would say, “You have a genius” that’s what they were speaking about. And then it was in the Renaissance that that idea was shifted and we became the genius. To me, it’s very debilitating for the ego. If people love it, that makes me very happy, but if they don’t, that’s fine too.

OVRLD: So I’m curious, you mention God and higher powers and your music has a kind of mystical element to it. Do you consider yourself religious or spiritual?

Sorne: I liken it to things like pitch. Many of us are born with perfect pitch. More of us have to have tools to find that pitch. I think as a person I’ve always been very sensitive to…I kind of wince at the word spirituality, but I’ve always been sensitive to that aspect of life. And as a kid I grew up in the church. And rather than be ashamed of the fact that I grew up Christian or anything like that, I embrace it. I don’t necessarily consider myself to be a religious person and I couldn’t care less if Jesus Christ is risen. It’s irrelevant to me. However I appreciate having that as my background. It’s because of that that I’ve been able to get to where I’m at. So I would say that I’m just an open person. I try to be very sensitive to the present moment. And I think that…we’ll call it God…If we really believe that God is limitless, then none of the labels matter. I like the idea of always pursuing God, always trying to find God. I love the fact that I’ll never know. I wanna be in that constant state of awe.

Read the rest. It’s really good.