Following the Golden String

A Writing Exercise in taking the time to tap into the ever present gifts from your pre-conscious mind

William Stafford used this verse from Blake as a basis for a writing exercise he called Following the Golden String to Jerusalem. As he read this poem it meant that if you follow any thought far enough, carefully enough, it will lead you ultimately to some surprising enlightenment. Every thought is connected, ultimately to all other knowledge. You begin winding the thread up--putting it in order--patterns begin to emerge. The little thread leads onward.

William Stafford believed that, since, if, when you first wake in the morning, you are still in contact with you pre-conscious mind, if you jot down the first word or phrase that comes to your mind, you will hold the key to self knowledge in your hand. He advocates writing down these early morning gifts from the subconscious on a scrap of paper you placed beside your bed the night before. Later in the day at your leisure, take out the scrap of paper and hold the words lightly in your mind and allow your mind to follow whatever path the words lead you down.

Nils Peterson did this exercise every day for a year. He wrote some amazing poems from the work he did with the free-writes. (As an aside, I once took a poetry class from Nils. I was sitting a couple of rows behind him on bleacher and I saw how he abstracts poem from free-write. After he has written for a while, he takes his pen and circles phrases that he finds interesting. Then he copies down these phrases, makes arrows to denote the proper order for the poem and then copies down the result into a poem. That may not be the way he works now, nor is it necessarily the way he always worked then. But, it is an interesting way to play with the words. I do it sometimes. And, I look at odd blurts of writing I have done and think…ah, yes. If I took the time…The trick is to take the time.)