Finding Your Excuse to Start
An Example for Poets From Words of a Fiddler’s Daughter
“There’s no excuse” is something you may hear a lot in regards to making things happen for yourself. And that phrasing can be off-putting or actually keep you from starting on your goals. But what if there was a different way to think about it?
What if you can view adversity as your excuse to start.
That’s the mindset of Adam Summerhayes, Murray Grainger (the duo that makes up The Ciderhouse Rebellion), and Jessie Summerhayes (the poet bringing words to the duo’s music). In their conversation with The Poet Life, they made it clear that COVID-19 became their excuse to get started on their projects.
Creativity can’t be stopped
Lockdown limited The Ciderhouse Rebellion’s ability to record music in the same space as one another. So they found a way to use a landline phone to hear each other in real time, no delays, and they also were able to send each other recordings to record overtop of.
However, the excuse to start on a new endeavor came during lockdown while Jessie, Adam’s daughter, was home from college. Jessie is a poet and also was finding ways to continue creating during the pandemic. On National Poetry Day in England, Jessie had an idea to put her poetry to their music.
That idea put them in the zone. To the point that they created and produced an album in three weeks. Throughout lockdown, they’ve produced two albums and a book of poetry and then some.
“Maybe whenever we are challenged, that is our excuse to start.”
Because of these projects, they’ve been able to connect with archaeologists at a mining site to help them tell the stories of the miners that worked and lived there. Previously, the mining site would teach about the history of mines and the work being done. But with the addition of The Ciderhouse Rebellion’s music and Jessie’s poetry, they’re able to help tell the stories of the human beings and the emotional depth that took place in that space.
The adversity of lockdown forged an idea that sparked new successful projects, which sparked the new connection with archaeologists. While no one wished for COVID-19, it was the push this group needed to connect the dots and create something bigger than music and poetry alone.
What does this have to do with you as a poet?
There may be some challenge in your life that you feel is holding you back from working on your goals. But if you can reframe your mindset, that challenge is actually your excuse to start. Think about it.
What’s more poetic than using hardship to fuel creativity?
Take a moment to think about the challenges you’re facing right now. How can those challenges inspire, inform, or speak to what you’re planning to work on?
I’m not going to spell it all out for you, because only you know your life and the obstacles you’re facing. All I can do is suggest you reframe your mindset to get the pen moving.
What do you say? Is this challenge in your life the excuse for you to start on your goals?
Be sure to watch and listen to the full episode with Adam, Murray, and Jessie. You won’t want to miss their full story and see what other nuggets of inspiration you can get from them!
The collaboration between poet Jessie Summerhayes and The Ciderhouse Rebellion is called The Word’s of the Fiddler’s Daughter. Together they created an album where narrative poems are transformed into spoken word and interwoven with the intimacy of folk idiom improvisation. This poem cycle of whispered histories drawn from the land enters into conversation with these improvisations - each adding a new voice to the tale being told.
