Photo credit: WANDAROCKS (Wanda Ruggeria)
Julie Flanders is a master lyrical shape-shifter. Over the years, her award-winning songwriting skills (honed since her teens) have morphed into related manifestations as a bestselling poet and her use of neuro-linguistic programming in her hypnosis/ coaching practice. We thought Flanders was an ideal person to rev up our Ideablog’s “Discoveries” theme because her varied portfolio of career successes is a case study of what great things can happen when one never gives up on discovering—especially the untapped potential within oneself. As she writes here, she didn’t set out to write a book of poetry, but as a lifelong collaborative creator, she wanted to reconnect her own independent spark which eventually coalesced into her poetry collection Joyride. And she continues to explore new musical forms with her band, “The October Project” which has released (in their namesake month!) their latest album, “The Book of Rounds: 21 Songs of Grace,” resplendent with their signature: mesmerizingly moody layered harmonies. We predict these will cast as powerful a hypnotic spell on you as they have upon our office. As October always heralds the seasonal shift towards the colder, contemplative months of the year, we wish you the thrill of unexpected discoveries.
~Victoria C. Rowan, Ideasmyth Creatrix-in-Chief
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Proof positive that time flies, I had to wear reading glasses to read Joyride in public. I then had to overcome my own vanity about this in order to post it. This was my great act of courage, especially noble considering that the poem is about the spirit of defiance we must conjure to stay alive, fully alive, even as time calls us back to herself.
Joyride
The backlit clouds of your childhood
Mock you with nostalgia
As the broken clock betrays all allegiance
To the present
Where the flagpole used to stand
For something
You feel like a ghost
Walking in a place you should be recognized
By the living
But you are not part of this scene
You are invisible to the young eyes
That open on each other
Like perfect windows
That can see nothing but themselves
Breezing through youth
With all the empty excitement
Of a full wind
Or a wind full of ego and joy
Each girl, each boy
Unique as a f lower
And as beautiful as a brand new toy
When it has just emerged from its wrapper
Never to be better than this
Never to be able to go back
To that moment before
You were walking here once
Skies clear as they are now
Stretching over your own foolishness
With that same benign countenance of approval
Life is a great big water slide
That rushes by faster than expected
By the time you realize
You’re coming to the end of things
You used to care about
You can finally appreciate
The sensation
Of bright air
Ballooning into your lungs
The happy chatter of birds
And the scolding remorse of what-ifs
On dead tongues
You pretend it doesn’t matter
You pull up a little taller
Invisible, perhaps, but superior
To what? To whom?
Well, perhaps no one cares but you
You believe for a moment
That the whole thing is exterior
That it is not just your imagination
Or perception
Or whatever you want to call it
But call it something because
Naming things is still important
Call it age
Call it wisdom
Call it longing
Call it the way of the world
Call it jealousy
Call it cliché
Call it mortality
Call it whatever you will
It won’t kill you to tell the truth
Nor will it keep you alive
You now understand it’s not enough to survive
The significance is in the quality of the ride
With all the other ghosts who laugh and cry
And declare their love and affinity for you
As you ride down
Where life is too short
And so astonishingly wide
You cannot avoid it
(And you have tried)
So make a choice
Embrace this overwhelming slide
And smile
As you glide
Into eternity
See more of Julie Flanders’ Featured Creative posts on our Ideablog
~~~#1 Bestselling Amazon author, Julie Flanders is known for her passionate and haunting texts.
With deceptively simple words, she guides readers through the mysteries of the familiar to a deeper understanding of life and love, death and loss, miracles of perception, and the magic of the ordinary.
An award-winning songwriter, Flanders is the lyricist for the band, October Project, which she co-founded with composer Emil Adler, and which is still celebrated for its two groundbreaking albums recorded for Epic Records that together have sold over 1/2 million copies worldwide. October Project is set to release its newest studio album, The Ghost of Childhood, in 2016.
Flanders’ songs with many artists have been widely featured on television and in film. She is considered an innovator in both the creation and marketing of independent music. Her newest work, The Book of Rounds: 21 Songs of Grace, an original cycle of musical rounds, is being released by Sounds True Records in September of 2015.
Flanders is also an acclaimed Achievement Expert and Master Success Coach, mentoring creative leaders and innovators and forward-thinkers in business, design and the arts. Her client list includes business visionaries, Academy Award winners, New York Times best-selling authors, and social influencers who are shaping the future now.
