Compose

Compose: write or create (a work of art, especially music or poetry), phrase(a letter or piece of writing) with great care and thought, form (a whole) by ordering or arranging the parts, especially in an artistic way, (of elements) constitute or make up (a whole, or a specified part of it), calm or settle (oneself or one's features or thoughts), prepare (a text) for printing by manually, mechanically, or electronically setting up the letters and other characters in the order to be printed

(source: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/compose)

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Creating, ordering, and arranging.

Calming, settling, and preparing.

Not too long ago, I posted a picture of a well-used, under-filled crayon box, the familiar cardboard edges dotted from the ends of the once-sharp crayons, on which the following Arthur Ashe quote was written: "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." Composing, be it playing with language or playing with image or playing with tones and rhythm, picks me regularly. On occasion, it is a particular tool-- a particular crayon, if you will--which prompts composition. Most often, though, grabbing the tool I have in the very present moment in which it finds me composes a synchronistic space of effort and effortlessness. My body is, in those moments of composing, calmed and settled. The same hazel eyes that redden from the daily paycheck-job overhead assault of fluorescent lights and flat screen scrolling words and numbers and, unfortunately, more numbers after that, back further into their cavernous sockets, protected. I realize I no longer require blinking, that my breath isn't full of monumental meditative yoga-esque ins and outs but rather, it is backed in further--it is quiet, shallow, sparse. 

I connect and compose when I am my once again small. 

When I am my once again small, I am preparing for another moment, another composition, an opportunity to reorder, rearrange, and redefine.

Welcome to re:Define, a new space for weekly ruminating and story-sharing around a specific word. Each week's entry will begin with a source-credited dictionary definition of a word, as I have this week with the word COMPOSE. But those definitions are just the starting point, and as Ashe reminds us, we should start there and then use what we have. Extend those definitions through your own compositions-- share them-- continue to interact with the comments in our virtual ruminator room. Let the word prompt you in any direction and share them as you wish with only two guidelines. (1) Do no post anything which is pornographic or violent simply for the sake of being pornographic or violent and (2) Respect everyone, their beliefs, and what they've shared.

Now, you beautiful creations, COMPOSE!