Week 42: The Nine of Letterpresses - Joy in Artistic Accomplishments

Drawing the Nine of Letterpresses card is a bit like a journey to Fantasy Island (some will be too young to know this television show) where people paid good money to be flown to this island where the props and everything were put together to accommodate the paying guest's grand fantasy.

The Nine of Letterpresses seems to want me to experience that feeling of success that comes with the conclusion of a significant artistic goal.

I've heard of athletes who would before a big game run through their head that swing for the fence or the long TD pass deep into the end-zone to hit their receiver. In one respect it sounds kind of corny but if you think about it we are all thinking about all the roadblocks to our success. Is this not negative fantasizing?  Maybe by doing this (negative stuff) we are reinforcing roadblocks to completing that manuscript Maybe we are thinking about all the reasons we can't possibly win a contest.

I am seeing value in envisioning the completion of a manuscript - even the publication. A release party, readings, Should we not  be as willing to see, feel, taste success as we are to contemplate those reasons to fall flat on our face?

An smaller victories....  publication of individual poems, readings, positive acknowledgements from peers, these all are real reasons to cheer ourselves on.

But we must believe in ourselves. That starts by replacing the bad karma with the good. That requires us to see our self at the culmination of our most significant artistic goals.