Sure we get help and inspiration from others. But ultimately, in the creative process, we're on our own. The journey may seem soltary, at times, even lonely. But the rewards - not all of them, but perhaps those closest to our innermost feelimgs - are also supremely personal.

Fa


I climbed once through a forest steeply
Not knowing where, how far the outlook
Pushing upward until, almost giving up,
I found a ledge and its widening view.

Let's do this, said the piano player
Don't know it, I almost said
Not my tune, not my key.
Letting go, I jumped in, riding
Faint familiarity where it took me
Until new music was mine to savor.

The little crowd responded
And I took my pleasure in theirs.
But no one else could hear what I did.
No one else had climbed that moment.

- Charlie Neff