Notice the vertical letter pattern to the right of the first “Preamble” stanza. It’s the rhyme scheme: A-B-CC-A-B-CCC. This is the basic scheme throughout the poem. Also, it’s one reason the poem is subtitled, “The ABCs of Designing Disorder.”
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Courageous Resilience & Creative Risk-Taking (CR2): The ABCs of Designing Disorder
Preamble Trio: 1) Weariness… 2) Uncertainty… 3) Failure
A Resilience and Risk
B The new “R & R”
C Where effort and pluck
C With guidance and luck
A Help you stretch and stick
B To that rising star
C Even when feeling stuck
C Just don’t pass the buck…
C Get real: Will you slog through the muck?
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You’ve been tossed aside
And question your worth
From reaping and sowing
Which way’s the wind blowing?
Will you choose to hide?
Or still walk this earth?
With the tide ebb and flowing
All the time knowing
Not a clue where you’re going!
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Is failing shameful?
Or a chance to learn
About life and living
To be forgiving
If not successful, then
A point where you turn
“Right-Wrong” believing
Last gasp self-deceiving…
Look…a Phoenix: “born again” grieving!
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Five Stages of Courageous Resilience & Creative Risk-Taking
How do you cultivate
Risk & Resilience?
With ”coeur”-rage and a savvy “tete”: **
Fling an alert-anxious net
Focus your radar sensate
Explore shadow and substance
“Five Stages” the conduit…
Less a gamble; more fierce mindset
“Design Disorder”…sans regret!
** “coeur” and “tete” – French for heart and head respectively
1. First an Agenda…Then into the Arena
Grabs your mind, heart, and gut
You’re alive yet still wary –
Just “Constructive Discontent”
Or a brain bolt heaven sent?
Finally, out of your rut
Wrestling with the contrary
Hones the range of intent
While still being hell-bent…
On a stage all too pregnant!
2. Aware-ily Jump In Over Your Head
Take the plunge; eyes wild and wide
Quickly glean skills and resources
For the challenge of losing (it)
Excites laser learning (also wit)…
And surprise! – a dopamine ride
Craving pleasure and dark forces:
Are you in flight or still fighting?
To avert stage fright freezing
Keep the play brain juice flowing!
3. Strive to Survive the High Dive
Facing Your Intimate FOE:
Oh no…”Fear of Exposure” –
That gap between ambition
And a burnout situation…
Cutting edge tension: “b.s.” or grow.
So “Strive High, Embrace Failure” –
Yin/Yang paradox potion:
Repetition with reflection…still
Beware Icarus ** perspiration!
** Icarus – in Greek mythology, son of Daedalus who lost his life daring to fly too near the sun on wings of feathers and wax
4. Thrive On “Thrustration”…Incubate to Illuminate
Your ideas just won’t unite
Still, don’t fight the big muddle
Slowly harness frustration…
Build a platform for “thrustration”: **
Volcanic dreams in the night
A lava light for your puzzle…
Now drift with meditation
Join in collaboration, then
An “incubation vacation”:
Let go…retreat…hatch new creation!
** “thrustration” – a term coined by Dr. Richard Rabkin; I defined it as being torn between thrusting ahead with direct action and frustration as you cannot quite put together those key puzzle pieces
5. Design for Error and Evaluation, Coming Out and Opportunity
Pursue three-fold pathways:
Trial, error, and appraisal
Not a fixed or “my way” goal
More “b.s.” – be safe! control.
So set hollowed truths ablaze…
From the ashes…mythic renewal:
Mandala ** vision of the soul
Spirit voice from a black hole
Are you ready?…Let’s “Rock & Roll!
** Mandala – Sanskrit for “magic circle”; a meditative tool/artistic structure often displaying geometric – concentric and symmetric – patterning; for the pioneering psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, a collective unconscious symbol of psychological wholeness or “individuation”; email for more information
Closing
On this “R & R” journey
Not “a means to an end”
Nor a quest “one and done”…
Battles seem lost ere you’ve begun.
Red-hot electric memory
Lurking around every bend…
Dark images eclipse your sun
Still…there’s a chance for madhouse fun:
Will you resist that urge to run?
© Mark Gorkin 2015
Shrink Rap ™ Productions
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Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ™, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, is a national keynote and webinar speaker and "Motivational Humorist & Team Communication Catalyst" known for his interactive, inspiring and FUN programs for both government agencies and major corporations. The Doc is a training and Stress Resilience Consultant for The Hays Companies, an international corporate insurance and wellness brokerage group. He has also led “Resilience, Team Building and Humor” programs for various branches of the Armed Services. Mark, a former Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service, is the author of Resiliency Rap, Practice Safe Stress, and of The Four Faces of Anger. See his award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com – called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR). For more info on the Doc's "Practice Safe Stress" programs or to receive his free e-newsletter, email stressdoc@aol.com or call 301-875-2567.
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