Improvising

by Mary Padilla

If we’re too busy codifying,
we can’t also be improvising,
not making it up as we go along,
or being the only ones deciding.

We can’t know just what we think
until we write it down or say it.
We don’t know what it is we see
before we draw or sculpt or paint it.

We can’t know where our step will go
until we’re almost ready to take it.
We don’t know what our sound will be
before we actually begin to make it.

The only true way in for us
lies in our trying not to try,
because it represents the key
to the how that underlies the why.

Mary Padilla is interested in experimenting with using sound and sense to explore felt experience.