Like most of you, I wasn't real sure how the Muse writing was going to work out. I am pretty well trained in quickly analyzing and formulating ideas or plans. Whether because of my work in efficiency management, to working the writing tables at Cayuga College, even the improv work i've done for years - All those experiences have taught me to focus and create at extremely fast pace with as much clarity and effectiveness as is humanly possible. So the notion of Muse writing, the streaming of barely coherent information or emotion, is truly an alien thing to me. I'm constantly concerned that I am not doing it "right" as I usually latch onto something and instinctively try to write that, rather than just free write. Ironically, my response writings are as run-of-at-the-mouth as can be. Extremely 'ranty'! I'm trying to find the disconnect between the two and why one is easier to write. The easy answer is that one is called poetry and muse-work and the other is response writing. Maybe I am taking one too serious (complete with furrowed brow no doubt) and the other not serious enough. Either way, I think the exercise is doing its job and that is expanding our awareness (yes, cliches are as bad in prose as they are poetry - why do you ask?). Getting us to roam outside of our normal routines and see what we can really do with the writing. I know that more than one of the muse writings is leading to a real poem and at the end of the cliche - that is what it is all about.