“[T]he project seemed to hold out, more promisingly than anything I’d embarked on before, a way of bringing forth the few distinct realities I felt to be present inside myself, which is all any writer really has to offer.”
—James Lasdun, from “Helen” [The Paris Review, Issue 244/Summer 2023, p. 97], emphasis mine.
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
Neuroscientists talk about the flow state—what happens when you’re so absorbed in your work (or anything else) that you forget yourself, blur boundaries. I think of that as the bringing forth state, in which, as Karen says above, you move beyond yourself to achieve insight or connection.
Me, too! I guess it’s the “bringing forth” that creates the possibility of connection.
But I want a connection that goes beyond myself.