What does it mean to live in the mud and write poems in the clouds?

The meaning of the whole sentence: literary creation is beautiful, but real life still has to be lived.

Life is like a swamp, no one walks smoothly, and there are always some quagmires that cannot be crossed. Life is full of experiences. When you are stuck in the hardships of life, you might as well understand it in a different way, face it with a different attitude, and turn life into a poem with a free and easy heart.

Su Shi said in Fu on the Red Wall that "flies are like a drop in the ocean". The world is so big that we can't have everything. People are just ants in the universe. A hundred years later, we will all be annihilated by the dust of history. Why not be tolerant and kind to yourself at this time? The bottom of life is like a shuttle. Rather than obsessing and demanding, it is better to "watch the autumn wind and clear the waves."

Free and easy means learning to be willing and accept the world with an open mind.

No matter what life has given Su Shi, he always accepts it with an open mind and is full of love for life.