Slow down, breathe easy, make a poem of your life. Don't let life rush by; reflect. Look for beauty and rejuvenate your soul.

Tuesday 21 December 2010

Christmas Poems

Snowed in and ill like everyone else it seems. Here are two small poetry offerings I have penned this morning for the season:

Melting

If snow sticks fast
to the fields and the firs
of the forest, then why
do I melt
at the sight of you?


The Wise

Were those men wise to follow a star
and scriptures not their own?
To step outside their comfort zone,
camel-stiff and weary, to worship
a foreign king wrapped not in royalty,
but only in godhead?


Merry Christmas!
Louise

Friday 17 December 2010

Girl and Deer

Willowing has a monthly art challenge. This month it is to paint a girl with a deer. I have painted a few girls over the last couple of months, but animals, no. I have a Christmas decoration of a slightly stylized white deer which I love so I envisaged such a deer in a snowy scene all blues and white and sparkly.
Then I put pencil and paintbrush to paper and found instead an alert brown fawn against a background of Christmas pine green. Oh well. Now I know I can paint animals (deer, at least).


Louise

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Pink Sunrise

I looked out my bedroom window this morning and met beauty in the clouds. There have been some magnificent skies lately. It was sheer glory one day last week sitting in my car waiting for my daughter after school - the clouds were strips of gold. I so wanted to capture the moment, but I didn't have my camera. This morning, though, I took these snaps:


Of course they must inspire a couple more "droplet poems" (skies are becoming a theme: see droplets-from-sky).

Pink Dreams

Rising sleep-laden still from bed
pink comfort beckons me back
to dream-land in the sky.

And the one, being camera-less, that I can show you only in words:

Strips Of Gold

If I were a giantess I would
reach to the sparkling skies and rip
each strip of gold away
and sew them into a scarf
of light to warm my neck.

Louise

Thursday 9 December 2010

Slow The Day - Reclaiming Time

hold my hand; together
we will slow the day...

Pulling time out of the hat is the modern magician's greatest feat. Very often we have an ambivalent or indeed a negative relationship with time: there is never enough. Even in our world of 24/7.
Time ill-used stifles our personalities until we lose ourselves in the mundane and a lifeless life.
Time reclaimed frees the soul and reveals who we truly are.
Tme is there for the taking; but more often it takes from us. It takes our humanity, our spirituality, our creativity from us and buries them deep in drudgery and obligation, in busyness and thoughtlessness (by which I don't mean we become insensitive to others - though we may - but rather we fail to listen to and nurture our own thoughts).
But it can be so different if we reclaim time. If we can slow down, take a little time to think, to reflect on the world around us.
But to simply stop and wait for the thoughts, the new cleaner perspective to come, is not always easy. A vacuum is quickly filled: with that nagging voice reminding us of all the chores we are not doing while we sit doing nothing, except thinking of all those time-thieves that call to us, gifting us only guilt.

But if we claim back time for a purpose, for creativity, then we claim it back for beauty.

 If I step outside my door with a camera I will look at the world differently. I will be searching for beauty through the lens and I will see so much that I would have missed had I walked the same route with a shopping list in my hand.
If I bring that photograph home, take a paintbrush and transfer that image to the canvas I will see new possibilities in that tree, or flower, bird, woman or sky.
If I then pick up my pen and write a poem that begins with that tree, or sky, or woman, I will find another new perspective and a story behind it that I never knew was there before.
Each new discovery is beautiful. The photograph, the painting, the poem are each beautiful. The time reclaimed to create these things is beautiful time: not a thief, but a gift-giver. The satisfaction I bring into my life because I have seen the world anew and because I have brought something new into the world, is beautiful. My soul breathes again...

hold my hand; together
we will slow the day...

Louise

Friday 3 December 2010

Beauty and Art - A Perfect Match

Thanks to Willowing and AEDM, this blog took a turn I did not expect - as did my life.
Today I want to draw together both how it began and what it became, because the fit of these things is good and will lead us into whatever comes next.
But first, my latest artwork. I am truly hooked and find myself drawn back to my desk by an invisible string every spare moment I can find. This time I decided to try a little pencil shading and I was delighted to find this girl where pencil and paper met:





I began this blog as a poet who felt her life lacked poetry. I felt life shoud be beautiful, but I was missing it. Maybe I looked a little melancholic, like my shaded girl.
So I resolved to "slow down, breathe easy...look for beauty".
What I found was Art. And a community of (mostly) women who care about things both artistic and spiritual. Like me. Here are people who encourage me to express myself in poetry and painting. Here are people who have the courage and generosity to share the beauty of their creativity with me. I can't tell you what a difference you have made!
In finding Art, I have found the beauty I was searching for. So quickly, so easily! And it is the beauty of a growing confidence in my own abilities as an artist that has wowed me the most. I am a creative soul, in the image of my Creator, and I have found that to be of value in the world.
This is where beauty truly lies - in feeling ourselves to be of worth. Whether for you that is being valued by God, or your family or a community of artists or friends - that will be what truly makes the difference in your life.
Connection. Belonging. Relationship. Acceptance. Worth.
Thanking all of you for helping me get this far in my journey. Looking forward to walking the rest of it with you...

Louise