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 26 April 2011

Green Inventions Central: Get Attention for Your Blog

Green Inventions Central: Get Attention for Your Blog

I didn't link my post properly so if you've come to visit via this link please check out my previous post for the mother's day poem! Sorry!

A Mother's Day Poem

I feel like I have been away from here for too long, but real life has taken over for the last couple of weeks and I have had to take a break from blog land. I think going computer-free for a bit is a good thing for us all. I didn't plan my break, though I saw it coming and chose to enjoy it. But it's hard coming back to know where to pick things up from.
So I was pleased to find this post about linking up with a poem about mothers (L.L. Barkat offered me inspiration a few weeks back concerning fairytales so I'm happy to join the fun again).
This is supposed to be in honour of approaching mother's day (U.S.? we had ours here in the UK back in March) and incidently it is my own mother's birthday this week, but...
That life that has kept me away from here is still going strong so rather than write fresh I've pulled an old poem from my files which doesn't exactly have the celebratory tone it should. But relationships are tricky things, and often not what they should be...

Mother

Mother is due at three with her hawk-eye
Out for every stained surface, dust-darkened nook
And unshelved book.
So I scrub and scour, feeling like a woman
At the river flaying clothes against the rocks -
Disinfectant my new incense.

Duty done, my mind plays back a childhood day,
When hid in the branches of the damson
I wrote my secret journal while Mother called,
All my woes and then my dreams -
The aubergine ribbon bookmark a bloodstain
Running like a river down my thigh.

Louise

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Seasons of Challenge and Healing

Life is so full of seasons, of unexpected twists and turns. Sometimes it's a rollercoaster ride of fun, sometimes the rapid-fire ups and downs can make you nauseous.
Sometimes the changes are slower, the shifts less perceptible.
Life brings its seasons of challenge and then of healing.
Othertimes, life plateaus - this is a good season too, a season of rest, of comfort or fulfilment.
I'm in challenge at the moment. Its not easy, but it's a period of growth.
Where are you?
What is the good in this part of the journey for you?

This poem is an account of two life shifts: from the challenge of loss, to the healing of new companionship.

Transitions

Earth-spattered roses marked you transition
From one life to another, but unlike your love,
The move took you to no higher world,
No paradise where you might breathe lightly again,
But left you treading the same patterns through the day
As always; at night lying alone beneath an empty sky.

Roses on a coffin lid; the first handful
Of cold dirt fell like rain, but lifted
No regenerate beauty from her cold bones.
You walked away (I imagine all of this)
With the same dignity you have carried all the years since:
Uncowed by fate or chance, bereft not beaten.

The heavy harness of bereavement has not bent your back
(Though the dullness in your eye was absent I am sure
In youth). If I am able to lighten your future
I will never seek to quench your past.
Never will you walk blindly through sun or shadow,
But may I be the blessing you count nightly beside your loss.

Louise

Monday 4 April 2011

The Secret To Great Art ??

Perhaps I know the secret. Or perhaps I know 21!
The collaborative art course 21 Secrets is now open and will remain so until the end of July, giving us four months to learn the secrets and experiment under the guidance of 21 different artists. If you haven't already heard about it, go check it out.
Here are some little faces I drew by way of introduction in Jane's class:


I am also aware that it is National Poetry Month in the US. Where I am here in the UK no such luck. I would like to post some more poetry and some tips or prompts for my American friends during April, but I must be realistic. As well as having secrets to learn, my children also have nearly three weeks of holidays coming up. The environment may not be ideal for writing, painting or posting!
So please patient with me and we'll just see where the month leads us...