Free as a Dragonfly
A short time before Fi passed away, she asked me to write a poem about her and read it at her funeral ceremony. I know Fi wanted these words shared to help others, particularly women on the journey of breast cancer. Fi also helped put together this exercise program to help manage the associated discomfort and pain . She told me she didn’t fear death – but the transition into it. Her bravest moment was, in her own words …. “Tonight I have the courage to close my eyes.” Forever brave - Fi. 12.4.1963-19.6.2010
Shedding skin
When the world’s spinning way too fast to catch – head for the beach and write your way back ….
Shedding Skin On Sunset Beach (view/print PDF)
A sleepy sun leaves bouys without faces to trace lingering steps on icing sugar sand chilled by the late afternoon.
The chalky white drift of a pelican patch invites the mind to float and a school tickles the surface as jetty sticks stretch long into the sound.
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Story for the dog
Click image to view, print, stick on noticeboard or fridge this picture version of the Black Dog story – oh, and pass it on …
Dream sweet
Echoes From One to Another …
In a dream I am standing,
At the entrance to a forest,
Here there are constructed,
Numberless arches that radiate light,
When I pass through them at night,
My body floats gently into the air,
At this precise moment,
When I am on the cusp of sleep,
My shadow vanishes,
And with it my weight.
Saved by the dark
It’s easily misunderstood that if someone is depressed, or in a dark space, that the solution lies in the offering of light, something uplifting, positive. I experience depression as an endless cyclic process within which both dark and light have a place and within both states, peace and beauty can be found. Strangely, it’s knowing the endlessness of these cycles that keeps me going. Understanding that I won’t be stuck in any given moment forever – particularly one of darkness and despair. And it’s the constant recognition, vigilant patrol and transformation of these dark spaces through my writing and art that keeps me bouyant and moving. Last night, I found shelter under the dark night sky. Stillness and beauty in the flow of candle wax. Comfort from someone who sat silently along side me as I moved through and beyond a dark space. Resolve through the spilling of words onto the page …
On the night you’ve gone to the dark … look to the black tinsel sky … and see how small you really are … let it shrink for a moment the swell of emotion that engulfs you … anchoring you in your small and fleeting space … so you can feel the splinter of time that holds you here until the next … and as you glance away … sink into the understanding of that moment … because it was truly significant … despite insignificance. Another poem about consoling, stary spaces – Home So Sweet.
Sailing heart
It is the simple act of storytelling that illuminates the darkness.
An image, a string of words, that accesses places beyond consciousness.
It is truth spoken from a damaged soul that warms the heart.
The expression of another’s pain that has the power to heal.
Poem from my book. Art by Jamie Russell
