Once Upon A Dark Time …
…in a land of smiles, bad things happened. Children were broken into. Nothing said. Nothing done. And so the innocent grew, not up, but small. But this was not to be the end. In the darkness little helpers gathered spilling rich black into soft white sheets. Tailoring picture books to fill empty spaces. Telling truth that grew much taller than a world too big to fit. Until size no longer mattered and little souls were reawakened by the rhythms and rhymes of songs that carried them all the way home – ensuring they’d never be beaten again.
Footnote: This story (from 2009) reflects The Black Dog Project’s focus on the safety, well being and rights of children and young people – and the idea of making books and gifting them to young people in the community through sponsorship. Written long before the explosion of social media, the ‘Children were broken into. Things stolen.’ now also reflects the impact of Smartphones and social media on children and young people. Find this piece in Clunk & Jam book. Original story in handmade book, ‘Rock The Boat’, 2009. (Handwriting by Maggie).
Rose was very curious about the origin of sadness .
Rose welcomes all forms of feeling with a particular interest in ones of the socially unacceptable kind. She has pioneered many expeditions into the realms of fear, sadness, anger, disillusionment and horrible muddled states of mind with quite profound results and a significant degree of personal resolve. Long Live Rose.
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Sometimes I Wish I Wasn’t Me .
This little soldier finally realised that being the fairest isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and looking up to stars can be dangerous – especially when they fall. And that ‘way up high’, ‘over the rainbow’ and ‘climbing the ladder’ are sometimes dangerous places to try and reach. And too far away to possibly get there on time.
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Rose never looked up to anyone – it saved her feeling small .
Rose has a tendency towards independence of a difficult kind. She is not easily lead and exhibits a strong will to do things her own unusually diverse way. Rose also sprouts a grounded view on equality which often clashes with the viewpoints of those she refused to look up to. Still, she continues to look to herself for divine guidance. Long Live Rose.
(Reposted from 2013. Find Rose in her own pocket book and Clunk & Jam book 2019.
Robin Small felt the turmoil on indecision in the balls of his feet as he rocked to – Will I? Won’t I?
Footnote: Sometimes when there are no answers, sitting it out for a while and taking some time makes good sense. And sometimes things never make sense but Robin’s ‘rocking’ seems to suggest he’s not stuck. He’s working things out – in his own time. Maybe he’s just wondering? And wondering (or daydreaming) is so often perceived as ‘doing nothing’. Nothing of value anyway. But it’s where ideas come from. It’s how we gain a deeper sense of things and their meaning – that others might just pass on by.
(Robin Small, Clunk & Jam, Second Edition 2019)
World Won’t Wait .
He felt so burdened by the despicable acts of others. A cutting despair at not being able to get there on time to save the suffering souls, the ice from melting, trees from falling down around the corner.
Lost in the shadow of shame, cast by human kind, knowing all too well the dread awful things that come to the weak, the marginalised, the strong – and those who resist.
He carried this burden from morning into night, until one day he woke to a different tune. In the tune he caught himself feeling his own sadness, borne from the quest to save all that felt.
Cast in his own time, he could feel every aching inch of his broken self. The closeness to his own end. Where he surrendered to the grueling battle. Stopped in time to mend.
References: ‘Hope’ painting by George Frederic Watts, 1886. With just one remaining in her lyre – she played on. Little boat reference, the movie, ‘Where the Wild Things Are’, 2009. Original childrens picture book by Maurice Sendak, 1963. Find in Clunk & Jam book.
See ‘Strength In Wild Imagination’. Both in Clunk & Jam book)
