The Story Behind the Art

Girl on a Bench Sees Visions of Butterflies

   
     It’s a warm day near the end of August.  A little dark haired girl sits alone on a wooden bench looking straight ahead.  She peers silently out over her world, and into the future, where we stand watching her today.

     Her starched and pressed cotton dress is plaid, with a wide white collar that lays over her shoulders.  She patiently waits there in her  back yard for her cousins to arrive.  They are coming to celebrate her birthday. It is 1950. 

     We walk towards her and as we get near, she watches us carefully as she continues to smile.  Just above her head, we notice that she is sitting under the old deeply textured branches of the Black Walnut tree. It is the centerpiece of the back yard.

     Besides the tree, the little girl sits surrounded by fields of late summer flowers in full bloom. Queen Ann Lace and gentle  butterflies are mingling and floating casually among the lacey blossoms. The scene is still, frozen in a moment of time by a Brownie Box Camera. The photographer this day is her Mother. 

     This vintage photo of the little girl is   in very pale black and white.  It had been laminated long ago to the back of a small round pocket mirror. Her Mother had carried the mirror in her handbag. In her old age, the Mother had given the mirror to the little girl who was now a grandmother. The mirror had cracked in half at some time in the past, but the beautiful photograph was in perfect condition. This photograph was chosen to be the central image of the art work that would become _Girl on a Bench Sees Visions of Butterflies_ here on the wall of the gallery.

     It’s quite a small work of art. It is a personal and private scene.  The work measures approximately 12 inches, square.   

     The images on this art work have been hand worked, over top of a cotton fabric from the 1940s. The vintage fabric  is in Black and White, but much sharper and bolder than the photo of the little girl. Sharp, crisp white flowers and butterflies dance about on the surface of the ebony  black fabric background.

     There is a surprise burst of brilliant color on the black and white scene though.  Over the entire surface, brilliant hot red leaves and flowers are overlaid.  And, bursting forth from those slender and delicate stems, are brilliant red red roses that have been carved out of red coral gem stones. Bouquets of these red coral roses are waiting to be gathered, it seems. Yet, they will forever bloom there, regardless of the passing seasons in this world that is suspended forever outside of time itself.

     The joyful old fashioned  roses circle around, intertwining with the  photo of the girl on the bench. And, the circle of the mirror  has been surrounded by layers of delicate and glistening  Japanese seed beads. They have been patiently worked, layer upon layer, by the artist who was once the little girl in the photo.  The glass beads are so small and they capture the light from all directions. This makes the little girl in the photo seem to shimmer in her round space in the center of the picture, and gives it an unreal appearance. It is  seems like we  have entered into a dream world or a vision.

     Throughout the picture on the gallery wall, is a myriad of other flower shapes made from Mother-of-Pearl, and natural gemstones. In this small space we can see visions of earth and sky as we enter into the moment of time when the little girl sat patiently waiting for her birthday party to begin.

     I created the  art work

 Girl on a Bench Sees Visions of Butterflies 

 from a piece of 1940s printed fabric.  I chose  a  vintage reproduction  print fabric for this work because that is when I would have been a young girl. I was born in 1943. This  nostalgic fabric became the structure on which I  began creating a story of a childhood memory - a moment in time that brings the viewer into the world I lived in as a child. It’s a snapshot of a long ago summer day - flowers, butterflies. 

     After meticulously working the entire surface of this fabric with gemstones and beads, I began to work a beaded serpentine spiral around the border of the square.  The spiral travels around all four sides of the art work. It has been surrounded by layers of red, white, and black beads that go in and out on the front and back of the surface.  The edge work holds the front of the work to the back fabric. The back fabric is also a 1940s print, in brilliant lipstick  red. On the red surface there are   bursts of white flowers that look like shooting stars coming from the black center of each flower.

     Once this piece was finished I had to think about how it would be presented on a gallery  wall. How would it hang?  I took a walk in the woods and found just the perfect size of twig and the idea came to me that the piece would hang from a twig, suspended in space. To finish the piece, I made some loops from the same Japanese seed beads that I had used in the picture – and these loops hold the fabric piece to the branch that hangs above it.

Once the beaded and layered fabric was attached to the twig

Girl on the Bench Sees Visions of Butterflies 

was now complete. 

This fiber work has been selected to appear in the Hoyt Mid Atlantic Exhibition.  It will open to the public on October 9th and be on display there until November  2, 2012.

Hoyt Art Center, 124 E. Leasure Avenue, New Castle, PA, 16101

Create an Art Camp Adventure for YOURSELF This Year

Create 

Your  Art Camp Adventure

Do YOU need a creative getaway?

Looking for some time and space to just relax and make some art?

Last year two of my daughters (Heidi and Ilsa)  decided we should  take a vacation together  and  go to a place where we could be alone, in nature, and make art for a week.  Another art friend, Lois, decided she wanted to go, too! That was a year ago, and now we are packing up for our Art Camp Adventure – just for the FOUR of us!

 We needed to choose a location  somewhere in-between Burlington, Kentucky  where Ilsa lives, and Western  Pennsylvania where the other three of us live. Ilsa and Heidi got started on finding the right spot for us. Shortly it was decided that a rural area in Southern Ohio would be just right.

We’ll be leaving for our Art Camp Vacation next weekend. We rented an A-frame with a hot tub. We can go hiking, do a  zip line, and attend outdoor activities in that area.

You can choose 

an exotic location 

like a Rain Forest  

Or Some Place near your own home!

Your back yard 
or along the banks of a nearby creek;

How about a quiet place 
where you can be alone with NATURE?

Right now, I am deciding what to take along for me projects to work on. I decided on taking the materials I will need to begin a couple of new Talisman necklaces. I am packing up some Tree Agates, Lapis Lazuli, Green Opals,  Honey Wax Opals, Japanese Seed Beads and Swarovski Crystals in brilliant greens and purples. I plan to be inspired by the woods and chose the colors with that in mind.

If you are unable to do a getaway, 

you know you can still create your own Art Camp Experience 

right where you are.  It is really a Vacation that is inside of us -

Make an ordinary day 

into a Vacation Day! 

Think about when your Vacation will begin. Then, decide what you will work on during your vacation time. You can do it at home, very easily.  Decide what you will not be doing in your daily routine, so you can decide what you will be doing for your ART projects. Then, go ahead and have yourself a great Vacation, wherever you are!

I would love to hear about YOUR art camp experience.

Where did you go?

Did you go away for your retreat, or did you do it in your own home?

 What did you work on that was not in your daily schedule?

What was the experience like for you?

In a couple of weeks, I will report on how mine went.

I will take photos and you can see how it was for the four of us.

Why not do the same and post some photos of you on your Vacation Art Camp?

You can VIISIT me on Face Book, too. Just look for

Lynda McKinney Lambert

Eclipse (Hands Folded in Prayer)

Here is a poem I wrote recently in celbration of the night there was a Solar Eclipse and a New Moon.

this poem is mentioned in my blog article:

How to Read  Poem.

Eclipse (Hands Folded in Prayer)

It’s mid-May! The breeze is thick

with humid scents of Eau de Parfum.

Today, we have a New Moon

combined with a Solar Eclipse.

The fragrance drifts across the mountain 

Delicate, shimmering lavender pink flocks

fragile lace amongst the many specimens

near the edges of a  sun washed meadow.

Tamukeyama  stands in solitude

near the center of the outer corner.

She glances towards 

the Stone mountain, famous for a shrine

of a famous Japanese warrior.

 There, in saturated sunlight,

bright yellow-green crescent -

wild ferns encircle her bare feet.

Her gown a shower of brilliant purple lace.

The leaves turned purple in April.

Tamukeyama

Asks you to set your intention

This is a wonderful opportunity

Take your time!

Hand write 10 wishes

closest to your heart

Consider anything that passes

through your thoughts

What do you want?

Your desires will be magnified.

\what you say will be magnified.

Be wise.

Write each desire on a vellum sheet.

Close the book when the pages are complete.

Hide it carefully.

Be conscious,

The progressive season brings  transition-

the colour of the leaves from purple

towards burgundy and maroon.

Tamukyama   comes into her highest form

She starts to sport

amazingly bright red leaves.

Acer Palmatum dissectum forma astropurpureum

“hands folded in prayer upon the mountain.”

What seemed impossible before is just a thought away.

Believe!

Butterflies Bring Healing

Butterflies

Large Crimson RED Butterflies in January...

Today is June 1st. We are fully into the Spring Season now.

Spring time here in Pennsylvania  brings with it a myriad of flowers. They  begin to scatter over the meadows and fields and along the roadsides, 

I remember one special day in January 2008 when I watched  two butterflies playing in the stillness of an afternoon. 

But, it was not spring time. 

There were no flowers. 

It  was not over a field or meadow.

When I see a butterfly it brings back a memory for me.

It was 4 1/2 years ago, and I had just lost most of my sight. I had not yet had any help, and did not yet know about technologies that would help me, nor did I yet know of rehabilitation for the blind. I had no white cane, and no way of doing just about anything I had done just a couple months before. Overnight, my entire life was transformed into something that was new and unexpected. I could not use the elevator because I could not see the buttons to press, or know what floor it had landed on. Simple things like that, we took for granted, but those simple things were now a mystery to me.

It was at this very time that my second daughter, Heidi Melinda, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Now, I stood at her bedside in the IC unit in a Pittsburgh, PA hospital. Her surgery to remove the tumor that had spread to a stage 3C cancer was completed a few days before. But nothing had gone well, and within a couple of days she was near death. They had put her in an induced coma to try to give her sick lungs the opportunity to begin to heal.

Day after day, it was one step down after another.

Even though I could not see very much, I was staying at the hospital day and night. I could find my way from the waiting room, to the bathroom, and to my daughter's room. I slept for short periods during the night, sitting in a chair in the waiting room of the IC unit. Then, I would walk back to her room, to sit by her bedside.

She was kept in a coma for over 2 weeks. Nurses and doctors were at her side or directly outside her room working on the monitors and computers continuously, monitoring her, searching for the right mix of drugs to help her. We waited there in limbo as the days went by. There was nothing we could do but pray and wait. Family members came and went, all helpless.

One afternoon I sat in the chair at the bottom of her bed with my eyes focused on her laying there with tubes and apparatus all over her body. The hospital staff had named Heidi, The Sleeping Princess. On this afternoon, the Sleeping Princess had two unexpected visitors. They did not come in through the door.

As I watched Heidi, two enormous butterflies were there. They emerged from the base of her feet and they flew back and forth, playing with each other as butterflies do when you see them in a field. The two butterflies were a deep red crimson and they were the size of my hand. They were bright and very large. As I watched them, it was the most normal scene I could ever have seen. Heidi's body was the field over which they were zig-zagging back and forth over as they moved towards her head. It seemd like I watched them for quite awhile, but I believe it was probably only seconds. It was like an eternal moment, when time did not exist, and I had been a witness to timelessness.

The butterflies made themselves visable to me. They gave me new hope for my daughter. I knew they were the Holy Spirit, made visable.  I recognized that the Holy Spirit had come to visit the Sleeping Princess that afternoon and that this would be the afternoon when Heidi would begin to recover. I was assured at that moment when I saw this vision that my daughter would heal and that she had experienced a miracle.

Today, Heidi remains free of ovarian cancer, even though the tests done in surgery had shown that the cancer cells were throughout her entire body. She undergoes tests and scans all the time in Pittsburgh. She has an entourage of doctors who are keeping a close watch on her. She has side effects from her surgery and her long recovery time. Her body remembers the trauma, and her body is still responding to it. Our bodies carry memories, and those memories in the entire body continue to have a response to the trauma it went through.

         Heidi with one of her art works, May 2012

Heidi is an artist who has a studio on a mountain top, in the woods of Pennsylvania. She actively works at her art, and is in exhibitions including an international invitation one that her work is in right now.

Shortly after she recovered,  she organized The Sleeping Princess Team with her friends. The team raises money for the Ovarian Cancer Coalition of Pittsburgh. This is the fifth year that the team and Heidi's family will walk with her at the Walk to Break the Silence in the fall.  Our little team has been able to raise over $20,000. in funds to contribute to the cause.

Heidi wearing her SURVIVOR T-Shirt - Sept. 2011

Yes, butterflies are harbingers of renewal and transformation, and healing. 

They are a reflection of the Creator.

Butterflies come to bring us joy and healing.

Like God, they are right on time! Every time!

A Poem is for Everyone!

Yes, it is true!  

Everyone can read a poem 

and ENJOY it. 

I promise you, poetry is for everyone.
So many people say, "I don't know anything about poetry." The seem to apologize for not knowing anything about poetry. Usually when someone says something like this, they are really afraid to even talk about poetry.

Why is that?

For some reason they think you have to be "educated" in understanding a poem.
I say, if you are an English major, or taking a poetry class in school, then you will be learning a lot about different kinds of poems and poets.

But if you are just reading a poem, and want to enjoy it, then go right ahead!

What is poetry really all about?

It is all around you; the air you breathe; the warmth of the sun on your shoulders on a summer day; the peas that are cooking on your stove; the music on your radio; the sound of the creek running in the spring time; swimming in a cold mountain stream, and every other thing you may experience.

Don't worry about what "form" the poem is!
Don't worry about rhyme, or meter or other fancy words that some people like to throw around.

Poetry is all about you, and what touches you inside when you read something.
Poetry is the very air we breathe.

It's for everybody!

Rhododendron Dreams

Rhododendron Dreams 

 

Spring Time  in Western Pennsylvania

What a beautiful morning  here in Western Pennsylvania. 

The world here is alive with sights, sounds,smells today.

My senses are acutely aware of it all because I have just returned from my early morning workout at the gym where I do high intensity interval training. After my workout, my body is 

in sinc 

with the world of nature when I come home.  I grabbed my camera and
shot a lot of photos of the enormous, 20 ft high, 

Rhododendron bush in full bloom

I wanted to capture the early morning light the fully open 

lavender-pink blossoms - hundreds of them. 

I am alive and so is all of 

Nature today!

I have always loved taking photographs.  My loss of  sight has not decreased
the passion I have for those unexpected  and succulent images.  My methods have chanced though.

Two years ago, I sold my 35 mm cameras and all the attachments I had treasured and used so much over the years.  Now, I just take out my GE1040 digital camera and I approach my subject, point and shoot. It is always a big surprise when I finally get to see what I captured.  It is very strange 

to some people around me that I cannot see what I am shooting, but yet, later through technology, 

I can see the shots on my large screen 

computer monitor. U use  ZoomText. 

How I love my ZoomText! It is pure magic for me. It enables me to fully participate as a photographer in the visual world, just like I always did before sight loss.

I am writing about these things, this morning, to say that it  is another
way to capture subject matter and images for poetry! There is no separation
for me bet wen fine art and poetry. My process is the same for creating both,
though the instruments and methods are different.  It is the tools and the
adaptations of tools that enable me to continue to do the things I have always loved to do - write poetry and make art.

When I begin to think about my subject and how I will create a poem from this image, I begin to remember my physical contact with it, too. It is only partly a visual image. My other senses are there as well. I use them all when I begin to create the photograph or the poem. It all begins with awareness of the moment - fully aware of it all.  It is a kind of awakening from a deep sleep - it happens slowly, in layers.

The question is: 

How to take a great photo or write a great poem from an 

image  you cannot see?

Here is my own process:

First, become aware of the  physical aspects of your subject. It has a living presence. It is a tangible thing.Pay attention to the smell of it. It breathes, moves, shifts, changes, lives, and dies.

This morning I listened to  the lone crow calling from the woods surrounding my home when I was outside with my camera.I heard the rushing waters of the creek below the meadow behind my home. Mingled in with the water's flow, I heard the softer sounds of the wild geese who are down there as they are every spring. Then, a layer of sharp staccato jabs of sharp trills, from a bird, punctuating the top layer of the morning's landscape.

I touched   the dripping wet leaves as I moved through the trees along the path.  My feet were  cold and became wet  because the dew was heavy on the grass.  My clothing  started to  cling to my torso because  water spots dropped on me.

I breathed in the  early morning cool air and noticed that the day  seems subdued and hazy. But my body was throbbing with energy and excitement as I walked, parting the branches along the way. It all felt so good, so right.My physical contact with my subjects and everything that surrounds me, and
my subject, will come into my photograph.  I will be trying to capture the livingness of this day, through this one particular photograph. If I am very aware of it all, I will have a good photo today! If I am really dedicated to my pursuit of this image and this moment in time in my own life, I will even
have a poem eventually.  

Art and life are one.

Finally, inside the house in the solitude of my office where the clock ticks
on the wall behind me, I begin the additional work   that will take the images from the morning's experiences. I will take them from the camera, blow them up through the computer photo program, and then begin to crop, select, and edit my photos.  For the poem that might come forth from this morning's work with the camera and the photo editing, I will begin to record some words about my subject.  I will write a blog about today's adventure in the early morning. I will post some photos on my Facebook Page for my friends around the world to enjoy.  I will even write a short message to my friends on the Writer's List this morning. And, I will probably begin the work of turning these images into a poem.

I will consider all aspects of it. My blossoms have center stage, they are
stars, each of them,  on a plant  I had plunged  into the soil about 43 years ago. It was a very small plant in a little plastic container at that time.  As the years have passed it has grown into the magnificent blooming waterfall-type of wall - bursting forth with magnificent  flowers that I saw
this morning.  

Life happens slowly, like the growth of this plant that reaches up into the second story of my very old house here on River Road.

Life is LIVED in the smallest details of those years, 

in this place. 

If only I can capture just a small moment 

of it all today!

Maybe you would like to take a walk today and see what you find blooming in your world!  Go ahead. You might be surprised at what is out there.

Your DISABILITY can be TURNED to an ABILITY

Be a Winner!

How do you SEE yourself?

When you think about what you do as an artist or writer, what kind of image of YOU comes to your mind?

I can say that I choose to see ME as a WINNER.

I see ME as successful in my life.

Success is in inner FEELING that we have. It does not depend on any outward circumstances. It is internal. It is a STATE OF MIND!

After I lost my eyesight in 2007 it seemed that I would never again be able to make art or write.  I decided very quickly that I wanted to take charge of my own circumstances and that would happen through my own determination and decisions. I chose to continue on with life as I had known it – making art, writing poems, and being the creative being I always was.

To do this, I had to LEARN to ADAPT. Yes, it was true my life had been greatly altered.

Despite the circumstances, I determined to again make ART and to WRITE.

I began working towards my goals a little at a time. I knew I had to learn new ways of making art and writing. Step by step, I did just that.

Last weekend, one of my bead worked pieces was honored at the Associated Artists of Butler County Spring Art Show –

I got THE FIRST PLACE AWARD in the Mixed Media Category!! The winning art work is “Party on the Allegheny River.” 

This work was created from small smooth stones I gathered on the Allegheny River near Oil City, PA as I was out in a CANOE. This was AFTER MY  SIGHT 

LOSS!

Above:  Party on the Allegheny, side view.

Below:  Girl on a Bench Sees Visions of Butterflies

This is very special to me because this was one of the first bead work pieces I was able to do after my sight loss experience. It was a struggle for me to again do this kind of delicate bead work. The beads are so small that most people can barely feel them between their fingers when they pick one up.  But, with perseverance, I learned HOW to do it and HOW to get a very miniscule needle through those tiny holes in the beads.  I do it non-visually!

Another of the bead work pieces I designed and completed was a self-portrait of me as a child. This piece is called _Girl on a Bench Sees Visions of Butterflies_ and features a vintage pocket mirror with a photo of me as a small child on it. I used this idea as the centerpiece for my art work.  It had been given to me by my mother, long ago.

Surrounding the photo mirror is  an array of Stone Carved Roses made from CORAL GEMSTONES.  This picture features many, many tiny Japanese beads.  It is a fine and intricate type of bead working – every item on this piece is made from and surrounded by BEADS.

I chose to do it in a vintage print, from the 1940’s because that is the era when the photo would have been taken of me on the bench. I wanted a nostalgic feeling in the art work and it was important to begin with a fabric from this decade.

The exciting news here, is that THIS PIECE is currently on display at an international invitation exhibition – the Small Works Salon – at the New Arts Program, Kutztown, PA.  I will attend the opening reception there on May 25^th and have a JOY of knowing that MY ART WORK is worthy of such a wonderful international art show.

I share these things with YOU so that you can get the feeling of finding success and a winning attitude in your own creative life.

You can BE whoever you DECIDE you WILL BE.

If you have a disability  it does not matter

You can FIND your OWN way

CHOOSE to overcome that challenge.

You will see! 

You can do it, too!

Lotus Blossoms, Ideas, and Time

Good Morning Poetry  Lovers and Writers,

This morning I was thinking about how we come up with the myriad of ideas that we gather for our poems and our writings.

People always ask:

"How do you gather ideas and images for use in your poetry?"

First of all, 

Ideas are everywhere!

Ideas and inspirations  surround us all day long when we are actively engaged in the mundane chores of our day. 

Ideas and images are:

Overhead in the night skies,

Sloshing down in the pouring spring rain,

Romping like a child with a sand shovel and bucket in the sunshine on the beach,

Found on the front page of this morning's small town newspaper,

Sent  in a letter from a dear friend,

Articulated over the phone when I am talking with a friend who is meeting challenges,

Hidden in  the bushy ruffled wag of my little  dog's tail as he dances to  beg for treats, 


Packed away in great grandma's old metal trunk with bands of wood and brass


 forgotten in the darkness of your dusty attic

Buried deep in the rich black earth in the woods beneath the stately Hemlock tree where we have buried all our pets through the years.

Search through your MEMORIES

Can you recall the ivory blooms of Queen Ann Lace in the early fall fields?

They are often intermingled with the periwinkle stars of the Chicory, just before the first frost. My heart skips a few beats just to think of this delightful sight, right in my back yard every year. Last year, the meadow was alive with cone shaped mushroom. They were scatterd about like a magician had come through and waved his magic wand there, and from the dust of his want came the brilliant white mushroom reaching up to the sky.

How about that dragon- fly that landed on your shoulder as you sat quietly along the edges of the brook when you were a small child? Did you hear it  rattle around in the back seat of your car yesterday?

What idea was blown by the winds across the foggy surface of asphalt in the parking lot at the strip mall?

Are you remembering some things right now that just might be the stuff of a poem?

I think I could sit here for hours on end writing about where I have been surprised and delighted  by  the quickly fleeting sliver of an idea, or softly echoing lyric of a soulful idea for a poem. I think I spotted the leg of a new poem this morning, lurking there inside my new pair of Reebok cross-trainer shoes! I saw that slender strip of yellow zig-zagging across the bottom of the shoes - calling out to me to pay attention and not be in such a big rush to get going on my journey today.

 I sat down to look over new messages on my Face Book page today, 

I found a gem of an idea there.

Delight was right there in print on that page. 

 And, there was a picture, too! The picture there was of a Lotus Flower, all in violet, lavender, deep greens, and periwinkle blue colors.

An idea for a poem  came to me as I scanned through this  new FaceBook message.

One thing you eventually find on social media are like minded individuals who share a world view that can be similar to your own.  

 These are the "friends" you always look for because they often post messages that lift you up and encourage you, and give you new insight - a little glimmer of some truth that rings true inside your body.  I had one of those moments this morning!

~ I choose  friends who ~

 love the arts 

care about the earth

work to find homes for animals 

 restore others  to good health

friends who love dusty old things

cherish small things

some who love flowers - gardens - birds

those who love to travel and enjoy the culture of other places 

friends who respect other people who live in very different circumstances

Think carefully about the kind of people you call your friends.

What kind of energy do they give off? Is it healing, helpful, encouraging, and positive? I avoid negative people because their energy will bring you down to where they are and that is a place where there are no poems and no marvel. Choose friends who love life and who are life-bringers in this world. A negative person is an empty shell of a human person. 

Just a few months ago

I joined a group of writers who talk about their work and put up their writings for the rest of the group to discuss. There, I have found three strong women poets who are absolutely amazing writers. Like me, they have experienced sight loss, yet they live a full and complete life with no boundaries and no regrets. 

The poetry folks I have met recently at the National Federation of the Blind on the NFB Writers Division list have been talking about saving some of the comments and poems they find so they can return to them and read them again. What a good idea this is! I have a couple of files started for this purpose, too. I have read some poems that are so nourishing, rich, memorable that I want to savor them again and again. I also want to see more poems from these people, and watch their path unfold as they write.

I, too, have a  folder  for saving "ideas" for some future works for myself. 

An idea will come to me and I like to record it and save it to my files. I will collect information on that idea until I have sufficient material to begin the work on a new poem. I gather ideas and put them in my files before they fly off to become someone else's poem!

Another place I find inspiration is when I read some of the FaceBook pages posted by friends I have never met.

Today's find  is the message  I will post below. The message uses the metaphor of the Lotus Flower. It is a keeper and is now in my folder. My folder is  called "Poem_Ideas"  and at some point I will return to this message and begin the work of writing a poem. The idea has been captured and saved for me to return to another day when I am able to put the work into the idea.

What do YOU need to do to enrich your ideas for working with words?

You need to SLOW DOWN, first of all.

Pay attention to your surroundings.

Listen to what sounds are there. Close your eyes and smell the air. 

Reach out your finger tips and touch something. How does it feel?

Is there a taste in the air?  Do you hear the music?

Patience, my friends, patience. That is the KEY to getting in touch with your own world. It is YOUR WORLD and YOUR LIFE that is your motif.

As you begin to feel, hear, taste, see, touch, smell your world, you will now be ready to begin your poem. 

The poem is your life!

  

"The lotus flower sits upon one of it's leaves, having risen to the surface as the sun, held in the hand of God, invites it upward to the light. This unique plant is rooted in the mud and muck at the bottom of a body of water, it's stem reaching up to the surface, where the leaves rest quietly. At night, the flower closes and sinks below the surface, only to rise with the daylight and once again, gradually unfold it's petals. 
What we learn from this amazing plant is how our own spiritual path unfolds and opens to the light, then at times gently folds in on itself for a proper rest when the daylight fades. 
Your spiritual unfoldment is occurring at all times, whether or not you are aware of it. It is inevitable as long as you put your trust in the hands of the Creator, the One who holds the Light. 
Like the Lotus, your soul is always reaching for the light to fulfill its karmic destiny, but even in that process, there are periods of darkness and times to rest. It is a natural cycle, one that cannot truly be coerced or halted. 
It has an innate rhythm of its own, one that is unique to the Being that is you!"

~Earth Magic by Steven D. Farmer