The Visual Word Working Blog: April 2012

Sunday, April 29, 2012

MY PATH

You say I am old
yes, son, I am old

you say my path is behind me:
lived, trodden, finished

yes, my past path is behind me
as yours is behind you

but my future path lies before me
as yours lies before you

long or short, it is mine to travel
mine to explore at my own pace
mine to see to its next bend
to its next fork
to its final gate

Yes, son, I am old
but I am not dead
I live, as you live

do not bury me while my path still lies before me.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

April Forest: Derik Hawley and David Billings

April Forest

A tree in April is a splendid thing,

her boney branches fan out their design,

now free of winter snows for coming spring,

yet birds’ nests to her still are not assigned.

Lifeless she seems, yet within her sap

flows a hidden power we can’t see,

now she’s wakened from her frozen nap,

and thus her promise: May days we’ll soon see!

But now she stands, devoid of foliage,

roots slowly suck ooze from the thawing ground,

such sweet long instants seem a privilege,

before the forests roar with leaf blown sound.

The bones bloom tall as stark shadows contrast

the spring buds which clothe bare Nature at last.

Teepee Woman: Azhar Shemdin and John Ambury

TEEPEE WOMAN

From the mists that thread the trees

from the smoke of sweetgrass embers

from the earliest passed-down legends

came the ancient symbols

they appear and combine

separate and re-blend

shape-shifting

into forms that hold the world

patterns that explain the skies

solid as oak

fluid as water

ethereal as a dream

you know the mysteries, teepee woman

you see the meanings

you hear the answers

with my brittle, literal, civilized intelligence

I can barely think the questions

tell me what is real

teepee woman

(Inspired by the acrylic painting “Teepee woman and blue pyramid” by Azhar Shemdin.)