Your love turned my body
into water.
My eye-paint dripped into the eyes
of foamy water.
Morning wind in the garden
open blossoms.
The key to my locked spirit
is your laughing mouth.
– Empress Nur Jahana (1577-1645 C.E.)
All she wanted was to find a place to stretch her bones.
A place to lengthen her smiles
and spread her hair
a place where her legs could walk without cutting and bruising
a place unchained.
She was born out of ocean breath.
I reminded her; ‘Stop pouring so much of yourself into hearts that have no room for themselves
do not thin yourself, be vast.
You do not bring the ocean to a river.’
– Tapiwa Mugabe, You are Oceanic
A grandmother imparting a life lesson to her grandson tells him, ‘I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is vengeful, fearful, envious, resentful, deceitful. The other wolf is loving, compassionate, generous, truthful, and serene.’ The grandson asks which wolf will win the fight. The grandmother answers, ‘The one I feed’ .
Michelle O’Sullivan reads ‘The Orchard’ from her first collection The Blue End of Stars.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqGkfkv1V3U&w=420&h=315]
Yesterday I decided to clean out my e-mails, including my drafts and in doing so I came across this poem, “Reverie” my friend Michelle O’Sullivan, an amazing poet, wrote. This poem says so much to me as an artist. It inspires me. It’s beauty undefined.
Reverie
The muse doesn’t tempt or ask,
she whispers lightly as she opens
the door, touches your earlobe,
the soft curve of your neck.
She doesn’t beckon or whinge
but takes your hand in hers,
sings low at the side of your face.
Everything, she says, bring everything.
– Michelle O’Sullivan
Michelle was one of the first people I ever let in my life for real, and we may live on other ends of the world now, I in New York City and her on the west coast of Ireland, but I have never lost my connection to her. She is my soul sister, before this life and in this life to the next. I am so proud of her publishing her poems in her new book, The Blue End of Stars, but not surprised.
I love you my friend, through thick and thin, always.
– Mushpa aka Cara