The Lilac Dawn

The Lilac Dawn Helps Me Remember…


I am all that is
And so are You


In the infinite vastness
of who I am
with the stars circling
around my head
my feet paddle
in the unbounded power
of the blue beyond
I watch as the lilac dawn
is washed with gold
and rose-tipped mountains
soar around me
and trees are brushed
with the rising light
I am the Sun
I am the multicoloured
splinter of light
reflected
through the prism of this plane
I am the infinite vastness
Of all that is One
Just as You are too.

Streams of Consciousness - the Final Part

And so my week of exploration of streams of consciousness, with both words and images, comes to an end. The pictures below are created using original photos of reflected glass. As for what next week will bring... your guess is as good as mine! Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy a wonderful, fun, relaxing and happy weekend.

Stream of Consciousness VII

Rising clouds of crystal white

voice ethereal susurration

as myriad nebulae

sing on cosmic wings

Light to night

by three times bright

Wisps of wind

echo unmade dreams

and give them moonlit flight.

Stream of Consciousness VIII

Symphonic harmonies

spiral upward

through silver clouds

while waterfalls splash

and cast crystal gems

to unfathomed worlds.

A ROAR - and continuing the Stream of Consciousness - Part 5

Ooh, oooh, ooooh!!! I’ve been awarded a Roar For Powerful Words by the incomparable Debi Alper. Rooooooaaaaaaar! I take this as a great honour coming as it does from a writer and author of very powerful words.

The Roar was initiated by the Irish-New Zealand fellow who lives in Lyon (how’s that for cosmopolitan!), hangs out at Shameless Words and who hosts the Shameless Lions Writing Circle.

Shameless has said:

I've launched a new project over at The Shameless Lions Writing Circle that aims to celebrate good and powerful writing in the blogosphere. The idea is for recipients of this award to also choose five blogsters they would like to honour. Despite what some say in the mainstream media, there is some fantastic writing to be found on many blogs!

Those people I've given this award to are encouraged to post it on their own blogs; list three things they believe are necessary for good, powerful writing; and then pass the award on to the five blogs they want to honour, who in turn pass it on to five others, etc etc. Let's send a roar through the blogosphere!

The Roar Award image may be collected here. Your choice of three colours!

So, here are three things (I could, of course, list more...) I consider necessary for good, powerful writing – and I do think they are interlinked.

1. Passion – when you write with passion, when you let go and let the creativity surge through you, you cannot help but to create words of power and integrity.

2. Trust in the Muse – again, this is about letting go – of preconceived notions, of the inner critic - and of trusting to the greater creative energy that is bigger than you but which works through you enabling you to create beauty, magic, poignancy, wit, love, other worlds and other states of being. When you trust in the muse you are able to write beyond convention, with innovation, without fear and you allow yourself to go where the creative energy leads you. The best ride of them all.

3. Truth – write what you know about. When you write about the things you know about, experiences you have had, when you are willing to share your wisdom and your being with the world, then the words which flow from you are words of truth and there is nothing more powerful that individual truths. They may not be the Absolute Truth, but what you write is given weight, credibility and integrity because you, the writer, know, feel and truly understand those words - and because you do, you make them real for others - your readers.

Now, in time-honoured tradition, I must pass this award along. So I duly award a Roar to (and in no particular order):

Addy, at Wilf's World - Addy has created a character and world which is based on her love of story, her profound understanding of character and the mind and langauge of children - and it is one huge and delightful romp. Little boys, it seems, get to have plenty of adventures!

Alaleh at Abir O Moshk - I have yet to encounter, in blogosphere, a writer who writes more simply and powerfully than Alaleh. Go and discover her. See for yourself. This is genius at work. Hey, what can I say, I'm a fan.

Vesper at Chick with a Quill - Vesper writes with passion, with beauty, with heartfelt feeling and with boundless imagination. Her words are filled with consideration for her subject and her audience and you just know when you read her words that she trusts to her muse.

Baino at Baino's Banter - Baino writes with passion, with truth, with humour - and is unafraid to speak her mind. I know Baino doesn't consider herself a real writer, but I know she hopes one day to write that hidden novel. She will do it really well when she does. She may not think she is a real writer. I know she is.

Reya at The Gold Puppy - I've not been visiting Reya's blog for long but there is a simple honesty, humour, wisdom and integrity in Reya's words that draws me back to her blog time and time again.

Let us send Blogosphere a huge ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAR!!!

And now, today's short stream of consciousnesss...

Stream of Consciousness VI

Languid river meanders
drifts in silent
ebbs and flows
Blue dragon
darts and flies
dips, skims
on iridescent wings
And there the breeze rises.

Stream of Consciousness Part 3 ...and Squirrel babies!

Continuing the flowing stream of consciousness...

Stream of Consciousness IV

I fly

soar

float

drift

Travel lightly

through myriad realms

Reach out

touch the sky

become One

All-flowing

evermore

everywhere

Peace is home

There go I

I'd like to take the opportunity to direct you to two blog posts that have really touched me today - I urge you to take a look at Hand in Hand at Alaleh's blog and Sometimes I'm Serious at Baino's blog. See the highs and the lows of humanity and wonder at that which we are.

And now we interrupt our normal programming to bring you this newsflash!

Scenes captured yesterday in Ms Vanilla's backyard.... Squirrel bath-time! It would appear that aside from the hatching of guinea fowl chicks, the squirrels too have been broody...

"Hello, Mom, whatcha doin'?"

"Hmm, well while you're here Andy, I think it's time for a wash. Now just hold still, will you!"

"Gee, Mom, why don't I wash you instead!"

"Look, I can give you a hand with your arm."
Mom thinks to herself, "Hmmm, why is bath time always such a trial?"

"Just you hold still, Andy."
"Aw, Mo-om..."

"Stop squirming, Andy!"

"Look, Mom, here's Candy..."

"Right, then bath time for both of you!"

"Will you two quit mucking about, one of you will fall out of the tree if you don't stop all this nonsense. Keep still!"

"Ha, I tell you what, Mom, I'll wash you while you wash, Candy."

"Oh anything for a quiet life... I must remember not to do this next spring!"

Streams of Consciousness Part II

So, I continue my journey of playing and seeing what arises... Some of you have asked what music I was listening to when I wrote the words. It was Reiki Gold by Llewellyn (available on Amazon) - music used for healing, soothing and meditation, very New Age stuff but I find it deeply relaxing. I thought I'd toss in two "pomes" today since they both seem to have a nature feel. I make no excuses for the quality of the writing, the words are unedited, simply written down as they swam up, no inner critic, no trying, just being and letting be. Same with the images - just playing and having fun, not trying to create anything. I always think play - unfettered, light-hearted, unselfconscious - is the best means of nurturing creativity. As for the pictures, the first one comes from a close up shot of autumn leaves and berries. The second is a collage formed from various of my close up flower shots. You'll notice as the week progresses a preference for circles and bubbles...

Stream of Consciousness II

River flowing

over Pan’s pipes

reeds rustle

to reveal

cherub’s wings

Summer haze spreads

in golden waves

all is abundance

Stream of Consciousness III

Rippling stars

twinkle on water

Blue butterfly soars

through heaven’s arches

Petals whisper

to dewdrop gems

Angels smile

and sing

Chorus rises

surrounding

Light

And now, on a completely different note, I need to direct you here... To the blog of the Sisterhood of the Pointy Heels. I have no idea how it happened, I'm not even sure if I follow it but evidently I am Commander in Chief of the Sisters of the Pointy Hats (this is just what chance remarks will result in) and as such, have earned myself a place at the Round Table of the Greater Sisterhood. You are thusly requested, by the CnC of the Sisters of the Pointy Heels to "add your valued comments to the proceedings". As I understand it, something of a battle is ensuing between the Sisters and The Knight of the Besmirched Countenance (well, you know just how mucky men can be). I confess that it is largely all beyond me but I nevertheless, as ordered by the CnC of the Sisterhood, point you in the direction of all things, well, pointy. The story appears to start here and, more particularly, here. Just don't come back and ask for explanations from me if you happen to be confused.

Streams of Consciousness

I thought I'd try something a little different this week - stream of consciousness "poetry" inspired by music I've been listening to and some of my photos "tweaked" in the "digital darkroom". You'll have seen some of the images in original format on the blog already, others are tucked away in my Flickr account. Each "pome" is simply called Stream of Consciousness I, II or III etc. The body may ail but the mind, imagination and spirit continue to soar.

Stream of Consciousness I

Flowing spirals

drift

on ribboned lights

Blue dreams

sift through purple haze

Coral blush

lights up the sky of everwhere

Gossamer threads

billow in rainbow hues

Paint a picture

of a thousand words

stretch out

reach

Beyond desire

elemental whispers

bring home

Love

Whale Songs

Continuing the phoktober theme...

Last week I promised I'd try to get some whale shots... They're not brilliant and now the shopping list has been lengthened to include a powerful zoom lens...

Each year, from June to November, the southern right whale comes to our shores. In the protected bays along the southern coast hundreds of whales mate and calve. Given the amount of splashing, bellowing and heavy breathing that was going on when I took these shots I think we can take a pretty educated guess that there was some rumpy pumpy taking place..

Significant Other has always said I call the whales and this time I believed him. We have never seen the whales come this close to the rocky shoreline before.

What I find so utterly tragic is that people are willing to hunt these magnificent animals - invariably using grenade-tipped harpoons which explode inside the animals. Increasingly the ban on whale hunting, which has been in force for 20 years, is coming under pressure with 33 nations supporting whale hunting and only 32 against it. However, in June this year the International Whaling Commission upheld an indefinite moratorium on commercial whaling by IWC members that had been in effect since 1986. Despite this, the decision will have no practical effect on the whale hunting now conducted by Japan, Norway, Iceland, and certain other countries. For more information on this, please see here and, for an excellent article on the subject of whale hunting go here.

I reach out

and you touch me

with my heart in yours

I call

and you answer me

with your soul

this is whale speak

and I know

Song of joy

my heart to yours

as you play

rolling in the waves

To listen to the sounds of whales, go here, and to read more about the southern right whale, go here.

Reflections... and smile awards

Continuing the Phoktober theme... This series of shots was taken a while back when I was playing with light reflected through coloured glass objects onto a white surface. What I've done here is to take the reflected section from each shot without any sign of the real object of the reflection.

What we see is not
What we don't see may well be
Things are seldom what they seem

Look beyond
Between the glimmers of light
The magic resides within

Now see if you can work out which shot above came from which shot below!

Reflections in light
time and space

cease to be

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

And the good and fun news of the day is that lovely Bonnie over at Words from a Wordsmith has given me a "You make me smile, award"! Thank you, Bonnie! Your words make me smile too!

Made by Susan of Patchwork Reflections, she said, "Comments make me smile! So all of you who were nice enough to comment here are officially presented with the 'you make me smile' award! Congratulations!" On her blog she added this verse:

Smiling is infectious,
U can catch it like the flu.
Someone smiled at me today,
And I started smiling too,
Now I am passing it on to you!

So now I'm passing on the smile award to:

Verilion who's as daft as a brush - you have to know her to know...
Vesper - who is a kindred spirit and brings a smile to my heart.
John - who ends every comment with a smile which you know is heartfelt.
Baino - who has a wicked sense of humour
and Kyklops - who had me in stitches with his comment on my mushroom post!

You know what I hate about these awards - you're only supposed to be able to pass them on to five people - I think that's so unfair - I want to give awards to all of you - especially this one, because in some way, each of you brings a smile to my face! So go on, consider yourself awarded and SMILE!