Mixed media
Art journal page
August 2, 2014

Breathing Under Water

©2014 Louise Gallagher

Breathing under water
the sky becomes a distant memory
held between the earth’s lips
pressing against the sky.

Oxygen escapes my body
as I dive again
into life flowing
all around me.

Breathing under water
I forget to catch
my breath
escaping
I leave all fear behind.

Painting In Words

©2014 Louise Gallagher
(Written at River Rock Studio, July 31, 2014)

Lost in a sea of colours and shape
painting in words
poetry pouring down
from cerulean skies
burnished with umber and quinachrodone gold
floating on a sea of Pyrrole Orange
I forget that place where right and wrong
matter as I attempt to hold on
to a design I cannot let go of.
Lost in the deceit
of believing letting go
will kill my dreams
of creating under water.

Diving into the nothing
that is left
when I let go
I fall
effortlessly
into the divine essence
of life
flowing in all directions
immersing me
in its wonder.

Letting go
I fall
free
of holding on
to nothing
but the everything
that is possible
when I
let go.

Journal Entry, Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Mixed media on watercolour paper

And The Moon Beamed

©2014 Louise Gallagher

Patience dear ones, the moon whispered to the stars. It will come to pass. The sun will slip into dusk and your time to shine will come, but first, you must learn to shine in the light of day believing in your own magnificence. one night, the whole world will see the brilliance of your light. But for now, you must practice patience.

And the sun shone, and the moon beamed and the stars twinkled knowing their night would come.

And then, it came to pass that the sun fell into night’s seductive embrace and the stars came out and played Twinkle, Twinkle upon the velvety blanket of night delighting in the lightness of being all that they were born to be in the light of day.

And they shone. Bright.

And the world turned and the sun slept and the moon beamed down upon the earth wrapped in eternity’s embrace.

See my dear ones, whispered the moon to the glittering stars. There is no need to be anything other than what you are born to be. Brilliantly bright and magnificent.

Shine dear ones. Shine.

Falling Away

©2014 Louise Gallagher

I want to fall away from the edge of fear,
leaning into the unknown
releasing what was to make way for what I have
not yet discovered.

I want to skip this space of quiet
and leap into the doing
of what I’ve always done to avoid
fear.

I want to hurry into getting busy
at all the thins I know to do
to avoid being here, right now
in the silent presence
of the world awakening all around me.

There is no one way
to discover
the path.

There are many paths
to discover the way.

Stepping off the path I know
I discover
another way.

Rest again at the end of day

©2014 Louise Gallagher

(Written at River Rock Studio, July 28, 2014)

Squirrel chatters flinging morning commentary
at the sky where delicate white tendrils float by
mindless of its presence.

Morning breaks, yawning itself awake
sweeping clear night’s embrace to reveal
the brilliance of a brand new day.

I watch shadows retreat into the sun’s
creeping light pushing at the darkness
that lingers along the edges of the forest.

Contentment fills me. I feel its embrace
as I breathe into night slipping away knowing
I will come full circle to find rest again at the end of day.

From Where I Sit

©2014 Louise Gallagher

(Written at River Rock Studio, July 27, 2014)

From where I sit, leaves
rustle in the summer
breeze whispering stories
of lovers kissing
in the heat of passion
blossoming beneath the hot simmering
sun beating down.

From where I sit, dragonflies
flirt, making love
mid flight on wings
shimmering in pearly incandescence
light bodies freed
from the cocoon of summer
flowing in delight.

From where I sit, fir trees
stretch high, touching
the sky, spiky peaks
piercing blue cerulean arc
stretching above with spotted
fluffy white clouds
drifting aimlessly by.

From where I sit, a doe
prances past, senses
alert, she stops
glancing back
towards where she passed
curiosity piqued
she startles and vanishes
into the woods.

From where I sit, summer floats
effortlessly upon warm sultry
air bursting on the edge
of creativity
waiting to be awoken
at the edge of the forest.

A Haiku for Ellie

Wildflowers sway
beauty dances in the light
sadness loses ground

The haiku came from a longer poem I wrote for Ellie who passed away on June 23rd, 2014. I find it fascinating how to find the condensed nature of a poem, I must start with the fuller picture. It is only after writing the many words that clarity arises.

Like grieving. Like loving. Like life.

We must dig into the whole picture, revel in the dirt and the sun, to find the beautiful essence at the core of our being alive, of our being human, of our being here on this planet together.

In a Field of Wild Flowers

I leaned into the edge
of where you left
footprints on my heart
filled with memories
surfacing on the tears
that fell
like raindrops
nourishing
fields of wildflowers
where once you ran
free and abandoned.

I watched you run free
and cannot go with you.

It was your time,
not mine.

Peace comes in the light
of knowing you are running free
forever in time.

I got inspired today by Sandra Heska King whose blog today, Just for Fun: Color Poems, is a beautiful meditation on colour and poetic verse.

There’s a whole poetry slam thingie going on with Twitter and such of which I have little idea, but…. what appealed to me was the invitation to write a poem based on the words, Polka Dots.

So I did.

Photo courtesty of https://www.flickr.com/photos/francescarter/

On Polka’s & Dots

We danced
our feet
skipping to the chords
of an accordion
playing
the Beer Barrel Polka
while all around us
the room whirled
and I grew dizzy
holding you in my arms.

You felt so light.

I love to polka
you yelled as we swirled
your breath hot
against my ear
and I asked you your name
in one breathless gasp
and you said Dot
and I laughed out loud
and asked you, what’s your favourite?
and you replied
Kiss me! I’m Polish!

So I did.

I don’t want to know
you
are sitting there
like a stone in the middle
of a stream
we part ways
flowing around you as we walk past
your silent form
head bowed
hands outstretched
to receive
the pittance of our generosity
dropping into the bottomless pit
of your despair
trapped in that place
where I don’t want to hear
the story of the little boy
who never grew up
to be the man
you once dreamed you would become.

I don’t want to see
the scars
etched deep into your skin
the needle marks
and tracts of pain
visible to the naked eye
where you huddle
in your emaciated body
craving the thing that will fix
it all
if only for a moment
so that you can forget
the story of how you came to be
here
in this place
where people pass you by
not wanting to see you
sitting in their way.

I saw you yesterday
and my heart broke
at the sight of you
waiting silently
for someone to say
I’m sorry.
I’m sorry this happened to you
I saw you and I felt helpless
and I’m sorry for not stopping
to say, I see you
even though I knew
seeing you wouldn’t really make a difference
because you can’t see
yourself
sitting there
waiting
you can only see the one you lost
long ago
on your journey to becoming
the silent one
sitting on the side of the street
where I walked by
without seeing you.

Cellular Memory

©2014 Louise Gallagher

My cells hold the stems
of memory
buried deep beneath the landscape
of my body moving through time
passing
over
the story of days long ago
where I once believed
my destiny waited
at the door of the chimera
of your love
calling me to enter.

In the delicate strands
of memory’s DNA
stringing its story of time
connected
my veins run
thick
with the blood
of your deceit
casting a pall
on the beat of my heart
pounding
at a glimpse of a place
where once we spent time.

On a winter’s night
when frost hangs suspended
in the frigid air
soaked in ice crystals
swirling in the soft golden hue
of memory backlit
in a streetlight’s glow
I find
memory’s deceit
lying in the distance
of time passed by
and long forgotten.

There is no substance
to the memory of you
no dream worth awakening
no cells worth dividing
there is only this road I travel
far from those places
where the darkness embraced me
and fear stalked me in the night.

There is only
this time right now
where frost tipped branches
dip low
and the magic of the night
sparkles in the incandescent glow
of a streetlamp
lighting the way home
to the heart
where I belong.