A Different Take on Blues

When my daughter was in grade seven, I volunteered in her English class.  One of the poems she studied is below.  It has stuck with me all these years.  I love the idea of seeing the blue between, of seeing what is not obvious, of seeing from a different perspective.

If, like in life, there are periods of dark and stormy clouds, then the blue is the good that happens between those difficult times.   This is a good thought to carry when your life is grey, overcast and turbulant.

The Blue Between

Everyone watches clouds,

naming creatures they've seen.

I see the sky differently,

I see the blue between--

The blue woman tugging

her stubborn cloud across the sky.

The blue giraffe stretching

to nibble a cloud floating by.

A pod of dancing dolphins,

cloud oceans, cargo ships,

a boy twirling his cloud

around a thin blue fingertip.

In those smooth wide places,

I see a different scene

In those cloudless spaces,

I see the blue between.

--Kristine O'Connell George

An Angel Came

Recently I have been reading about some of the Masters like Henri Matisse, Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso.  I love looking at their work and learning about their lives.  One thing that struck me as I examined the photos of the art work is the use of black outlines.  I thought that was a 21st century phenomenon.  Go figure!  I have lots to learn about art.

Olga Merson

Painted by Henri Matisse

1911

I decided to try my hand at an image with the black outlines.  It is not nearly as  expressive with depth as Henri's (or nearly as good!), but I'm pretty happy with my first attempt.  

An Angel in the House

How sweet it were, if without feeble fright,

Or dying of the dreadful beauteous sight,

An angel came to us, and we could bear

To see him issue from the silent air

At evening in our room, and bend on ours 

His divine eyes, and bring us from his bowers

News of dead friends, and children who have never 

Been dead indeed, --as we shall know forever.

Alas! We think not what we daily see 

About our hearths, --angels that are to be,

Or may be if they will, and we prepare

Their souls and ours to meet in happy air; --

A child, a friend, a wife whose soft heart sings

In unison with ours, breeding its future wings.

                                                 James Henry Leigh Hunt

Honking Winged Creatures

Winter is officially here.  Snow is on the ground and it is not going anywhere again until next spring. When I let Maxie out yesterday morning about 5 am, I could hear the geese honking.  I love that sound, especially in the crisp, cold, night air.  There is something magical about it.

Honking winged creatures crossing greycast clouds, 

soaring above gleaned fields.  

Steady onward, formed in flights of primordial instinct.

A shift from here to there.

Gazing at soft underbellies shaded in silvered slate,

trembling at dizzy heights attained.

Reaching upward, following, seeking, chancing.

Where are they going? 

I will go too.

                                  Leah Boulet

Speaking of geese, there's a fabulous artist I love who I also happen to know.  She is amazingly creative and an awesome teacher.  In the last few years she's spent time sharing her knowledge and love of art in the schools.  Her lastest project is crazy good.  Geese are involved along with feathers, flight, thoughts, hopes and dreams.  I just have to share the You Tube video she posted last month. Here is Roberta Laliberté and her video Future Flight Path.

The last of these soulful flyers are winging their way south.  Next time the songs of the geese fill the air above my head, spring will be around the corner.