Flexing our Borders

Surrounding ourselves with security ~
rigid, strong measures to protect.
To keep the good inside
To keep the bad outside

Edges of thick brick
Rims of heavy metal
Fences of solid wood
Walls with no doors

Surrounding ourselves with inner guards
Measures to protect the world
from the unacceptable inside
showing a public, acceptable face outside

Softening edges
Thinning metal rims
Latticing fences
Setting doors into walls

Spirits and souls breathe easily
secure within ourselves
Minds and hearts become flexible
open and aware of the borders of our lives.

“Everything really interesting and powerful happens at borders.

Borders teem with life, colour and complexity.”

~ Mary Pipher, Writing to Change the World

Fish Tales

Tanka

Haiku

Kyoka

Poetry shapes

gentle security of ideas

for language and verse.

“The highest goal is not distinctions, but synthesis and harmony.”

~ Alan Macfarlane, Japan Through the Looking Glass

Flutter and Chase

Strelitzia retinae - Bird of Paradise
Butterfly Gardens - Saanicton, B.C.

Morning softness ~
ideas and purpose absorbed gently
to the tune of twitters and cheeps.

In this moment of calm
minor financial decision
begged a form, a number, a website

A smooth slide from cozy comfort ~
to upright deskness and gathering resources ~ 
except  ~ a number, it’s card, it’s sleeve: missing

Flutter and chase ensued.
Inner child jumping up and down on tiny toes.
Hands flapping and wringing.

Searching purses and drawers.
Most likely places.
Where it should have been, where it should never be……

So maybe another purse - no not there ~
Or another pocket - or drawer - no not there.
My organized brain that fears authority screamed Alert!

A final search of the same purses and drawers ~
more thorough, all the pockets and pouches.
A number, it’s card and it’s sleeve: found.

It was a safe place ~ in one of the purses
secured in a pouch where it has never been before.
Reservations only accepted for cell phones.

As if by magic, flutter and chase vanished,
evaporated as though never there.
Inner child returned to dolls, storybooks and sunshine.

“Pursuit is a rather desperate act in itself. There’s 

something kind of frantic about the notion of pursuit.”

~ Michael Leunig

When I Was a Child

When I was a child
I didn’t know that I wanted to be a nurse.
I began learning the task of nursing as a teenager - fifty years later I’m still here.

When I was a child
I didn’t know that I wanted to be a teacher.
In my nursing career, I teach every day.

When I was a child
I didn’t know that I wanted to be a wife and a mother.
I was married many years and have two grown sons ~ my pride and my joy.

When I was a child
I didn’t know that I wanted to travel.
I drove, and I flew, back and forth, by car and by plane.

When I was a child 
I didn’t know that I wanted to be a writer.
Boxes of journals are filled with words; digital memory is filled with more and more.

When I was a child
I didn’t know that I wanted to be me.
Today, tomorrow and yesterday I know that I do.

When I was a child
I didn’t know what my swirling young thoughts were telling me.
Today, thoughts still swirl but with intention and meaning.

When I was a child
I didn’t know that time and circumstance would disturb the dust of the moment.
In this moment, the dust is settling ~ my finger can trace my life.

When I was a child
I didn’t know what security meant.
Today I am learning the meaning and feeling of security.

“We always think we know what we want: when in truth 

there is nothing we are less likely to know.”

~ Jude Morgan, Indiscretion

Oddly Beautiful

Flowers are often assumed to only have bright or pastel colouring.
Such common knowledge was challenged by this stunning black flower.

The oddest that I’d seen were flowers in shades of green yet, the strangest, and oddly very beautiful, are the black flowers - which are not really black.

Deep purple, chocolate brown or other deep shades and tones.
Growing in one of Beacon Hill Park’s many flower gardens last summer was this Zwartkop multi branching Succulent - at first just strange to my eyes, yet as I’ve looked at this picture, very striking.

Knowledge is a feature of familial, community and cultural security, branching from many previous years of experience and study of our parents and ancestors.

Growth and change continues in tandem with each life experience.
Ethics, morals and practices, mostly beautiful and many times different, develop outside of the norms we have known.
The perception of the new, strange and oddly beautiful takes time to develop.

“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.”

~ Robertson Davies, Tempest-Tost

There Are Days

There are days
when colours brighten
the grayness of flattened mood.

There are days
when sounds are clear and true
instead of muffled and discordant

There are days
when voices gently
ease a grown child’s pain

There are days
when laughter and smiles
mingle with tears and sadness.

There are days
when one more moment
becomes a baby step forward

There are days
when insecure fear and grief of the past
slides into the security of the present moment.

“One thing you can’t hide ~ is when you’re crippled inside.”

~ John Lennon

Balancing Security

In security there is balance
unless bars and locks bar the way.

In balance there is security
when our feet are squared and true.

“How one walks through the world, the endless small adjustments of 

balance, is affected by the shifting weights of beautiful things.”

~ Elaine Scarry