Ignite your spirit with passion
Spirit’s Light
Swimming with the Fish-“I’s”
I was given a very sun washed plastic fish. I wish I’d thought to take a before picture, but I know better than to argue when the muse calls my name. I just follow the “printed” instructions and get to what I’m told to do. I was changing up the art in my kitchen when inspiration hit. Five hours later, I have this to share with you.
SWIMMING WITH THE FISH-“I’S” (EYES)
THE MAIN FISH, TOP OF THE BOWL
MY HUSBAND MADE ME ORIGAMI FISH FOR THIS
THE GIRAFFE FISH HAS AN “i”, THE FLORAL FISH HAS AN “I”
THE WHOLE BOWL OF FISHIES
Pass it onward!
We Stand United
We Stand (this link will take you to SoundCloud) is a song written by Laura Davis. I wrote the lyrics for it while she did all the hard stuff with the music and performing.
When we came up with the idea, we’d just attended the protest for #blacklivesmatter It was truly inspirational and empowering.
Love Thy Neighbor No Exceptions
She approached me after I wrote a poem and asked if I’d be interested in collaborating. Sure, I thought, why not. I asked what she wanted the lyrics to include and she was adamant about them declaring unity in the name of love. Done deals. And so, with pen in hand, I stared out the window, drank a LOT of coffee, and 15 minutes later, I had the first two verses set up. She pushed and verse three with the chorus came flooding through. I didn’t hear back from her for a while, maybe a month or so. After church a couple weeks ago, she asked if I wanted to hear our baby. DUH!
We went into the sanctuary, opened the grand piano, and she began to play. I admit freely that I stood there crying as if I were hearing angels singing the song of love for all my brothers and sisters in the heart of equality. We hugged like new parents cooing over our newborn anthem.
I recorded it this week in that same sanctuary using my phone, of all things, and my computer. But none caught better sound (no mics, mixing boards, autotune, or anything like that) than one particular video which, with my limited home studio, I brought this out to show you.
We Stand is performed by Laura Davis
Music is written by Laura Davis
Lyrics by Mare Martell
2014, THIS IS OURS!
Pass it onward!
TRIGGER WARNING: Baby Jail
Sketchy beginnings
The woman in the picture is NOT my mother. I don’t know who she is/was. The red circles are her knees.
Pass it onward!
Spiritual Theft
The one way ticket
The broken cocoon
The hung up phone
The crying loon
The losses from gain
The strength of cotton
The shallow grave
The vacant rock-bottom
The dissolution of rest
The combination of fates
The sunken boat
The bone-filled crates
The unaligned ranks
The prayer of confession
The misguided belief
The unanswered question
The white washed skull
The ostrich-headed sin
The ill-fitting shoes
The enemy within
Pass it onward!
A short chess match
Destruction, Chaos, Change
An imposter has landed
Call out the hounds
Pursue the deception
The betrayal of sounds
Call up the sentries
Alert all the guards
Let not the invader
skulk in our yard.
Silence the voice
their vows are all broken
revile the cursed breath
revere victory spoken
Pass it onward!
Walkers of the Sky
The Force was strong.
The pitch of cloudy moonless nights are harrowing
Despite the switch-back trail chosen to navigate
Maneuvering childish thoughts jagged and narrowing
You said, “Bring the child back home.”
The misty breathy wisdom cites a frightened wraith
With parental patient guidance blessed wisdom
Exhuming trust, from brittle bones, from a wild-haired waif
You said, “Return the child back home.”
With coward’s yellow pungent stench un-protecting
Winter’s breath of springing fallen truths disarming
The summer child sees comfort’s spirit connecting.
You whispered, “You’re safe. Come home.”
Pass it onward!
Lost In The Night
Perhaps I should re-title this so that it reflects the story told more clearly, but I believe that many of us need to remember being lost so we can revel when we are found.
I have walked through shadows
In the dark of darkest night
Searching for some calming peace
One hopeful shining light
The moon and stars have left me
Vanished from the skies
Hidden deep and dark within
Its murky cloud disguise
Blindly my footsteps falter
through brambles, swamp and fields
My frantic search continues
The night my vision shields
As if in answer to my cries
The night reveals her luminous guide
To light my way back to my haven
To let my fears subside
Now sitting by my warming hearth
Locked safe within its walls
I thank the guide for hearing me
Answering my calls
Home where there is family
Home where there is love
I raise my hands up to the skies
And thank the stars above
Pass it onward!
These Are My People: Shonda
I’m posting this again because there are new neighbors with a new baby doing the age-old battle of violence. It hurts my heart to know that people whom loved one another enough to bring a baby into the world together could be so hateful and vicious. I love them. I want them to find their happiness. If only they felt the same.
No More Violence
Tyrannical howls encapsulated
Intent on the destruction
Of their mutated version of devotion
personified by shattered glass while
screaming babies witness the impressionistic home
Painted in blood and bruises.
Kill me first! Kill me! Kill me first!
The begging screams for relief
from their suffering
But, fear motivates shelter
in uninhabitable relationships
with violence the language spoken
in vehement protest against their being
broken people with broken lives.
Pass it onward!
Life’s Storms
When thunder rolls across the sky
and the wind whips up your hair,
When lightning flashes in stormy skies,
And electricity charges the air
I am there.
When the waves rise up in fearful walls
and the howl of the wind crashes loud
When the sound of your fear is all you have
When you see nothing but the shroud
I am there.
When all seems lost and pain abounds
When no words can ease your pain
When hearts hurt so badly that it surrounds
When death is your shadows bane
I am there.
I shelter and comfort you, hold you close
I wipe away tears that fill you the most
I offer you haven in the holy ghost
I am your protector, I love you most.
