??????????????????

[B4real]

I really don’t know where this poem came from – once again it hasn’t been planned. I’m supposed to be doing other things! It just dribbled from my pen in rapid quick time. Maybe because it’s Christmas - maybe because it’s almost the anniversary of my father’s passing. I just seem to have a lot of questions to ask!

??????????????????
What is it?
Is it old?
Is it new?

Where does it come from?
Where does it go to?
Is it gone forever?
Does it go on forever?
Does it die?
Does it live again?

Does it have a memory?
Will I know it?
Will it know me?

What happens when it goes out?
Can just a flicker remain?
Will it begin again?
How does it return?
How long will it stay?
What happens when it gets there?

When our inner light leaves us
to shine somewhere unknown.
----------

I feel the aim of art is not necessarily to depict only the external appearance of things. It is possibly more important to describe their internal implication. That applies to words as well as visual images. You know, the main reason I really wanted to paint was because of light - inner light and outer light. But it is that fleeting ethereal quality of light from within that keeps me doing what I do regardless of the subject matter.

“Father of Light
light of all things
show me the light
so that I may paint
light worthily”

These words were found on a scrap of paper in Leonardo Da Vinci’s art studio after his death.
…..and I have just found them on a scrap of paper in my art studio…..hummmm!

Finally I want to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you wonderful true poets on this thread – hope to read many of your new poems next year.

and just to lighten up the light –

who really knows what’s out there!! – ha! maybe the truth!!

[lizzytysh]

Your question poem very parallels my own questions, and I thank you for presenting them, Bev.
I'm not coming up on the anniversary of my Mom's death, but today is exactly five months since hers.
Those questions go 'round and 'round in my head.
As always in these matters, it's good to know you're not alone.

Enjoyed the cartoon, and even more so your words on painting the light and the timing of your Leonardo rediscovery.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you, too, Bev.

[lonndubh]

It might be the Capricorn new moon coming up that brings these questions B4Real!!
I do like how you have written them here.
I imagine that most of us will find scraps of paper from time to time with similar queries.
We're on the one road!

“Father of Light
light of all things
show me the light
so that I may paint
light worthily”

On a lighter note perhaps if the lines read

Mother of Light
light of all things
show me the light
so that I may paint
light worthily

we would have all the answers by now

Best wishes to all for a peaceful and fun filled festive time .

Hi Lizzy.My sympathy to you on the passing of your mother.This Christmas will be difficult.
I also lost my Mam in June of this year and most of the time I carry her heart in mine and she is me and I am her.
While cooking dinner the other evening i got this awful feeling that she was really lonely .
So I lit a candle and went online to find a song that would sooth her as she had such devotion to the earth mother.
So B4real I hope you dont mind me posting it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNOsaT0A__Y

[lizzytysh]

Thank you for sharing that very beautiful song with me, lonndubh.
I'm sending my sympathy to you, as well, in your own loss of your mother, your Mam.
Having someone express a similar loss brings its own kind of comfort.
Despite three invitations, I'm considering just staying home on Christmas.
I'm unable to live up to some arbitrary standard of revelry.
I will for sure light a candle, no matter where I am.
Susan Boyle's voice does that song great justice. Thank you again.


~ Lizzy xxx

[B4real]

Thanks so much for your supportive replies Lizzy and lonndubh,

I nearly deleted this because I thought I was rambling a bit and asking questions like a child. It's comforting to know that others think the same. I feel for both of you regards your recent losses. For someone else I know this will be her first Christmas without her mother as well. But who knows where the light will lead us!

It might be the Capricorn new moon coming up that brings these questions B4Real!!

It possibly could be that new moon with its full compliment of light influencing me!
.....and I hadn’t heard that beautitful song since forever....

this refrain from it could relate to your “Mother of Light” suggestion –

“and the woman clothed in the sun,
will shine Her light on everyone”
or
“Is an bhean atá feistithe le'n ghrian
Is loinneoidh sí chách len a solas”
(I hope I’ve got the conversion right)

I will for sure light a candle, no matter where I am.

So I lit a candle

This seems so appropriate for the both of you -

....and some pertinent thoughts:

This is the message of Christmas: We are never alone. ~Taylor Caldwell

The message of Christmas is that the visible material world is bound to the invisible spiritual world. ~Author Unknown

[lizzytysh]

Charles Dickens was so right.
Of the pertinent thoughts, I especially love the last one.

Thank you for the beautiful graphic for lonndubh and me.


~ Lizzy
<3<3<3

[lonndubh]

Charles Dickens was so right.
Of the pertinent thoughts, I especially love the last one.

Thank you for the beautiful graphic for lonndubh and me.


~ Lizzy
<3<3<3

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
Charles Dickens

[Cate]

You're poem does have a seasonal feel to it for me - a feeling of light, curiosity and impermanence.

I like questions in a poem. Truly don't all the best things start with some form of "I wonder".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaxw6SL1k3c (the poem not the song)

[B4real]

Thanks Lizzy and lonndubh for your words,

....and thanks Cate,

For your thoughts on my scribblings. I don't know what's come over me lately - as if my life isn't busy enough with art etc. - I've just started learning the violin as well - and I'm in no way, shape or form a p-o-e-t!! Ask me anything at all about art and how to become a visual artist - I can easily tell or teach you. This is my third instant gut effort with really no thought to rhyming or meter etc - not that I know much about that either. But something has been making me put pen to paper - maybe some of your special ink from 'instructions on how to make ink from scratch' has mysteriously and magically spilled onto my avatar! All I know is I just had to do it and IT FELT GOOD! I don't understand it at all. If I am to continue with this I had better find out what poetry is really all about.

I did feel a bit like a child asking all those questions and your video link is a kin to that. Kids really do ask the damndest questions!
Even so, I suppose all of us regardless of age are always searching for answers to something. Of course I would have to go for the intangible one! Maybe one day I'll find those answers.