Silent Witness

Candles of Memory

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Today marks one year since my grandmother passed away.

Intricacy in Orange

On Peace

Imagine, if you will,
Two people, legs entwined
Under layers of blankets that
Almost shut out the chill
Of the winter’s morning air
Seeping relentlessly in through
The panes of the window above.

Her head rests on his shoulder.
His hands are against her skin,
One at the small of her back
And one resting on her hip.
Their breaths commingle,
Hers warm on his chest while
His inspires wisps of her hair
To dance above her brow.

Soon the call of the waking world
Will be too insistent to ignore
And they will begin to stir.
But for now there is no world,
No worry, no hunger,
No need for anything more
Than the beat of his heart in her ear,
The rise and fall of his lungs
Beneath her fingertips.

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For Café Writing February Project, Option Six: hands, imagine, people
And Monday Poetry Train Revisited

Succulent

One World-One Heart 2009 – Winners!

Well, I’ve just done the drawing for my giveaway (see this post for details) and the three winners are…….*drumroll*…

Peggy of peggy’s mixed-up art!

Jenna Louise of crazyquiltgaljennalouise

Lisa of Mud Hound Primitives

Congratulations!!

I’ll be emailing each of you shortly to ask for your mailing address and details about how to choose the photos you would like.  Each of you will receive two prints of photographs of your choice that I have posted on my blog.  I’m so excited to be sending my prints to each of you. I hope you enjoy them!

It has been such a joy to participate in OW-OH.  HUGE thanks to Lisa Oceandreamer for coordinating the event.

I’m also excited to say that I’ve also won several fabulous prizes, and want to take a moment to highlight the wonderful artists whose things I’ll be providing a new home for soon.  I am so excited about all of them!  And I am truly in awe of the generosity and creativity shown by all of this year’s 900+ OWOH participants.

• Jude from Spirit Cloth is sending me a gorgeous small art quilt called “renewal” – perfectly themed as I am seeking exactly that these days!
• Becs from learnings in the gracious sunlight has made a set of greeting cards featuring fashion design drawings made by her grandmother more than 60 years ago – isn’t that the coolest thing you’ve ever heard of?
• Ashley from Domestic Divas Fancy created an adorable set of “Cutie Pie” cards – I know just who to send several of them to!
• Linda from Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style created a stunningly beautiful snowflake-themed notecard and will be sending it along with two as yet unseen companions!
• And Mother Henna is sending me a deck of Inspiration Cards, and has also offered me a spot in her upcoming workshop called “Getting to the heART of it”!

I am sensing a theme here, and I like it VERY much.  I am much in need of renewing my creative spirit lately.  Also, I’ve been wanting to start sending my grandmother notes and letters in the mail regularly – it is so hard to live across the country from her right now, seven weeks after losing my granddad, and I think getting things in the mail would brighten her day a little bit.  Now I’ll have a wonderful, varied collection of cards to start with!  This morning, my  heart is full, thanks to OWOH and the lovely ladies mentioned above.

Thank you SO much, to everyone who participated. Please do stop by the blogs of all of the winners and givers above – I’m going to enjoy visiting them often from here on out.

Cell to Cell to Cell

The Poem I Need to Write

I haven’t been writing much lately, it’s true. Partly it’s because I’m overworked and tired. It’s hard to be inspired to sit down and write when life is stressful. But there’s something bigger keeping me from it. I know the poem that comes next. I know it’s in there, waiting to come out. And I can hardly even think about it yet, and certainly am not ready to write it. But I know it’s next. I know I need to write it, to be able to process it.

I lost my granddad on December 21st. The last time I saw him was in July. It’s all still too raw, and at the same time still too unreal, for me to make any sense of it. The poem I need to write isn’t to him, though. It’s the the med student somewhere who never knew my granddad, but will (or by now, has)… ok, not sure I can even get this out yet. My granddad donated his body to a medical school. Somehow, I need to tell that med student that the body he has been given to work on is sacred. I need to ask him to treat it with reverence, to tell him stories about the person who once was embodied but now is gone. It’s a blessing, of sorts, maybe – this heart once loved us with its every beat. These hands, these eyes, all of these parts, please. Please remember that they were given as a gift to you, but they belonged to someone you will never know. You’ll never know that here before you lies the kindest man his granddaughter ever knew. You’ll never know that this man loved his wife for sixty years. You’ll never know the mark he made on the world, except for this final one – the gift of his very body, to you, that you might learn how to save another man’s daughter one day, as once another surgeon saved his.

So there it is. I guess a lot of it came out up there. I’ll work it into a poem one day. Soon maybe. Or maybe this is enough for now. Maybe I’ll be able to write about something else soon.

Clothed

One World One Heart Giveaway 2009

EDIT:  Comments are now closed.  The winners will be drawn during the day tomorrow (the 12th) and winners will be emailed directly as well as announced on this blog.  Good luck, everyone!

It’s time again for the annual One World-One Heart giveaway!

The lowdown is this: participants in the giveaway will offer something of their own creation to be given away in a drawing from among those who leave comments on their own blog’s giveaway post by Feburary 12th.  This means that if you would like to be entered into my drawing, leave a comment on THIS POST.

This drawing is for anyone who comments – you do not have to be participating in the giveaway yourself to enter!  I hope that some of my regular readers will throw their names into the hat, as well as new friends who find me via OWOH.  And people from all over the world are encouraged to join in, too – how cool it would be to send my prints to the other side of the globe! (And prints aren’t heavy so postage is no biggie.)

I will be offering three winners their choice of any two prints of photographs I’ve posted to this blog.   Below are some suggested photos to choose from, but winners are welcome to browse through my blog archives to see what else is out there.  The prints will be 8″x12″ (or 8″x8″ if you choose a square-cropped photo), printed on Fuji Crystal Archive paper, in matte or glossy finish (whichever you prefer), suitable for framing.

Winners will be chosen in a random drawing on February 12th from all those who comment on this post, so get your comments in right away (or at least before 11:59 pm PST on Feb. 11th)!  And make sure to leave a link to your blog or an email address so I can contact you if your name is drawn (don’t leave your mailing address – I’ll contact the winners directly to get them).

Want to visit more ONE World-ONE Heart participants, or even sign up to give something away yourself?  Click the icon below to go to the OWOH site:

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Some possible choices for the winners:

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What IS ONE World-ONE Heart?

It is a blog-wide giveaway event. The original idea behind this was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way. Last year’s event drew several hundred participants and many connections were made because of it……friendships that are still going strong.