Category: Be Inspired

Ask a Poet – At Ask an Author

It was such a highlight to have this wonderful chat with the effervescent Michelle Worthington, from Share Your Story

We tackled some cool questions from children about what it is like to be a poet!

There are many other inspiring interviews with other creatives, such as Candice Lemon Scott, Dannika Patterson, Karen Tyrell,  just to name a few,  so do check out Ask a Creative with Michelle

There are interviews with a clown, comedian, authors, illustrators and more!

Thank you Michelle for having me as a guest in this series.

We Cannot Foresee

(c) Image June Perkins

“We cannot possibly foresee, standing as we do on the threshold of Bahá’í culture, what forms and characteristics the arts of the future, inspired by this Mighty New Revelation, will have. All we can be sure of is that they will be wonderful; as every Faith has given rise to a culture which flowered in different forms, so too our beloved Faith may be expected to do the same thing. It is premature to try and grasp what they will be at present.”


-From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, December 23, 1942

For more inspirations see Nineteen Months

Meet the Illustrators of Illuminations

What is your favourite part of the illustration process?
It is so exciting to see the end product, when all the different components come together as one coherent work. We are always in awe of the way that effective collaboration between the author, designers and illustrators can allows things to evolve and really get refined into something that far exceeds what you were able to imagine at the beginning.


For the rest of this story head to Meet Ruha and Minaira Fifita at

KID’S BOOK REVIEW

Also visit the sound cloud of a chat with Ruha and Minaira Fifita

 

Invitation to all my blog readers

 

WRITE 50 WORDS

A selection of these may be placed on the Ripple Poetry blog.
Please visit the Illuminations online launch as well and leave us a comment on any of the materials.
Launch replay is pinned to the top of my public page https://www.facebook.com/gumbootspearlz
Or you can watch videos separately
Submit to gumbootspearlz@gmail.com

Burnish of the Spirit

“Be swift in the path of holiness, and enter the heaven of communion with Me. Cleanse thy heart with the burnish of the spirit, and hasten to the court of the Most High.” Baha’u’llah

For Irene

On a hill nobody wanted to call home
with a water tank no longer in use
nobody wanted this place.

Then a woman with vision
saw a chance for independence
a space for shelter
and beauty.

She made it her place
installed pathways
and gardens
and transformed that water tank
into a home.

And around it were pathways
and seats
cubbies
sculptures
mosaics and blooms.

A space for dreaming
meditating
composing.

A space to burnish the
spirit.

A place people love
to visit
a blessed and
creative home.

(c) June Perkins

The Postage Stamp

How could you have known that one day
you’d be immortalized on a stamp
that proclaims you
forever poet
always remembered.

Bounced between homes
living in spaces
with people breaking
wings snapping
realities clashing
and disintegration of
insight surrounding.

Outwardly low physical vision
thick spectacles to assist
but sports will always be difficult
yet inwardly sharp global vision
emerging and blossoming
from the heart of poems.

Peeling back their layers
they are explorations and journeys
much more than African American
yet firmly giving voice to this voiceless.

You speak to me across forever
and I have much to learn of
this same art and faith
we both hold dear.

(c) June Perkins