“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.
Here I am with my daughter catching a bus to the art museum.
We don’t talk but with our dark brown eyes look for
inspiration out at the land scrolling
past the windows.
What we share most is a love of the creative.
For her it’s online comics, art and stories.
She has a recommended reading list for me and
is itching to beta read my current book in progress.
Here anyhow’s one decent thing – the way she leaves post it notes
concerning dragons on the loose
and how she hopes I have the best writing day
on my desk.
She’s just making sure
a dragon makes it into the story
Today I attempted an important person poem. I have written these before but today’s inspiration is to use three starters to stanzas inspired by Wilfred Sassoon. I am not in a rhyming mood though.
So today I am attempting an ideaogram. I didn’t want to do the Sidman exercise just as it was suggested because I have written a poem like that before, so instead I came up with a variation on her exercise.
For this one I went looking for some further inspiration and found some in googling images. It seemed obvious one way to write something like this might be to play with the ideogrammatic fonts on my computer. But how to play with them? I used the geotype fontand the following images came up when I typed my name, june: Light bulb, Duck, Globe or Sign and a Hand. I thought why not use them as inspiration. That’s pretty random isn’t it, but here goes.
For ‘Ducky’
I look for my light bulb moment Married to a man whose nickame is Ducky (because he impersonates Donald Duck) We are world citizens by nature Who after twenty years or more still remember to walk hand in hand
(c) June Perkins
Let me know if you try this, now I’m off to experiment with some other fonts. Is this a true ideogram, well I really don’t care, it’s fun. Pictorial font fun. Another variation of this would be to then extend the metaphors and expand the piece.
I meant to write my book today
but I decided on an early morning walk
to start my exercise regimen as my legs
feel like jelly and you know I really ought
to make a great effort to reach my goal weight
and so I strolled with my family to the shops and over the walkway
and round and round the oval and noticed one man alone taking
a smoke, and my children stopped to play on the swings,
and exercise is good for the brain so
theoritically it ought to make me do more inspired writing.
I meant to write my book today
but reading about Tim, a Doug Anthony All Star and his take on humour and life
was too enticing and I just had to read right to the end of the story
and reading is fantastic for inspiration and I am working on a memoirs
and I’d like to put more humour in and Tim’s a master of comedy and I need to read more
and was so pleased to be reading and theoritically it ought to make me do more inspired writing.
I meant to write my book today but
then my daughter asked me to watch two of our favourite shows
one called Scorpian about some brilliant minds who work together to solve puzzles
and who can’t quite fit into regular life, so they have a single mother who is their
emotional expert and one called Forever
about someone who dies again and again, he’s been immortal since the 1800s
and doesn’t now why and it’s one of those interesting premises that pull you in
and make you keep watching, it must have started with a ‘what if?’ statement in some collaborative
writers’ meeting, you know the ones were you throw ideas around and then magic happens but these shows have so much to teach in terms of character and plot twists and it was good to see Jane Seymour turning up on television again and that theoritically ought to make me do more inspired writing.
I meant to write my book today then I was hungry and
just had to find a juicy orange, and a raspberry jam sandwich, and think about doing another walk, when the weather cooled, and do some dishes and consider the ironing and think how boring those things are in writing unless you make the food sing of a far off land, or give it some magical purpose and the mundane said,
‘make me fantastic before you dare write a line about me,’ and it was round about then I thought I might write and my daughter said, ‘Please come chat with me Mum,’ so what could I say she’s just one of the many people who inspire me so how could I say no.
(c) June Perkins
Play – by June Perkins
Still working through Joyce Sidman’s poetry ideas. Here is my first attempt at an excuse poem.
The poster words were recorded by Nat King Cole. Nature Boy“is track #10 on the album The World Of Nat King Cole. It was written by Ahbez, Eden but made famous by Nat.
This poster is my artistic tribute to this song, which has become a jazz standard.
Eden was a singer songwriter, Hippy nomad, beat poet, who lived in a park in LA.
Online I found recordings by Cher, Celine Dion and American Idol contestant in 2011 Casey Abrams. Furthermore, it was used in the movie Boy with the Green Hair.
I like the Ella Fitzgerald version of Nature Boy because of the beautiful background guitar.
His favourite colour is to be found in the ocean
but yesterday he realised it was not always blue
but green & grey
pink & blue
& it depended on
the way the light was reflected
& he then began drawing the
ocean all its colours
& then found out
a flame was not yellow.
Ripple Poetry 
