Blogs 2021 – Poetry In Time

Broken Halves

Broken Halves

Broken halves

Jagged lines

A leaf

Has fallen

My hand

Chosen

This one

Split open

Creating

A heart

Torn

Explosion.

Fresh fall

Beginnings

Unfold

Voice uncovered

Discover

Within

Releases

Outward.

Comes the child

Dreams held

Deeply

In folds

Buried

Creates canvas

Of remembering

What I

Had left behind

And cherish

The child within.

She held magic

In soulful

Self portraits

Desire for

Expression

And hope

In movement

Of her body

Inward poetry

Spoken.

She loved

So deeply

Dancing within

Wanting to show

Herself without.

Sept. 20, 2021

Enjoying the Calm

Enjoying the Calm

Today I approached the lake
And observed that she was very still.
She said, I’m thinking.
About what? I asked.
My destiny,
About where I’m going.
Ah, me too, I said.
I’d rather stay here with you.
Me too, I agreed,
This valley holds infinite beauty
And nourishes my breath and body.
She said, But if we stay here
We will not discover 
What may happen
If we were to explore
Elsewhere.
I said, True,
But we can be
Here together now,
Enjoy your sparkling sunshine,
And not worry about leaving just yet.
She said the winter storms are coming-
I don’t want them to, but they will-
The waves and current 
Will carry this me away.
I know, I said,
We will spend some time
And enjoy the calm.

By Laura E. Garrard
Oct. 8 2021


All photos above and below by Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021

I’m So Glad I Can Often Understand

I’m so glad I can often understand
The deeper meaning within poetry

That I can peer through dormer windows
Into your personal abstract stories

Like the sideways glance of shy eyes
And all you’re not saying

Revealing to me
Your truth

Tiny secrets you tease me to tug out
From your words but not

Your being

By Laura E. Garrard Copyright 2021
May 3, 2021

I Became a Drop of Water One Day

In celebration of Poetry in Your Pocket Day, during this Poetry Month of April, I recorded myself reciting this poem (in the above video) while kayaking on Crescent Lake.

I became a drop of water one day
I floated from a cloud into a high hillside creek
And flowed downward to join a magnificent turquoise river
The river rushed into an emerald oblong lake
Where I greeted trout and merganser feet
I filled the entire lake as all drops linked together
I felt my body reach from one shore to the other
As well as separate to myself, the original droplet
After I had known fully my lake environ
I streamed out to the bay, then rougher moving sea
Joining currents stronger than me
Carrying me to other shores and other beings
I grew in knowledge, strength, and courage
Finally after a lifespan, I recognized myself again
For the water is me
Fills me
Nourishes me
And heals me
I became a drop of water one day
And through it realized the essence of all creation

By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
Feb. 5, 2021



[Top and Below Photos all by Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021]

Forest Spotlights

Forest Spotlights


Have you noticed how light shines into the forest

To spotlight, transfix, invite us

Drawing attention to focus on its present priority of beauty

How would we stand a chance to notice anything at all

If we were left to our complete wonderment and awe

Without sun’s focus letting us light on what’s chosen

How else would we turn to the fern furl at the base of a Douglas fir

Or spot Olympic’s first spring snowdrop flower

Why, we would miss the most spectacular moments

Falling subject to the broad view

When there are ants in our midst and bliss awaits through the lens

Magnified mosses moving ever so slightly as budding leaves quiver

We would overlook it all if it weren’t for the filter of sun’s selection

Through cedar webbings, I am taken in by the playing and the pointing

Parameters within which I am to study the smaller

A student of tree sculpture captured in my camera

Clicking over and over the short-lived painter’s shades

Of permanent green and ochre amber

In just a minute or less, the magical moment has left

And I continue on until she shines again to point my head


By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
April 12, 2021


[Top Photo: "Sunshine," by Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021]

Spotlight and Closer Focus Gallery
All photographs by Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021

“Nature” Art Exhibit in Jackson Hole

My poetry and photography will exhibit in the show “Nature” at the Center for the Arts Theater Gallery and Glenwood Lobby in Jackson Hole, Wyoming: April 19-June 14. My photograph appears on the exhibit book cover as well. For more information, link to the Center for the Arts Event Page. Join me in celebrating one of the included poems, “The Forest.”

The Forest

We smell your freshness
Taste your salt
Until our skin
Lets you in

I am bound by your beauty
To be bolder, truer
Than the sum
Of my tomorrows

By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
Feb. 5, 2021

9×7″ Print on Wood, “The Forest,” By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021

Womb of the World

In each woman 
Is the womb of the world 
Ripe for tears 
Ready for mud 
Renewing us all 
Vigor, sanctity, and child
Larger than her own life
Potential beyond measure
Creativity awaits her dawn 
To dredge deep 
Hear her welling up 

By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
 
Jan. 22, 2021

[Top Photo: "Spring in Olympic"; Middle Image: 16x20" Pen & Ink on Paper, "Woman to Child"; and Below Sideshow Photos; all by Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021]

I Will Consider Myself An Artist

I will consider myself an artist
When staring into beauty is the art
And my striving is not

Art is the experience
If it wants me to recall and record it
So be it

By Laura E. Garrard
Jan. 22, 2021

[Top Photo: "Sunset from a Tree"; Below: First Row, "Sunset on Crescent Lake, panels 1-3," Second Row, "Hugging Alder, panels 1-3," Third Row, "Alder Sunset," by Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021]

Tucked in Moss

I’m tucked in moss
Peeking up from the needles and the frost
Peering across your tremendous tongue
Lapping toward my trueness
As in nature I am in bed
With all that is and once was
Cover me with gentle breeze caress
As I close my lids, dust dissolves
My final home lovingly evolves

By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
Feb. 5, 2021

[Photographs by Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021]

Recognition

 Recognition
  
 So easily we are sucked in
 To rhythm, to culture, to doing
 Again and again we try to escape
 Those dreaded thoughts I should
 It peers, leers from around the hall corner
 Of our calm, beige alcoves
 And lures us in as dreams, discovery
 Snaking around our ankles
 Until it catches hold
 Dragging us unknowingly to the depths
 Of holes we never quite escape
 Just when our chins reach the rim
 And purity begins its rise
 We let go of our reclaiming
 The depth of who we really are
 In exchange for ambition, adoration
 Short-lived achievements and the next
 The next, what’s next, yes it’s always next
 For what are we if not our doings
 Are we anything but a wisp, a breeze
 An unfilled chalice
  
 I become as smooth as water
 As I gaze into the waving reflection
 The continuity of rolling liquid
 Explains the repetitive nothingness existing
 So frighteningly inside us
 A vast vase holding who knows what for what reason
 Except for those who can break away from the serpent of season
 Conquer the self and end the circle of want and challenge
 And enter the peace of it’s done, everlasting satisfaction
 The soul need not be searched
 It’s already fully present
 Waiting for the moment of complete solace
 Recognizing that being known is not making renowned a name 
 Or being drawn to destiny
 It’s about the unborn waiting for its first breath
 And the death of desire to be anything but breath itself 

By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
Jan. 22, 2021

[Photo above: "Riding Reflection," By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021]