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
Top photo and below photos by Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
I sigh
Sitting on a tree
Someday is here
By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
March 15, 2021
[Photo Top: "Sitting on a Tree;" Below Left: "Thinking Log;" Below Right: "Rainforest Window;" By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021]
“Sitting Inside a Cedar, 1 & 2,” by Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021.
Ever get
To sit
Inside a tree?
By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
March 18, 2021
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
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]
“Alder Waves,” By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
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
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]
“Lake Reflections 1,” By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
“Lake Reflections 2,” By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
I drive in misty times Returning home anew A rainbow parades my presence Stretching from north to south Of our lakeside view Sun from behind perfectly sets the stage A reassuring gesture Wilderness’ way of welcome To this stranger From a place of fresh experience Unknowns abounding Is this really my reality? And yet the ribbon rest assures These are the colors you’ve chosen This You may truly be different Even though the unruly untimely side plot chapter Seems not your probable parent This is still your place of power This vulnerable spot, ever-changing As you watch the weather projecting The lack of control and protection In life, yet it is a type of comfort You within the stillness nature brings So enjoy, playful otter The Thunderbird directs from above And the rainbow spans the distance Between this self and the former, Heaven and the horizon Shining light, perhaps ultimate truth, on clearer water
By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2020
Oct. 23, 2020
“Crescent Rainbow” & Above Photo (“Rainbow in Mist”) By Laura E. Garrard, Copyright 2021
Poetry In Time 