Diving Deeper

The lost house (poem)

This poem uses the imagery of a burned out house to express the desperation and sadness of lost love countered by the hope of eventual healing through time and the regenerative insistence of nature. It was written several years ago after an isolated house occupied by people I did not know burned to the ground.

Ozark insects are exotic!

(Click on the image to see a larger version)

Recently I heard another Ozark immigrant say that the reason she moved here was for the insects!  Then she explained that it was not so much the terrors of ticks and chiggers (I call them 'chicks and tiggers' to lighten my perspective) but the sheer variety and exotic nature of the insects you can see here in general.  Especially if you live in a forest as I do.

Of course, the one shown here is not unfamiliar to most of you.  I watched it spend a whole day exploring this pumpkin.  I wanted to catch it perching on the top of the stem - which it did many times - but it always seemed to sense I was intent on that and moved quickly off.  The other thing you learn about insects here is that they are very much aware. 

As the season ends and insects - troubling and benign from a human's point of view - go into hibernation, I give thanks for the wonder they bring to my own life too.  I didn't come here for the insects but I can see why someone might.  For more insect images by me, see Sounds of cicadas: images and haiku

Ozark Fall Colors

 

a second spring, fall in the Ozarks

Found objects: natural art

Outside the cabin where I live chimes, windspinners and other hanging art catch the light and breeze of the day.  Inside, I like to create mobiles from found objects, like the two pictured here.  The feathers catch any air movement and turn them also.

Both mobiles have masks of death in them, the first a skull (as yet unidentified) and the second a turtle's shell. A metal coyote belt-buckle and hematite pendulum allude respectively to the calls of darkness and the wild blood in all of us.

Author of  Soulcraft Bill Plotkin says: 'The Underworld Journey awaits those who already hear mystery whispering in their day and night dreams, in unusual occurrences and encounters, in water or wind, and whose profound longing is to sense and navigate life by these deep currents'.  The mobiles remind me of those currents.

Tom Crockett's book The Artist Inside also talks of exploring the images of sleeping and waking dream states for creative expression (finding, arranging, altering and making).  These simple practices connect me with place and with deeper levels of meaning in my engagement with the land and its beings.

 Coyote's dreams: image copyright Sara Firman 2011

Birthday quest

 

One of my favorite haiku was written a decade or so ago when I first came across my healing art - aquatic bodywork.  It's a practice that has encouraged me to dive deep into myself and led me to want to share that possibility with others. 

Sound of cicadas: images and haiku

sound of cicadas

dropping like sleepy hot rain

beneath the window

Image-making: marzipan moth

 

 

rapturous in marzipan
on an apricot morning
a moth pink and yellow
as Battenburg cake
clings to the screen door

The  light over the cabin door in the forest where I live often attracts exotic insect life.  This moth appeared one April morning. Battenburg cake is also pink and yellow, made of sponge in cubes, as reflected by the screen door here.  Some claim that the cake was created to honor of marriage in 1884 of Queen Victoria's granddaughter to Prince Louis of Battenberg.  Which has nothing to do with this moth!

Image-making: shadow-play

 

A puppet that looks like a wind chime in a nearby closet

comes to rescue me.

This image was a spontaneous attempt to capture the shadows of the oak tree and bamboo chimes just outside my window today.  It made me think of a single phrase from a dream I had last summer that has become a kind of koan for me.  I subscribe to the idea that dreams may be continued in our daily lives, as well as the reverse.  I have sometimes created poems from dreams in order to see if more insight might arise but images have never occurred, until now.

Aside: A useful and insightful account of Listening to Dreams from Steve Beyer's blog Singing to the Plants.

... I dream I am reading a guidebook entitled Great Diving Down by the Continental Shelf. I ask: What is this earth object you call a shelf? I reply: A shelf is a place where you put things that are no longer useful; you shelve unimportant agenda items. I ask: Then what is a continental shelf? I reply: It is a place off the continental coast where the water suddenly becomes very deep. I ask: And what is this diving you earth people talk about? I reply: Diving means deep sea diving, which means adventure, risk, fear, beauty. And it means journeying inward, diving inside oneself.... [SB.  Read more]

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Without water ... a wasteland

 

When storms rage and rains turn into floods it is natural

to become afraid.

The element of water is quickly perceived as emotive,

dangerous, overwhelming.

The language of water

if I am a fish

why this climbing of mountains?

let me dive deeper

S.F.

 

'Water consciousness for personal and planetary wellbeing' is the tagline for my weblog on spa culture - Vision Spa Retreat: Reflections on Spa, Soul, and the Role of Water.  In all my writings there, water plays a central role.  Here is a quote from the opening page:

Water as an indicator of health and also a tool for health, is central to the spa-retreat offering. Water, as a metaphor, provides many insights into human behavior and human potential, as the Taoists knew well. Water and humans need to be free and to have depth and clarity to thrive. SF.  A new vision

And this:

Let's extend our perception of water as a utility for drinking and washing to water as a vital medium for life, transformation, creativity, and healing.  Not only can it enhance our sense of wellbeing, it can also expand our inner and outer awareness, and inspire life-affirming action. SF.  A message about water

'Water connects us with the world around us and with our aquatic origins.'  This insight is one of many that informs my writing on another weblog devoted to Aquapoetics: Creative Aquatic Bodywork describing the practice that transformed my perception and appreciation of water:

Water is also associated with the creative unconscious, the depths of human psyche, in many mythologies.... Together we float beyond conscious everyday reality and back again: between these two places is the spirit pool, a portal to dreamtime. SF.  Water blessing

And this:

My practice focuses on guiding the body into a state of resonance with the surrounding water which in turn seems to harmonize the internal fluid system.   In this state, there is a sense of recognition and reconnection that indicates to me just how important and how little understood is our relationship with water. SF. Liquid in motion

I invite you to explore both the above websites.  Meanwhile, on this third site, I dive deeper into my personal stories around water and life.  I've collected here some of the posts to date that related specifically to water - both poetry and other writings. Short extracts are provided; click on the links for more.   

Let me know your response or share your own thoughts on water.

The interspersed photos were taken by me at Missouri Botanical Garden in 2009 on my 50th birthday.