Image: Musician Verdan Smailovic, Also known as the cellist of Sarajevo. 1992 during Bosnian war. Source: aconsilio
We need more Cellists The bombs drop leaving rubble The dead need music
- Skye
Authors Note: I am deeply concerned about my community, country, and the blue ball we are all careening through space on. These are perilous times in the United States and in the world. As in all times of trouble art, music, and writing are places of refuge. Humans are at their best when creating. We tell our stories, share our loves, heal our wounded hearts and seek to understand ourselves and others. We can use our creativity to protest injustices and take on the hard dark parts of ourselves and others.
So, in these uncertain times write, paint, and make music. Use your unique voice to beat back the darkness. We can make this world a better place even when some of us are doing horrible things to each other.
Afterall in this current era marked by destruction, violence and war the answer is simple…
We need more cellists.
Long after the flowers died I wait here overlooking the sea
This grave of mine grown over with mosses and salt air I wait here overlooking the sea
The place beside me empty and unbroken No stone no whisper of you just me overlooking the sea waiting here
Waiting for my Sailor To return to me.
Moody seaside graveyard, Orkney Isle, Scotland
April 2024
Photographer: Jamie Cuen Source: angiefalanji
Children splash and swim, heedless of the dangers found in deeper water.
Image Source: leben-bleibt-wirr
Parts of me The form and shape Of things
Once lost emerge
The soft belly exposed One arm coming free
Fleshy plaster Flakes and crumbles
You my dear, Are disgusted
The plaster on the floor The dust on my mouth The damp spreading stain Coating your fingers.
-Skye
Only Words
Come with your dark ink scrawling loose letters
The loops and runs make knots that hold me fast
While you take everything leaving only notes
Slinking off to exploit the spoils
Of my ruined skin.
-Skye
Source: visualstatic101
Mooring lost Battered upon the sharp reef I could only be counted as flotsam A bottle with no message Driven out into a howling sea Without a cry
Stranded in this bottle I lost the sea Peering out through the wavy glass I saw nothing I felt nothing So fearful was the loss
The bottle has long broken There are bits of sea glass That can’t cut anyone Even me Scattered now Among my bones
You ask me to examine them now These old hurts and betrayals I see only soft light The kind you find both at dawn and sunset
We are all subject to the tide I suppose, It steals our voice and brings it back again.
-Skye
Source: shadechamber
Great Auntie kept a raven under glass in her dusty living room full of curious things
Mother and I sipped tea there on Saturdays Mother and Auntie sipped and chatted While that long dead bird Stared at me with its glassy eye
I sipped seen not heard Under the gaze of this bird Wishing terribly for another cookie
The ladies gossiped and tutted Auntie even reached over and pinched my cheek “Such a good quiet girl”
The raven just stared at me Seen not heard Sealed in its glass
I imagined it soaring Under a blue mild sky Instead of being seen not heard At this Saturday tea
We had a lot in common That dead bird and me.
-Skye
Painting: The James Place, Andrew Wyeth, 1963 Watercolor and pencil on paper 30 X 21 in. Image Source: Sothebys.com
In 1963 the James place sat Yankee straight Holding up the milk-colored sky Clapboards no longer gleaming Rough and ready salt grass Waving
You are there Sketching somewhere Beyond the flank of the house A scraggle of grass nipping at your ankles
You see that house And make it yours.
Partly Sunny
Cat crosses the road The sidewalk is sunny there What about Chicken?
-skye
Image Source: Charito
Lotus Bringer
Insistent grey eyes Come from the twilight bearing gifts Bearing flowers
I cannot look away
The lotus bringer In twilight’s silky aubergine Proffers the abyss in dewdrops On periwinkle petals
Her placid porcelain face Softened not by innocence But apathy
I am already dissolving into darkness Thinned out Unfurling
-Skye