Feathered Friends

The Peacock

He struts full of pride
His glory fanned out behind him
The envy of all


Good Morning

I startle awake
As the rooster lets it rip
Natures alarm clock

Beware the poop!

I looked up to see
The pretty bird up the tree
And got an eyeful

In Celebration of Two Birthdays

On the 25th of May, 2007 I gave birth to my beautiful daughter, Gabriella. Although she was born three weeks early she was in perfect health. The labour and birth were absolutely amazing – it took all of two hours!! She popped out at 6:18am and by 7:00 pm I was back at home. Please celebrate this Birth Day with me!!

Brand New

Brand new with tags on
Your newness leaves me breathless
My beautiful one

And happy 1st birthday to One Deep Breath. Thank you for drawing out a hidden talent I never knew I possessed – the ability to Haiku! Up until ODB I never even knew what a Haiku was, so thank you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Nurture {a story of breasts}

Over the last 36 weeks, I have watched as my body has gone through its amazing journey of transformation. I have watched in awe as my belly has swollen to accommodate the growing child within it, watched as the vertical line which divides my belly into two equal halves has grown darker and darker, watched as the skin on my neck has developed tiny skin tags and finally, watched as my once non-existent breasts have grown into two mounds of impressive proportions.

However, once I got over the initial excitement of being able to sport a killer cleavage for the second time ever in my life (the first time being when I was pregnant with my daughter over four years ago) I began to view my breasts in quite a different light, a light tinged with a kind of quiet respect.

Here was a part of my body created not to attract nor to serve as mere pleasure domes to the opposite sex ( as the media oftentimes tends to portray them) rather this was a part of my body whose purpose was now, 30+ years on, being revealed.

I have watched you grow
With the coming of my child
Your purpose revealed

The true purpose of my breasts is housed within them – they are the vessels through which I will nurture my new baby, giving him or her rich, nutrient filled, truly organic milk which will be baby’s nourishment for the first six months of its life.

A suckling baby
Nurtured by its mothers breasts
Rests contentedly

Isn’t that just such an amazing thought?

It is to me.

Sleep

I smiled wearily when I read this week’s prompt for One Deep Breath. That’s because with five weeks left to go before I give birth ALL I want to do at the moment is just sleep! The nights are not the greatest because finding a comfortable horizontal position is near impossible. And on the occasions I do manage to settle down to a semi-good nights’ sleep, baby decides it’s time to ‘wake up’ and start doing the conga on the inside of its mama’s belly. But I grit my teeth and chomp down on my lip and try not to complain about it too much because soon it will be over. But, ah yes, BUT when this stage is over I will look back on it ruefully because at least now, I do squeeze in a few hours sleep at night but when baby arrives I probably won’t be squeezing in any at all!!!

Tossing and turning
Trying in vain to find you
You prove elusive

Blurry eyed I wake
Did I sleep at all I ask
Doesn’t feel like it

Good night! ZZzzzzzzz

Poetry of the Sea

There was noting we – my then boyfriend (now husband) and I – loved more than to get home from work on a Friday evening, pack our beach bags and head off to the jetty where we boarded a speed boat which took us across the sea to the small island of Tarkwa Bay where we would spend a wonderful and relaxing weekend at a friends beach house which had been kindly lent to us.

We’d be laden down with cooler bags full of fresh vegetables, French baguettes, limes, drinks and all sorts of yummy edibles. On arrival, about an hour later, we’d arrange with the island locals to bring us their catch of the day from which we had a choice of fish from snappers to red mullet to – my favourite – fresh prawns straight out of sea with their gills still puffing up as they drew their last breaths.

These would be salted and spiced up and thrown onto the BBQ for a simple meal of fish, bread, wine and fresh vegetables with just a squeeze of lime to finish it all off. It was a meal which left us well sated and pleasantly dozy.

We’d sit for hours on the veranda chatting and gazing out at the sea watching the waves with their florescent caps of foam crashing gently onto shore.

I close my eyes and
Listen to the lapping waves
Tell me their secrets

Sometimes we would walk down to the beach, often at midnight, just to hold hands and walk along the shore letting the warm sea water bathe our feet and squishing the warm white sand between our toes. Sometimes our feet would be bitten by the hundreds of tiny crabs which hid underneath the sand and we’d beat a hast retreat back up to the house.

Pure Heaven.

Earth Day

We tread each day on

an abundance of riches

we don't acknowledge

You give and we take

we don't replace but take more

ignoring your groans

I celebrate you

gentle sustainer of life

I celebrate you

Bridges

Before this weeks prompt, I had always thought of bridges in very physical terms i.e a structure that is built to ferry us across a little stream, valley or a body of fast flowing water. But on reflection bridges are much more than that – much more than physical structures. Bridges can also be emotional or spiritual ‘structures’.

Over the years, I have mended bridges of friendship, built bridges of reconciliation, burnt (emotional) bridges and destroyed bridges of past baggage. I have crossed bridges to the unknown, sat on bridges of self doubt and been a bridge myself of trust, communication and commitment.

Indeed, the humble bridge is so much more than what it appears.

The Future I

My future beckons
From across a shaky bridge
I tread cautiously

The Future II

Your journey begins
Across it’s firm wooden planks
Walk with confidence

Breath/Breathing

A story of my breath

Some things leave me breathless

Walking up a flight of steps at 28 weeks pregnant
Making love with my husband
Anticipation

Some things take my breath away

A stunning view
A pair of to-die-for shoes
The love for my daughter

Some things make me catch my breath

A piece of good news
Cold water on my skin
Surprises

Some things make my breath stop

Seeing pain and suffering
Unbearable disappointment
The loss of a friend or loved one

I use my breath in many different ways and for many different things

To –

Centre myself
Keep stress at bay
Release tension
Tease
Get that stubborn smudge off a mirror
Stream up a window to write ‘I love you’

And now the Haikus...

The Kiss

As heads draw closer
Their breaths becoming as one
They await the kiss

Goodbye

I watch as you leave
My breath catches in my throat
I refuse to cry


Breath, great healer

Mummy it’s hurting
I hold your finger and blow
The pain goes away

And finally, from an unknown writer...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Stillness/Calm

The last few days have been unsettled ones for me. My emotions have been on a roller coaster ride of highs and lows – getting stuck mostly on the lows. Unable to pinpoint the exact cause of my see-sawing emotions, I am taking the obvious route and putting it down to pregnancy hormones. I am not blooming {gracefully} as the books suggest I should be. On the contrary, I am quite grumpy, irritable and impatient at the moment.

But what I feel I am the most is, off center. Like a train not running on the right tracks.

I wander around
Blindly in the dark searching
For something unknown

However, when I saw the prompt for this weeks’ One Deep Breath, I suddenly realised what was missing - making me feel so off center: The lack of stillness and calm in my life.

Forever running
‘Slow down’ a still voice whispers
I don’t stop to hear

When I was pregnant with my first child, I spent a lot of time being still. I spent a lot of time in pray and quiet meditation. Each day I prayed for my unborn daughter. I talked to the swell of my belly, listened to classical music, kept a pregnancy diary and read every book under the sun about the amazing changes my body was going through. I was the pregnancy and the pregnancy was me.

Through prayer I got
The desires of my heart
She is living proof

But this time around it’s been very different. I have done none of the above mentioned things. I feel removed – disconnected even – from this pregnancy. And this is eating me up with guilt. Every minute I’m awake is consumed with my being a mother to my daughter, a wife to my husband and an employee to my firm. I long to be still but seem unable to attain it. I constantly plague myself with questions: do I have enough love in me for a second child? Am I afraid to be still? Am I a good mother? Why is it so different this time around?

I want to love you
Every minute I am awake
But can’t find the time

I tried to do some baby shopping on Friday but as I stood in the shop surrounded by all this baby stuff it hit me that I didn’t have the faintest clue what to buy.

So today I visited the nursery of our local DIY store to buy some spring plants for my garden. I got home, put on a DVD for my daughter and spent the next hour and a half digging up beds and potting flowers. And although I was busy, strangely it was the closed I had come to being still in the last six months. Perhaps it was the cool crisp breeze on my skin, or the colours of the flowers, or the act of creating a hanging basket or of transforming a plain old terra cotta pot into a vessel carrying the beginnings of a display which will in a few months time delight the eyes and give pleasure, that caused a calmness – a stillness – in me. Feeling the stillness of God through nature? Maybe.

I search for stillness
Above the din that is life
I find it slowly

So forgive me for rambling on but these words have been therapeutic. And I hope, a week from today, things will look a whole lot brighter.

Calm I will remain
Comforted by the knowledge
That this too shall pass

Earth/Mud/Dirt

Haute Cuisine

I wouldn’t eat it
But my plants think it’s yummy
Tasty brown earth

My daughter has been out in the garden again

Wellies caked with mud
Leave tiny dirty foot prints
Over my cream carpet

Colour(ful)

The Rose Bush

They shut their buds tight
Colours yet to be revealed
Secrets hid within


Young Love

She spots him staring
From across the room, she smiles
Red heat stains her cheeks


My Garden (a fib)*

Red
Green
Yellow
My garden
A mass of colour
Sitting happily side by side

*Naturally my garden doesn’t look like this at the moment, but it does in the summer. :)

Spicy Fibs

Before today, I had never heard of a Fibonacci Sequence so these are truly first attempts – so excuse the poor quality of the poems. I shall be trying my hand at writing some more poems using this sequence. Writing these left me feeling pretty hungry though!

Scotch Bonnet

Red
Scotch
Bonnet
Fiery
Burning, peppery heat
Small fruit that packs a punch


By the Beach

White
Sand
Burning
Hot sun
Tucking into
Exquisitely made peppered shrimp

Shelter

I dash for cover
Underneath the broad green leaves
Rain drops kept at bay


The dirt gives gently
As the earthworm burrows down
Seeking safe shelter

Dusk/Twilight

I really enjoyed this prompt.

An owl hoots its tune
The clouds huddle together
The sun winks goodnight

As the sky displays
Its kaleidoscope of hues
The moon dances in

As the day closes
I shut its doors knowing that
Tomorrow awaits

Sleep steals in quietly
The thief feels familiar
I allow him in

Roots/Connection

This week at One Deep Breath, we are asked to take a closer, more contemplative look at our connection with nature. Here are my connections...

1.

Mother Earth

We take, plunder, grab

Feeding off you hungrily

Till it all runs out

2.

A field of flowers

Small, bright, delicate

Your colours give me pleasure

Soft scents on the breeze

Reflections {of my faith}

You died to give life
I struggle to understand
And yet I believe

Subtle Change

1.

Skin stretched taut
Harboring the life beneath
Each day subtle change

2.

The room stands empty
Colour peels off aging walls
My paintbrush beckons

Storms

1.

Grey green restless sea
Was your final resting place
A watery grave


This Haiku has been written for a friend of mine who drowned at sea.

2.

The high winds whistle

Leaves show their underbellies

A fragile refuge