Lots happening. I've finished pruning the vines! YESSSS!!! But boy is it cold. I am now having a restorative cup of tea, and am beginning to feel my fingers once again. I'll probably need to have another go in a week or so just to tidy up any stray tendrils I missed. But by golly I am determined for my vines not just to grow but to flourish. One day I would so love to raise a glass of BiFFO Wine to toast you all!
I've also been having fun painting tiles. There's a project blooming, and I have a cunning plan...All will be revealed in due course.
It's also been a good week for poetry. This one was published on Marie Lightman's The Writers' Cafe special issue on Love. Here's a link:
https://thewriterscafemagazine.wordpress.com/2018/02/13/the-writers-cafe-magazine-issue-5-love-music/
but if that doesn't work, here it is:
Petticoats
At square-dancing classes, under our skirts,
we wore petticoats
made of yards and yards of scratchy net.
We whirled and spun. Allemand left,
dos-si-dos swing your partner
fiddles dipped and wailed.
The boys tried their best to hold us tight
but were foiled by acres of lethal ruffle walls.
We were prickly female hedgehogs
encased in frothy chastity, fending them off,
laughing.
I was, I hasten to add, completely rubbish at squaredancing! But it was great fun...That said, not for any amount of money would I want to return to being a teenager! Oh the shyness and self-consciousness and adolescent agonies...
I've been thinking about love. Valentine's Day isn't easy for many of us...The absences make themselves felt so strongly. That's part of what I was trying to say in this poem, 'Equation', published in Contour, edited by the Worcester Poet Laureate Nina Lewis. Here's a link...do check it out, because there are some amazing poems there by some very fine poets.
https://issuu.com/ninalewis3/docs/perfect_copy_contour_issue_2_love
but again, just in case, here's my own effort:
Equation
Sooner or later, all loves
end in death,
slope down to
disappointment,
fade into
distance.
That’s the paradox:
Our capacity to love,
let down
barriers, trust,
look into
another’s eyes,
find safe haven
there
is directly proportional
to our capacity for pain
when love is ripped away.
As we skate on melting ice
the singing in our veins
persuades us loving’s worth the risk
of the abyss, of all the pain
that comes with loss.
Brazilians have a saying:
O amor e eterno enquanto dura
Love is eternal as long as it lasts.
There are so many different ways of looking at love, and there's a lot of bad love about. So many songs go on about Love Hurts, and so many people are addicted to heartbreak...It took me such a long time to learn that good love is based (for me at least) on shared interests and priorities, on friendship, on loyalty, on honesty, and on chemistry. It's also true that love is not so much about flowery rhetoric, but about what people actually do for each other. When we find The One--and so many never do-- it is the most magical thing ever. Think Fred and Ginger dancing. And when we lose them, it rips our heart out.
The challenge is, I think, not to close down, but to remain open to life. This is not always easy, and of course I have my ups and downs even now. Still, there are so many different kinds of love...I am so blessed with the love of my family, both immediate and extended, and my friends, and my animals. I do believe that the outer world reflects back what we ourselves are, and if we are loving, it does return to us in some form multiplied. It's so important to focus, not on what we've lost, but on what we once had, and on what we still have now. At the end of the day, we can either choose to fade into the dark, or decide to embrace the light, and live and live and live.
One final bit of news: The Salamander and the Raven has had over 100,000 hits! (100,062 to be exact, in 39 countries). Astonishing! Why people log on all over the world, I do not know. Edith Wharton used to talk about her Community of Spirits, of like-minded friends, and I am so blessed with mine. Your love and support do keep me going.
On a different, less idyllic note: I now have a FitBit, and the damned thing is buzzing and nagging me to get moving. So I'm off to walk a bit. I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day, dear friends. Hold your loved ones close! I'm planning to ring my granddaughters' later to give them a Valentine's hug over the phone.Take care, and see you when I get back from warmer climes.
Happy Valentine's Day! Love, Susan x
