Poet. Writer. Photographer.
Today, I choose
to mute the gray,
encroaching ghosts,
and the negativity
of others attempting
to block the rays.
I turn up the colors,
the cardinal’s song,
my own showtune voice
singing along,
the sky blue,
the verdant greens,
the leaves infused with
late summer’s breeze…
Today, I choose
to mute the grays,
to focus only on
the beauty gifted
in this day.
Poem and image ©LauraDenise
Dangerous to dream, I know.
Foolish to fly in a bubble!
Either could burst
without notice,
drop you fast in a plummet
to the hard reality surface.
But what if…
the trajectory was directed
by angels’ breaths
and the bubble made impenetrable,
a shield only able to be
forged from the past,
and you were gently lowered
precisely as intended
by the benevolence
of your higher power
assisting you in the navigation
toward your heart’s
deepest and purest desire?
What if the bubble
met passion’s fire?
And in the ashes
two phoenixes rose
and began new life
and left behind
all the rainbows
found in bubbles?
Poem and images ©LauraDenise
The things we edit…
When it comes to my photography, editing to me is not perfecting, so I suppose I should call it altering; it is transforming creatively the tone, literarily, though that often comes from color changes, cooling or warming, fading or imbuing, really a canvas with my technology as the brush, though you would be surprised with the media I use, an old iPhone about to give out and whatever standard editing app it came with.
My lab is my mind’s eye in reverse, creating what my soul wishes to express, I but a medium myself. I play until the aha moment, always knowing that is exactly what I was looking for. Each starting photo, a message itself I collect from nature. Sometimes it speaks as is, especially when it is lit. Sometimes it lends itself, whispers, “Do with me what you may, May Child; my metamorphism is in your trusted hands. Make me the more you believe I am.”
Sometimes I feel the nature challenges me in this way to keep going beyond and beyond, rebirthing new ways, not godlike, but godchildlike, spending my days attune to the spirit in the petals and breezes, in the rays and the blades, in the insect and the web. I create with images I creatively capture, crouched down and over the barely noticed, shrinking further than Alice into the macroworld, still infused with wonder, perhaps even more so. With each alteration, a new message, perhaps divinely inspired.
I do my duties in the world so I can retreat––into the yard, into myself, into the absence of voices except my inner one and the whispers from butterflies and the birdsong, and I listen and listen for The One as I visit my many companions of the natural realm. Often, I bring heaven down. To earth. Though I find enough evidence that it is already here. All about us. And as much as I avoid the humans, I know the greatest purpose here is to love one another. My purpose the same but from afar. Bringing light and hope to you is how I try to do my part.
The things we edit…
Often, in relation, we edit by removing blemishes, by cropping out all the real, showcasing our best fake versions of ourselves and our lives, for behind the cameras lie the whole truths. We compete. We turn the cameras around onto the shells of our selves, lose the nature and others, snapshots of ourselves as the universe’s center, lenses in reverse yet outward, for our inner selves are not the focus.
There are pieces of heaven in each of us. Because we were each made the way He intended. What we make of ourselves from what we were given: that is the welcomed art of continued collaborative creation. Excavate the light within. Keep painting with your truest inner discovered colors. We should never settle for being done when we are each and all continued masterpieces in progress. May we never fade permanently to sepia or still life; though both of these are essential to the process.
I still believe we can beautifully alter all of this…
All words and images on this site ©LauraDenise
In lieu of petals,
on a barren stem,
a bud of light
hatches open.
The message clear:
it’s all a bit more than
a matter of perspective.
You can focus on the loss
or fill it in.
One comes from stagnancy,
the other action.
We can do so much more
with what we are given.
Poem and image ©LauraDenise
Standing bold and bright
before the woods,
a single yellow bloom…
the contrast stops my shadow;
what a story we’ve stumbled into!
The single yellow bloom
seems larger than the sun
when all alone beaming
against a backdrop
of humdrum.
No other bloom around,
just towering matchstick pines;
the only flame, though, ignited
from a heart of gold
cocooned inside
brave enough
to shine.
Poem and images ©LauraDenise
It’s sooooooo dismal out there! People’s weather.
The holidays are always toughest for me. I hit my latest low the minute they “ended,” when I let it all out. Just too many inner truths surface and get ripped open that I like to keep neatly wrapped the rest of the year and stashed away in the closet… but I made it back. And I came back stronger than ever. Funny how it seems it needs to work that way; the lowest lows, not survived but surmounted, climbed, seem to bring us to the highest heights, reward us with the wings even, to fly. Without the lows, we can never truly experience, let alone appreciate, the highs, and I sure do love the highs. Would you give up both for a forever flatness?… I don’t think I could.
I did more than survive that last round, though the sirens lured me in again. This time, I remembered I was part mermaid and eventually high-tide-tailed it out of there. Boy, were those sirens ever surprised! I swam away; I want to naturally say back to the light, as I, like many, have fallen into favor with the analogy of darkness and light. One of my favorite song lines is, “If I could turn back the clock, I’d make sure the light defeated the dark” (Calum Scott). I can’t even type it without getting goosebumps. I am one who can put a song on repeat indefinitely and just stay forever in that powerful moment and zone. It does bring to mind how powerful that zone can be, and how we really do need to pay attention to what we have on repeat and also make sure that if we are playing a broken record, we don’t lose sight of the needle; my whole life was that metaphor for so long…
I would also like to defend darkness; not all darkness is bad. I strive to start every day in darkness; I simply must be up long before dawn. It’s my me time, my writing time. I keep the lights off, and my fingers gravitate like moths to the laptop light to begin their beautiful dance ritual, witnessed by the waning moonlight. The pup continues dozing beside me.
When it comes to natural darkness, let us also never forget, we are lovingly gifted the stars and moon, to guide us, to talk to, to dream upon, to comfort those scared of the dark. And like the lows, how can we appreciate the magnificent beauty of the waking morning colors if not for that contrasting black backdrop canvas? I feel I am always first in line to witness the sun rise, and I never take for granted that it does. To know the light will always faithfully and unconditionally return!…
People’s weather out there though… Sheesh! Work morale is sooooo low. All year this year. We are normally the undefeated champs when it comes to good vibes. The students too…they are zombies I cannot wake up. The other day, a gray and rainy one, I crossed paths with a former student in the grocery store parking lot. He exclaimed, “No way!!!” repeatedly at seeing me, face lit up like a thousand suns, as he got out of his car, as giddy as a toddler on Christmas morning, to hug me in the rain. That’s what I’m used to. Requited love, relationships, connections, making a difference, making memories to last a lifetime…all at my paying day job, my calling, my passion, my joy. We reminisced in the rain for a bit, no umbrellas. I felt every drop and soaked it up like a thirsty leaf in a drought. He said this encounter made his day (he was on his work break in his car). It made my year.
I refuse to succumb to the bug. We can blame the virus, that year before this one, sit around and complain and focus on the negative and keep injecting ourselves with daily self- and collective-pity, or we can just not. Masks cannot hide smiling eyes nor fully muffle the sounds of laughter. If we chose smiling and laughter. Just choose it. For a moment. An hour. A day. A week. No matter what. Stay in the light. Better yet, be the light. Ignite yourself first. You can use the blue within, the pilot light.
Happy Wednesday, all!
💛 Love always! Laura 🙂
If I had but one blank page to fill,
what would my message be?
What dance would my fingers perform
across the finite-lettered keys?
How could I paint in black-font
a picture of beauty and hope
that would reach and pierce with light
the souls who need it most?
If I were confined to the cage of a page,
how could I choose the right combination of words
that could break free from the paper or screen
and inspirationally rebirth?
How powerful words can be,
how powerful the choices,
how powerful this lesson when applied
to our spoken and inner
voices,
how powerful the silence
when writer’s block takes hold,
and we fail to say what should be said
when it matters most.
Poem and image ©Laura Denise
Part choice, part determination
it seems to be
to avoid the extermination
while still living
caused by the loss
of feeling
when we fall
into that state
of complacency,
the dangerous hibernation
of our dreams,
the steps we take
turning our back
on the way
it could be,
should be…
It’s not easy
to keep the gray
from taking
our colors.
We fade,
part victim,
part converter;
we don’t sell
our souls,
we give them
now away
in exchange
for tickets
to nowhere
but in that gray
for longer,
forever,
to remain.
I feel the pull
of the evolution
of the devil,
the camouflaged
minions, the demons
no longer with arms
now casting spells.
I feel the brush,
the tickle of tentacle;
to kick it off
takes more than will.
Too many sleepers
not getting taken
but tricked into nonthinking
by the sweet song of sirens.
I climb the mountain
and expectedly find
the gray shadow
spreading like
turpentine.
I wrap my limbs
protectively
around my colors
and flee to find
my favorite
awake other.
Together, we embrace,
not in fear
but as survivors
thankful for
our non-superpowers.
We will not
succumb
to the non-fate
of the others
who gave freely away
one by one
each of their
colors.
We will keep painting
on life’s canvas
to preserve
hope and beauty
with each
brush of our breath,
not with fire,
but signaling
with bright hues
to the others
who may be out there still
imbued.
Ultimately, this poem originated from reading a dear WP friend’s poem and listening to a song he posted (which I shared above). (If you are not connected with Ivor Steven, then your life is not as bright as it could be because the light of his soul shines like none other.) Ivor’s poem captures, despite the melancholy mood from the song, a wonderful moment––a pastry, a poem reading, a friendly unmasked smile. Simple. Yet everything really.
silken single thread
nature’s web of life weaving
the dawns and seasons
Peace still exists:
it is in the stillness,
in the first soft light of
dawn’s shadow-displacement,
when the heavens descend
and dust creation
with a coat of gold
equally in every nation,
each new day, a gift
untainted,
like fresh snow’s
pure, printless blanket.
Peace is impervious
to extinction;
its persistent existence benignant
in perpetuum flourishing.
Peace needs not to be sought,
comes not in revelation;
it is in every detail
discreetly threading
this moment and the next
through seams that glisten.
Look closely for the evidence
that we are all connected.
Another season
ushers in
winds of change
from the heavens;
purpose aplenty,
all four bring
something special
meant for each.
Still yourself
outdoors to discover
the whispers of hope
and messages for you.
Open your heart
to receive the blessings
hidden in nature,
and offer thanksgiving.
Mother Nature
and Father Time
work together,
know your desires.
Turn not a blind eye
nor deaf ear,
doubt not ever
that your miracle
is near…
It is written in the stars
and delivered upon the wind;
be attune to the gifts
presented in each season.
Poem and image ©LauraDenise
