Tuesday, November 23, 2021

about orbits and dreams and also about bed / boat and melancholy / fragility / durability and also about stars

In this dark month, 

I'm looking at things differently.

Embroideries I made in a younger time,

for a different project,

are cut and re-arranged into a garden,


stitched to new cloth.  

Seeing them being reborn enlivens me.  

enlarges my spirit. 


This new work is round and bright

and fragile and soft.

Stitching it, making it

helps me to accept the winter coming

and my ageing 

I have been stitching new circles

one after the other.

Bowls of silence.  (Rumi's words)

Circles and dots

that represent Gaia's rhythm.

The natural cycles of the sun and the moon and the planets and the stars

and how they relate to earth. 

Cosmic time pieces.

The earth revolves on her axis in one day,

the moon orbits the earth in one female month,

the earth orbits the sun in one year.

Gaia rhythm.

Earth clocks.

under the blue sky my clock-faced flowerbeds reflect the orb of the sun

they never sleep

lying awake under the starry constellations, they listen to the music of  time.

they chuckle, yes they chuckle 

and gossip.

I walk in this garden holding the hands of dead friends  

Old age came quickly. 

Cold, cold, cold, they died so silently.

My gilly flowers, roses, violets blue, 

sweet garden of varnished pleasures, 

please come back next year.

                                                                  Derek Jarman

7 comments:

Helen said...

What a creative garden, especially at this 'low' point of the growing year. Love all the reds in it.

Glenys said...


Lovely.... simply lovely.
glenys

Creativa20xx said...

Thanks πŸ’₯πŸŽΆπŸ€—❣πŸ€—❤❤❤πŸ™πŸ™πŸ™

Anonymous said...

You must know Derek Jarman's garden and the book about it. Not many do. Reading this quote brings it all back to me. I was so taken by the poem on his Dungeness cottage, I attempted to do the same thing. I could only afford one word though, "RAIN," but it was enough. Thank you.

Margaret said...

It would seem that you and Penny, your recent collaborator, are 'channelling' each other again...with those round and blossoming shapes.

In my faith tradition, Advent (starting Nov. 28 until Dec. 24) is a time of pondering, preparation and waiting. It has a focus not only on "kingship" (i.e. the coming king of heaven) but also on 'birthing'...with the waiting of the Theotokos (Mary, mother of God incarnate). And so the shapes of blossoms and the pondering of the moon's phases, of time passing, of all that we wait for -- well, it just seems to fit somehow. Thank you.

Judy Martin said...

Yes, I have the beautiful book, Derek Jarman’s garden with photographs by Howard Sooley. It is inspiring on many levels xx

Nancy said...

The pairing of words & cloth...once again you've brought togetherness in just the right way. Love that Derek Jarman piece.

our dots and circles and adding lines lines landed me here:
"A line is a dot that went for a walk.”
- Paul Klee

Happy Thanksgiving to you (Our American holiday) and know that I am grateful for you in my life.