I’m pretty sure my muse has a mad crush on Darwish.
When I read from his Butterfly’s Burden, my lips fall silent, but my soul awakens and I am filled with something so powerful it can’t stay in. So I paint, and out it comes. A gift, from Darwish to me through my muse, or I like to thinks so. There is no better explanation.
Yesterday I read “Housework” in the waiting room at the doctor’s office.
“I stared at a bird and saw your wings
wearing my wings in a eucalyptus tree.”
And then this
“How often?
After midnight, the sun rose
in our blood,
how much of me is you, my love
how often! Who am I!”
Your wings wearing my wings in a eucalyptus tree? How much of me is you? Be still my heart. My muse’s knees melted. She wanted to paint and I got out of her way.
With quiet music playing, as white sage and a candle burned, I sat at my studio table scanning my materials, waiting to see which ones wanted to be used.
I reached for Sailboat Blue and the color named Stream, using them to create blue sky background, edge to edge, across a 12.5” x 12.5” ceramic tile. More inks were pulled out for the eucalyptus tree that was in my mind. Teakwood and Meadow Green. Every shade of red was set aside close at hand. I knew there would be red.
A small Vaseline container, chosen for its flat sides, elevated one corner of the tile higher than the other three. I flipped the switch on my air compressor and added a drop of Teakwood on that raised corner. The air sent it flowing in lines, branching out across the tile. One, in particular, wanted to keep traveling, so I followed, pushing it out as far as it wanted to reach.
Branches sprang from that corner, stretching out across the bright blue sky, one Teakwood drop at a time.
Now, the leaves. Meadow Green rushed out, forming a drop much larger than expected, and the air sent it out in feathery form, not the fan shaped leaf in my mind. I let the paint have its way and about five leaves in I laughed, looking at the feathery green sprays. I remembered gingko leaves are like little green fans! I had no idea what a eucalyptus tree looked like and so just kept painting, adding leaves, following strands of green across the ceramic blue sky.
Blooms, came a thought.
Blooms? I answered back.
Blooms.
Do eucalyptus trees even have blooms?
Blooms.
My smart phone got me to the internet and photos of eucalyptus flowers. My leaves were not so far off! Eucalyptus trees have long, slender, green leaves that hang like clumps of green hair. The flowers were red and circular- soft looking spiny threads with yellow centers.
One at a time, scattered where they needed to be, a drop of red, followed by a drop of white and then a burst of air. Before long my eucalyptus was in full bloom and my muse was smiling.
This post was inspired by a Tweetspeak Poetry Dare. Thank you, Sandra, for letting me tag along on your journey through the works of Darwish. :)
When I read from his Butterfly’s Burden, my lips fall silent, but my soul awakens and I am filled with something so powerful it can’t stay in. So I paint, and out it comes. A gift, from Darwish to me through my muse, or I like to thinks so. There is no better explanation.
Yesterday I read “Housework” in the waiting room at the doctor’s office.
“I stared at a bird and saw your wings
wearing my wings in a eucalyptus tree.”
And then this
“How often?
After midnight, the sun rose
in our blood,
how much of me is you, my love
how often! Who am I!”
Your wings wearing my wings in a eucalyptus tree? How much of me is you? Be still my heart. My muse’s knees melted. She wanted to paint and I got out of her way.
With quiet music playing, as white sage and a candle burned, I sat at my studio table scanning my materials, waiting to see which ones wanted to be used.
I reached for Sailboat Blue and the color named Stream, using them to create blue sky background, edge to edge, across a 12.5” x 12.5” ceramic tile. More inks were pulled out for the eucalyptus tree that was in my mind. Teakwood and Meadow Green. Every shade of red was set aside close at hand. I knew there would be red.
A small Vaseline container, chosen for its flat sides, elevated one corner of the tile higher than the other three. I flipped the switch on my air compressor and added a drop of Teakwood on that raised corner. The air sent it flowing in lines, branching out across the tile. One, in particular, wanted to keep traveling, so I followed, pushing it out as far as it wanted to reach.
Branches sprang from that corner, stretching out across the bright blue sky, one Teakwood drop at a time.
Now, the leaves. Meadow Green rushed out, forming a drop much larger than expected, and the air sent it out in feathery form, not the fan shaped leaf in my mind. I let the paint have its way and about five leaves in I laughed, looking at the feathery green sprays. I remembered gingko leaves are like little green fans! I had no idea what a eucalyptus tree looked like and so just kept painting, adding leaves, following strands of green across the ceramic blue sky.
Blooms, came a thought.
Blooms? I answered back.
Blooms.
Do eucalyptus trees even have blooms?
Blooms.
My smart phone got me to the internet and photos of eucalyptus flowers. My leaves were not so far off! Eucalyptus trees have long, slender, green leaves that hang like clumps of green hair. The flowers were red and circular- soft looking spiny threads with yellow centers.
One at a time, scattered where they needed to be, a drop of red, followed by a drop of white and then a burst of air. Before long my eucalyptus was in full bloom and my muse was smiling.
This post was inspired by a Tweetspeak Poetry Dare. Thank you, Sandra, for letting me tag along on your journey through the works of Darwish. :)
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