Beyond Words

While I ponder words, chosen by my students from a vintage book page I gave each one on the first day of class, I am imagining a poem I promised to compose from what caught their attention in sound, shape and meaning during the week. They were participating in 'Threads of Meaning', a Workshop about creativity and discovering your authentic style at Fibre Arts Australia Summer School. We talked about poetry in a broad sense, the way Shawna Lemay sees poetry….”People are poetry. They are magic.”

So this post is inspired by the eleven women and their word clues that inspired me in the Printmaking Studio of Ballarat Grammar last week, one and a half hours northwest of Melbourne in the land of gum trees.

Persistent seed sketcher, anchored by silken threads.

Outback adventurer treading lightly, memories textured by the bush.

Political color stitcher with the vibrant ‘perspective of wisdom.’

Thoughtful map painter, curious about faces and abstract space.

Poet of bird and tree sounds, symmetry and sacred places.

Leaf and cloth handler, frock maker on a path of words.

Petal lover and stitcher, beader of balance.

Captain of engineers, mistress of no problem goes unresolved.

Voice of the gypsy feminist who loves home and paradox.

Seer beyond the trappings, capturing solutions.

Painter of word pictures, embracing the path ahead.

Every person a poem.