It's My Turn! (so, the email said :))

I'm so thrilled and honoured to be featured on the cover of the Aug/Sept 2014 issue of Sibyl Magazine that was released early this morning!  What a surprise and honour when I received an email from Sibyl English about the cover, and "It's Your Turn" in the comments box.  It was the same day they previewed the cover to the featured writers, along with a message of some great changes they've made to the magazine, including merging Sibella Poetry Magazine into Sibyl Magazine (the flagship publication that was released 5 years prior to Sibella).  I am honoured that my poems have been featured in Sibella Poetry Magazine for the last 3 years, and now in the newly merged Sibyl Magazine (an on-line publication with over 24,000 subscribers internationally).  I have watched this publication grow and get better and better, and enjoy reading the articles and poems in each and every issue - cover to cover.  Thanks you Sibyl for your continued love and support.  I cherish the work that you are doing and am eternally grateful for the platform you have given me to share my words.

Check out the new issue of Sibyl Magazine with my poem "SUN-SETS AND SUN-RISES" on page 6...along with photo credits to my sweetie Steve Di Monte of Change Your Life Photography....the "or better" of being featured on the cover of a magazine - having that photo shot by your sweetie <3

This poem reminds us that as life changes and has its ups and downs, a new day always dawns new possibilities - as it certainly has for me.  Enjoy!

The Success of Love

Heart shaped crystals embedded in Bell Rock, Sedona, AZ

"Love conquers all", so the saying goes....and I must attest that I believe this to be true.  I have experienced first hand how love has healed my wounds - physical and emotional, those on the surface, and those in the depths of my soul.  I have seen it in my children, in friends and family (especially my soul family), and even strangers.

March came to an end with my return from a most expansive trip of LOVE to Sedona, Arizona with a group of people whom I've fallen in love with, and the publication of my poem "The Success of Love" in Sibella Poetry Magazine.  The synchronicity of the trip, to my poem, to a Wide Awakening message I received yesterday are amazing.  The trip was one of love and deep remembering.  The Wide Awakening message was one of courage (click on the link to read it yourself), remembering and leaving a wake of love.  My poem holds a message of the success of love - the amount of joy you’ve created with your heart. <3  
How do you measure success?

The Success of Love

(©Linda J. Spencer, 2013)

What is success?

Is there ever only one definition? Or infinite possibilities?

Is it making millions of dollars tucked away that you’ll never spend?

Having luxury cars in the driveway that you never drive?

Living in a big house so large that you could avoid its fellow occupants,

With manicured lawns, tennis courts and a pool?

Or is it the number of trophies and medals hanging on the wall?

Or the diamond jewellery adorning pricey manicured hands?

What about the smile you put on a co-worker's face,

As you give them a cup of their favourite coffee, just because?

What about teaching your child to tie his shoes

And the excitement he shows when he finally does it by himself?

And what about the collaboration of collecting hundreds of bags of clothing

For a community ravaged by fires or floods?

Or filling a community centre with youth who would otherwise be walking the streets?

And what about when you’ve taught someone to show love and respect for all creation?

Maybe success isn’t measured in dollars and cents,

But in the amount of joy you’ve created with your heart.

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Please visit the April/May issue of Sibella Poetry Magazine to see the full collection of poems with my fellow contributors (www.sibellapoetry.com).  Happy Spring to you ALL! xox

Let it Flow

How many times do we question ourselves - question our abilities, our strengths, our beauty, our thoughts and feelings, our decisions?  We all do it...some more than others.  But what if we just let it all flow - without judging ourselves or our circumstance?  Instead, what if we danced with what presents, acknowledging ourselves and the situations, but moving forwarded anyway - letting it flow?

This poem what born of such questions to myself.  I would have all these thoughts pop in my head, but at a time when I wasn't sure if they were my own thoughts, or if I had adopted those of others.  Once I realized that I could own them if I wanted, or let them go if I wanted, I could stop any resistance and just let it all flow in complete neutrality...and what a grand feeling that is - to let it all flow; to let it all just be.

Hope you enjoy the read...you can find it in the Dec-Jan2014 issue of Sibella Poetry Magazine, where I'm contributing for the third year in a row :).   Click on the image of the magazine cover to enter a different kind of poetry world - a creative one of spirit, inspiration and insight :)


Let it Flow
(copyright 2013, Linda J. Spencer)

My body is alive and full of energy.
My mind is full, ready to explode
With all of its thoughts,
All of its grand creations.
But what if they're not my own?

What if they belong to another?
How can I possibly know?
My mind is overflowing
And now it cannot be contained.
Energy transcends.
I have set it free.
It is what will be.
Or is it?
Is it really free?
Only I can choose.
Only I can know.
If only I'd listen.
Can I do this?
If only I could still my mind
I could see what's real,
And the knots would come undone,
Anxiety and doubt would cease.
Or would it?
I can only try.

This Body

How many of you have truly taken a look at your body - its curves, its lines, its story - without judgement, but full of appreciation for all of it?  Now, a couple of years ago, I would have had difficulty doing this without judging what I saw in the mirror.  What a difference removing judgement (not only with looking at my body, but with SO many things in my life)!!!  It took forty years, but I have finally come to appreciate all of it...filled with gratitude for my body - my divine vessel in which I am afforded the opportunity to experience THIS life on Earth - I wrote this poem, in tribute.

Photo by Change Your Life Photography

This Body – My Divine Vessel
(© Linda J. Spencer, 2013)

This body carried my children for nine months
And brought them into this world with love.
The scars are witness to the beauty of the birth,
And they are beautiful.
This body has carried me my whole life with ease and grace.
Its lines and creases are testament to this life.
This body moves with grace and feels the flow of life
It lets me know when to take a break,
And when it’s ready to run full out –
And I have learned to hear what it has to say.
This body allows me to dance among the trees,
In the light of the setting sun,
And under the starry full moon night.
This body receives the light and love that feeds my soul.
Its curves reflect that love,
And reflect its light back out to the world.
This body is a divine vessel which embodies my soul
And it is perfect, just as it is.


A couple of months ago, as part of a "homework" assignment (I use the term "homework" loosely, as it was more of an experience than homework) for a program I was taking, I was to look, or rather observe, myself in the mirror for 20 minutes - naked - without judgement.   This experience, along with reading about the experiences of others in the group and seeing myself in some amazing photos by Change Your Life Photography, inspired me to write this particular poem, which I am proud to say that you can find in the Oct/Nov 2013 issue of Sibella Poetry Magazine (click on the magazine cover artwork to enter the most recent issue).  Big thanks to Jennifer Hough of the Wide Awakening Team and the Innate Abilities Group for the inspiration :)

Sun-Sets and Sun-Rises

I've been sitting on this one for a while now, but upon reflecting on the glorious sunsets of the summer sun, I thought it's time to share...

Gazing in awe of the summer solstice sunset as it filled me with warmth and light.

Sun-Sets and Sun-Rises

(©Linda Spencer, 2013)

The sun rose and life began

With fluttering hearts

Many, many moons ago.

Life grew with vows of love

And tears of joy

As children’s laughter filled the rooms.

But life changes as it grows

And some resist its pull.

And now, as the sun sets on this day,

I know the sun will rise tomorrow

And in new light, I awaken.

Waking to a spring sunrise with a walk on the ridge.

And a bit of news with the sun rising on a new day:  I've been selected to write for Sibella Poetry Magazine (www.sibellapoetry.com) for a third year.  YEAH!  Thank you to all my followers and supporters for allowing me the chance to share my poetic verse <3 Mwah!

A Dance in the Night

Yeah!  The new issue of Sibella Poetry Magazine is out (click on the link, or go to http://clck.com/jmmg/spoetry/APRMAYSIB13.pdf), and in it is my poem "A Dance in the Night". 

Some colleagues and friends have asked me, "when do you find time to write?"  or, "when do you write?"  You may think that as a writer, I'd be writing all the time, or at least every chance I got, but I don't.  I find that my best writing occurs when the mood strikes me, or when I have a vision of what I should write about.  Sometimes I ask for inspiration, and sometimes it just comes out of the blue...or someone will say something or do something that strikes a cord and out flows a verse or two that I can work with.  It's very sporadic, but it works for me.  The finished product is always something I feel.  "A Dance in the Night" came as a vision as I was sitting at my desk, just days before the submission deadline, staring out my loft window into the trees below...they spoke to me.  Ok, they weren't pines, but they were tall.  And we don't have wolves, but we do have coyotes who wander by occassionally :)  I followed this poem up with a post on my Ridgeview blog about the vision I had for Ridgeview.  Check that out too when you get a chance.  Enjoy ♡

 

A Dance in the Night

(©Linda Spencer, 2013)

By the light of the moon, I dance.

The night is quiet and the air is calm;
There is peace.
I stop at the edge of the forest
Where the tall pines stand guard;
A low branch bows, inviting me to enter.

As I cross the threshold, a lone wolf howls,
Eerily piercing the night silence.
She crosses my path a distance ahead,
Glancing to acknowledge my presence
And I hers; we are friends -
Creatures of the same Maker.

She lets me pass to continue my dance

Watching me and I her, in awe.
And I listen for her words.
But they do not come, not this time.
I hear instead the stillness of the night -
The sound of water; the rustle and creek of the woods.

Their message is clear:
I may own this land, but it is not mine.
It found me, and entrusted me as its keeper –
To protect it, to nourish it, to help it grow.
In return, it cradles me, and gives me life;
And gives me space to dance and play within it.

“We have been given a world of creation to laugh and dance and play with – it only asks that we treat it as we would our soul.”~Linda Spencer