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!

Words from a Photograph

I’ve experienced so much expansiveness in the last while and although not doing so much writing, there’s been a creative flow of a different kind.  A couple of months ago, I started doing a program which has opened not only my eyes, but all of my senses and my very being to a vastness of pure potential which I find absolutely amazingly fascinating.  With those experiences of the last few months, coupled with a recent opportunity to be the subject of a couple of photo shoots, I found myself falling in love with the images I saw, and more deeply in love with my own camera.  Those experiences have inspired me to be more attentive and present to what I see, and capture as much as I can with the lens - capturing the essence of what I see in nature – the greatest inspiration for my poetic verses. 

This week I chaired my Wordsmiths writing group meeting.  Inspired by the photos I had taken the week before at my parents’ farm, I decided we’d do an exercise that entailed writing the story that is happening outside the photo frame.  It’s one thing to see a photograph or a painting and write its story, but it’s something else to write what happening outside of that image.  The result – 8 wonderfully creative stories churned up in a 20 minute writing session.  Some of them will be developed into greater works of prose and poetry, I’m sure, and I look forward to my fellow wordsmiths to share their creations at a later date. 

I mentioned this writing exercise to my photographer later that night while discussing a shoot.  Inspired by a photograph that he took of me (probably my most favourite shot of them all).  It’s such a good piece that I asked his permission to share it here.  Thanks to Steve Di Monte of Change Your Life Photography for sharing.

 So, next time you're out and about, why not grab your camera and capture what you see.  Search the images to inspire you and dream up what’s happening around them…it’s a really fun exercise, and if nothing else will put a smile on your face as you reminisce through the photographs.  Happy writing :) :) :)