October 26, 2011
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| 'Magician with words has my admiration" |
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| ZENA JOHN, writer, poet, friend |
I boarded the plane in Johannesburg, South Africa... that's where I connected for my ongoing inter-Africa flight to visit friends in East London, (South Africa.) Armed with my reading material as well as my laptop, I settled into my seat. A very pretty young woman was sitting next to me... she looked to be someone with whom I wouldn't have minded talking during the flight. Oftentimes... not always... I enjoy talking with my seat mate (especially in foreign countries,) sharing bits and pieces of our respective homelands, families, interests, world views, life philosophies... with THIS young woman, I got so much more than I bargained for- a lifetime friendship! Not only did we enjoy one another, talking non-stop throughout this flight, but when I boarded the plane once again for my return trip to Johannesburg to make another connection, THERE SHE WAS! What are the chances of THAT happening? Once again, we were seat mates and our chattering and sharing continued!
ZENA JOHN is a gifted writer and poet..she performs magic with her words. Her pieces are heartfelt, honest and sincere. She knows how to express common thoughts and feelings, touching the hearts and souls of her readers, making her expressions the reader's own. With her permission, I'd like to share one of her pieces that I've attempted to illustrate.
THE INFINITE POSSIBILITY OF YOU
by Zena John
Conjured up in my moonlit dreamscapes
A life-pausing glance sideways
At me, out of a face so foreign, so familiar
Imbued in blood-red robes
Scattering my essence into
Congealed memories of a thousand lives
How time fools us
Into amnesiac wonder at the newness of it all
This cosmic waltz my love
Perfected over eons of sequences
Fleshed out in multi-hued incandescence
A newborn wail gloriously erasing consciousness
Pounded into the dark spaces between atoms
Flung into the wall of all my befores
Newness creeps into my awareness
Coating my yesterdays with gritty promises of tomorrow
The now being too heavy with the flood of a thousand lives
Blinked into reality
Unblinked into history
A cosmic whiplash gleefully unleashed by playful gods
Several of Zena's pieces are included in a soon-to-be-published volume- an anthology. Mine is already pre-ordered! If you're interested, the book is called:
THE GROUND'S EAR-
Contemporary Verse from South Africa
A quick look at a couple of challenges...
CRAZY AMIGOS asked artists to work with the theme: REMEMBER...
and COLLAGE OBSESSION was looking for DREAMS and NIGHTMARES to which I quickly responded with yet another of my scariest dreams/nightmares: I grew up in an apartment house eight floors tall. That's not tall compared to big city apartment houses, but even for the eight floors, there was an elevator. Having been stuck in that elevator on several occasions, I often had dreams of falling down the elevator shaft... I must have outgrown that fear as I haven't had a falling dream in many years! :o)
Thanks so much for stopping by...hope to see you when I next post...
CRAZY AMIGOS asked artists to work with the theme: REMEMBER...
and COLLAGE OBSESSION was looking for DREAMS and NIGHTMARES to which I quickly responded with yet another of my scariest dreams/nightmares: I grew up in an apartment house eight floors tall. That's not tall compared to big city apartment houses, but even for the eight floors, there was an elevator. Having been stuck in that elevator on several occasions, I often had dreams of falling down the elevator shaft... I must have outgrown that fear as I haven't had a falling dream in many years! :o)
Thanks so much for stopping by...hope to see you when I next post...
Hugs,
abbyj
