"Singing the "Blues"

Every year, when my Siberian irises bloom, thoughts of my Dad return to me. Below is a poem about the irises that he brought to me many years ago. "They're your flower, Jeanne Iris. The blue matches the blue in your eyes and they bear your name." This was a significant statement, for my genetic 'flaw' of blue eyes had always made me feel like an outsider, for everyone else in my family had brown eyes. 

The second poem describes the first thing I experience in the morning. My favorite time of day is that moment when I first awaken, sometimes still dreaming, and I look out my window to a lovely little forest, night animals still calling to their mates, no human sound outdoors at all. It's just before dawn, and just after that 'darkest hour,' and for only a few minutes, everything is blue. 

Blue Iris

My Dad brought me some irises

one day

I planted them,
and when 'moving day' arrived,

those bulbs were dug up
brought along for the ride.

Now, every June, they appear

bearing memories of his smiles 

more vividly than the previous year

keeping his beautiful memory alive.

Now, as I strive

to achieve daily goals,

his voice rings clearly in my ear:

"You can be anything you want to be, my dear...

if you just persevere."  

********************************************

Just Before Dawn
Eyes open slowly.
Still, I walk along that lovely beach
and glance up to see a small village.
That same, intriguing dream,
now, it fades away
with the early morning mist.
 I feel a gentle, cool breeze
waft across my face
and turn my head
toward the choir of crickets,
still calling to their mates.
An owl wings its way
midst entangled branches,
eerily hooting through the blue.
My gaze reaches the maple tree
standing tall in this tableau
all blue, shades of blue, no other color
but blue. Everywhere!
Leaves, tree trunks, even the lone deer,
all blue.
It's no longer evening, not yet dawn.
Sky and sea are one magic hue.
The song of one bird greets me:
a prayer for the new day
in this tranquil moment of
blue.

© Jeanne I. Lakatos

Memorial Day: Thomas Paine and Revolutionary Consciousness

In honor of Memorial Day, 

a day when we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. 

from Google Images

     Thomas Paine derives his insight of revolutionary consciousness based on traditions and historical practices. In his pamphlet, Common Sense, directed toward the “American Inhabitants,” Thomas Paine describes monarchies in general in this fashion:

Male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some new species, is worth enquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind.

      Here, Paine empathizes with the common individual in his simple analysis of physical and moral distinctions of humanity, and he refers to the British aristocracy as “a new species.” He boldly reaches out to the consciousness of his readers, inspiring them to act on their natural right of the pursuit of happiness. In the words of Harvey Kaye, “As Paine saw it, American unity and vitality were themselves revolutionary imperatives - but not just for Americans” (65).

Kaye, Harvey. Thomas Paine and the Promise of America. New York: Hill & Wang,

2005.

Sydney Owenson, Intellectual Thought, and Positive Change

                                                                                                                 
From my book, Innovations in Rhetoric in the Writing of Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan, 1781-1859), pages 52-53: 

In her 1840 book, Woman and Her Master, Sydney Owenson makes the following observation:

As the acquirement of a physical elevation, in expanding the sphere of vision, and opening new and vast regions to the sense, obscures and diminishes the individual details comprehended in its grasp; so that intellectual and moral elevation, which has opened to the mind’s eye the wider fields of scientific research and of social combination, has caused the relative value of the smaller facts presented to its apprehension to be either overlooked, or mistaken. Society has become complicated more rapidly than philosophy and legislation can follow; the actions of man upon man, and those of the species upon nature, have multiplied faster than observation can co-ordinate, or reason control; until a positive advance has assumed the appearance of a relative retrogradation. (Woman and Her Master, p. 15)

The global network of intellectual thought feeds upon innovation within the consciousness of humanity. As one notion spirals to form a new idea, the resulting awareness creates new perspectives on issues not perceived within the current reality of some communities. Knowledge gained from sharing this new awareness provides more communities with intellectual capabilities to affect a positive change. 

Happy Mother's Day!

I've posted this poem on both of my sites. This doesn't have anything to do with iconic realism, but realism, yes. It's a verse that, hopefully, illustrates the flowing bond of memory and emotions between Mother and Daughter. 

Sleeping Mother with Child by Christian Krohg, 1883

Breath 

Behind her sleeping eyes,

a youthful face remains within

the gentle embrace of her heart,

impish blue eyes, trying her patience,

the quiet soft puffs of sleeping breath.

She smiles, wondering

what this wee one dreamt,

so small, so peaceful.

Sixteen years later... erupting passion

and the sighing relief in its passing,

growing, knowing that surely

there will return a forgiving kiss.

Eyes closed, she remains

in cherished supplication,

while quiet breaths 

waft through the dreams

of the one who calls her Mom.

© Jeanne I. Lakatos

Revolutionary Thought Begins with Creative Emergence

'Equality Emerging' National University of Ireland, Galway, photo taken by me.

A revolutionary idea begins with a creative notion. In John Locke’s An Essay on Human Understanding, he states:

Wherever there is sense or perception, there some idea is, actually produced, and present in the understanding…we [have], as has been proved, no ideas at all, but what originally come either from sensible objects without, or what we feel within ourselves, from the inward workings of our own spirits, of which we are conscious to ourselves within. 

Below, is a poem I wrote a while ago to illustrate a similar consciousness that involves an appreciation of  the Source of inspiration:

A Creation   
With every minute

the mighty sculptor

molds, shapes me

into that which will

inevitably become

the fulfillment

of my dreams.

His Promise.

And I feel

the designated pliancy

of wondrous hands,

the angst

of sorrow and pain

blending

into sculpted reality

of laughter and joy,

humility

I, one loving creation

of the Almighty Artist.

© Jeanne I. Lakatos