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Writing, learn-ing, jewelry, deconstructing t-shirts and reality - it's what I do. I live to be inspired, and to inspire.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

About You


By Kelene Blake

You may think this poem
Is about you
Well
Maybe it is

About how tenderly
You looked at me
Sometimes
About how softly
Your whispered kisses
Would brush my lips
About how your touch
Sometimes
Would bring me to stillness
Would make me quiet
And yielding
About how your passion
Would flare
And flow through me
Making me a goddess
At whose altar
It was your pleasure to worship
Sometimes

You probably think this poem
Is about you
Well
Maybe it is

About us
Being friends
About us
Being lovers
About how awkward it was
To be both
About how impossible it was
To be neither
About the chaos of emotions
That time
And distance
Can only translate
To pain

I think you think this poem
Is about you
Well
Maybe it is

About you
And me
And we
And what we had
And what we couldn’t have
About what we wanted
And what we sacrificed
And what we achieved
About how well we worked together
About how bad we were for each other
About what we became
About what we lost
About what we never had

I’m sure
You think
This poem
Is about you
All
About you
Well
Maybe it is…
Or
Maybe not.

(Photo by Kelene Blake: Sculpture at North Bridge, Edinburgh, Scotland)

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

In Scotland Without a Clue


I’m over in Scotland without a clue. Another case of me jumping and building wings on the way down (see me frantically gluing feathers together). I made it here though, and it’s beautiful! I got here just in time for gale force winds, an ash cloud, and a rugby tournament. I wanted take this trip for a while. I told myself I would, and I still do not quite know the logistics of how I got here and how I’m getting back, but I’m so happy I jumped.

What I am most happy about, other than seeing my wonderful brother and hanging out with some sweet people, is the fact that I didn’t let this one become a pipe dream. I didn’t wait for everything to be right and in place. I said I would take this trip and, in spite of everything, I did! This is how I want to live my life. I don’t want to wait for “one day” because so often that “one day” doesn’t come.

We don’t always realize we’re putting our lives – the real ones, the ones we want to live and are currently working toward – in danger when we wait for perfect circumstances. We spend a lifetime and die waiting for that “real” life to begin. Sometimes it’s important to take risks and do what you dream of doing.

Many of us don’t really make that definite, no-turning-back move toward our dreams because we fear failure. It’s one thing to fail at something you don’t care about, but it is brutal to fail at something you’ve put your heart into. The thing is, you may succeed if you try, you may fail if you try, but absolutely nothing happens if you do absolutely nothing. And life can get really dull if you do absolutely nothing with it.

But if you do decide to pursue dreams, you don’t have to do like me and take the scary headlong route. My methods are a bit random and… optimistic. If you don’t want to live in negative capability like me, that’s perfectly fine (and smart). Even taking small calculated steps is progress, and has its risks. But the key is to move toward where you want to be.

You’re not going to wake up one day to find that you’re living your dreams unless you take those scary steps towards those dreams. Don’t wait for the world. The world is just doing it’s thing, minding its business. Waiting for it to get to you is a mistake. The world won’t come to you because it’s too busy waiting for you to grasp it and make it take notice. Yes. The world is waiting for you to step up and take your place in it.

(Photo by Andon Blake)

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Like Lead Razors to my Guts


I have a knack for getting myself in over my head. I take leaps of faith, only to find myself freefalling from a cliff of my own making. I get an idea I like and turn it into a project. I get started on the project all excited, thinking, “This is going to be great!”

And then, I start. And then I commit. And at that moment a lead seed lands directly into my gutsy parts and begins to germinate. And as I dig myself deeper and deeper into my project and realize what it would require to bring my idea to life, that lead seed grows into a seedling, then to a sapling, then to a tree – a lead tree with razor sharp leaves slicing at my guts and poisoning my system.

Fear...

The funny thing about getting in over your head is that sometimes, as you stick with it in spite of the fear, you begin to grow. You learn as you go along, you persevere, you improve, and soon enough you’ll find that you are no longer in over your head. Rather you have grown to match what you are trying to do. And, if you keep at it, you grow past that project, prepared to face even bigger challenges, and you’ve outgrown the things that daunted you, planting that initial seed of fear in your gut. You stand tall and triumphant with your achievement underfoot.

So sometimes, when you leap, you build wings on the way down and learn to fly.

(Photo by Kelene Blake)