The wind smelled of her hair that day

The wind smelled

of her hair that day,

the earth dresed with 

the scent of her winter skin.

I began to find her in everything - 

the rain the stars the trees

the moon - it all shrieked

her name.

For the moment the flaming

memory of her wrapped itself

around the universe,

speaking to me in the language

of ghosts.

She has no idea how

beautiful it feels to love

her from a distance.

by Christopher Poindexter

Moon in cloud © Jennifer Phillips

Day moon

Over the tree line

Under the blue

Powerless ghost

Servant of day.

A leaf pressed under waxed paper 

Muted and flat

Hung on the sky

Waiting for night.

by Raymond A. Foss

Morning moon © Jennifer Phillips

Live deeply

Bring me your heart,
I'll serve it on a platter.
Show me your wings,
I'll pluck your feathers.

Lift the cover off your soul,
I'll help you soar.

Smile at me in the dark,
I won't see you.
Share with me your pain.
I'll watch you slice it open.

Give me your words,
let them flow.
Give me your hand,
show me your heart.

Lift the cover off your soul,
I'll help you soar.

Listen to my words,
let them flow.
Drip juice from honeyed lips.
Kiss me golden in the sun.

You can't know the Shades,
writhe forth from darkness.
Savour the moment's marrow
with every sense.

Lift the cover off your soul,
I'll help you soar.

Grave this moment 
in your memory,
for when it's gone,
it's gone.

Lift the cover off your soul,
I'll help you soar.

© Jennifer Phillips (All rights reserved)

 At  Bruno Torfs' Art & Sculpture Garden © Jennifer Phillips

Sway

Don't stray

Don't ever go away

I should be much too smart for this

You know it gets the better of me

Sometimes

When you and I collide

I fall into an ocean of you

Pull me out in time

Don't let me drown

Let me down

I say it's all because of you

And here I go

Losing my control

I'm practicing your name

So I can say it

To your face, it doesn't

Seem right

To look you in the eye

Let all the things

You mean to me

Come tumbling out my mouth

Indeed it's time

Tell you why

I say it's

Infinitely true

Say you'll stay

Don't come and go

Like you do

Sway my way

Yeah I need to know

All about you

And there's no cure

And no way to be sure

Why everything's turned inside out

Instilling so much doubt

It makes me so tired

I feel so uninspired

My head is battling with my heart

My logic has been torn apart

And now

It all turns sour

Come sweeten

Every afternoon

Say you'll stay

Don't come and go

Like you do

Sway my way

Yeah I need to know

All about you

Say you'll stay

Don't come and go

Like you do

Sway my way

Yeah I need to know

All about you

It's all because of you

It's all because of you

Now it all turns sour

Come sweeten

Every afternoon

It's time

Tell you why

I say it's

Infinitely true

Say you'll stay

Don't come and go

Like you do

Sway my way

Yeah I need to know

All about you

Say you'll stay

Don't come and go

Like you do

Sway my way

Yeah I need to know

All about you

It's all because of you

It's all because of you

It's all because of you

by Bic Runga

Bic Runga

The knowing

"The Canarsie People said the knowing belongs to the old and wise, but the unfolding is in the keeping of the young. The old prevent the young from straying off the path of wisdom. The young yearn after the path of dreams. Between the two there is truth."

From "City of Dreams: A Novel of Niew Amsterdam and Early Manhattan by Beverly Swerling.

Cork forest

Cork forest - Canberra Arboretum © Jennifer Phillips

Like watching the sun set

“It was like watching the sun set over an exhausted horizon; seeing her fall softly asleep in my arms. I always felt this connection between her and the universe, like every time I experienced her, I was experiencing the universe. It was something I could never shake. Something I could never fathom into even the most delicate words.” 

by Christopher Poindexter

Sunset @ Tura Beach NSW © Jennifer Phillips

We'll go no more a-roving

So we'll go no more a-roving

So late into the night,

Though the heart still be as loving,

And the moon still be as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath,

And the soul outwears the breast,

And the heart must pause to breathe,

And love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,

And the day returns too soon,

Yet we'll go no more a-roving

By the light of the moon. 

by  Lord George Gordon Byron

Moonscape © Jennifer Phillips

This Thing - the end.

This Thing, it devoured us -
in the end.
It did.
Devoured, it did.

Got too big, escaped its box,
writhed away from our grip - 
twisted, whirled - swallowed our souls.
It did.
Swallowed, it did.

Dove into the fire pit - it did...
Gorged, glutted - gratified.
It was.
Gorged, it was.

Paradigm exploded -
scattered flames, soot and smoke
across the universe, and over the night.
The night.

Obscured the stars,
darkened the eye of the moon.
The moon.
The eye, the moon.

Our eyes stung, watered as
in the ash and soot, bent
under smoke's entrails,
we chewed on scraps of love...
We did.
Love, we did.

All that remained of our fire
from this time out of time, and out of place,
when we lost our senses, in a sense...
We did.
Lost, we did.

Danced for a while
under the moon, we did,
singing the allegory
of the campfire.
We did.
Sing, we did.

Danced for a while,
under the moon.
We did.
Dance, we did.

© Jennifer Phillips (All rights reserved)

Chris Hendren Imaging

This Thing
The allegory of the campfire
Dreamer's lament
The tenet of the heart
We'll be fine

Daylight and moonlight

In broad daylight, and at noon,

Yesterday I saw the moon

Sailing high, but faint and white,

As a schoolboy's paper kite.

In broad daylight, yesterday, 

I read a poet's mystic lay;

And it seemed to me at most

As a phantom, or a ghost.

But at length the feverish day 

Like a passion died away,

And the night, serene and still,

Fell on village, vale, and hill.

Then the moon, in all her pride, 

Like a spirit glorified,

Filled and overflowed the night

With revelations of her light.

And the Poet's song again 

Passed like music through my brain;

Night interpreted to me

All its grace and mystery. 

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Morning moon © Jennifer Phillips

The road to truth

"There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth - 

not going all the way - and not starting."

- Buddha

You're already awesome. Just get out of your own way!

Judson Brewer MD, Ph.D. details how his clinical research has found that techniques that help us get out of our own way, such as mindfulness training, can have large effects. He also describes the brain processes behind getting in our own way, which involve a network of brain regions dubbed the "default mode network" because of how often it gets activated - for example, when we are regretting something we did in the past or worry about something in the future.

Importantly, he details some of the neuro-imaging research his laboratory at Yale University has performed using experienced meditators, and how he found that a key region of the default mode network, the posterior cingulate cortex, gets deactivated during meditation. This work suggests that the posterior cingulate cortex may be a key brain marker for both getting in our own way and stepping out. 

He finishes by listing some simple ways that we can pay attention, so we can get out of our own way in our everyday lives.

Judson Brewer MD, Ph.D. at TEDxRockCreekPark

© TEDxTalks

You and me song

Always when we fight

I try to make you laugh

Until everything's forgotten

I know you hate that

Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba

Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba 

Always when we fight

I kiss you once or twice

And everything's forgotten

I know you hate that

I love you Sunday sun

The week's not yet begun

And everything is quiet

And it's always

You and me, always, and forever

You and me, always, and forever 

Ba ba ba ba ba 

It was always 

You and me always

You tell me I'm a real man

And try to look impressed

Not very convincing

But you know I love it

Then we watch TV

Until we fall asleep

Not every exciting

But it's you and me

And we'll always be together

You and me, always, and forever

You and me, always, and forever

Ba ba ba ba ba

It was always

You and me, always, and forever

You and me, always, and forever 

Ba ba ba ba ba 

It was always 

You and me, always, and forever

You and me, always, and forever

Ba ba ba ba ba

by The Wannadies – you and me song

On friendship

  Your friend is your needs answered. 

      He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. 

      And he is your board and your fireside. 

      For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace. 

      When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "aye." 

      And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart; 

      For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, 
all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed. 

      When you part from your friend, you grieve not; 

      For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, 
as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain. 

      And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. 

      For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught. 

      And let your best be for your friend. 

      If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also. 

      For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? 

      Seek him always with hours to live. 

      For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness. 

      And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. 

      For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. 

by Kahil Gibran

Passionfruit flower series

© Jennifer Phillips

© Jennifer Phillips

© Jennifer Phillips

Passion fruit

Passionfruit flower © Jennifer Phillips

They have many different names

Depending on who you ask

The soft and bountiful

Globes I carry

Luscious and full

To nearly breaking

Their sweet nectar

Filling to overbearing

Such mouth-watering flavour

My passion fruit doth promise

And the hungry gazes of those starving gentlemen

Do not escape my good graces

My passion fruit, sweet and heaven-sent

Have gotten even fuller

Since last we met

Much more succulent than ever before

It's as if they starve too

For your touch along with all the rest

Now weighing down heavily upon my chest

They som'times are a burden to carry 

But the feeling they provide

And the glorious taste

The wonderous reaction

They shall not be displaced

Amongst all the beautiful things

That cause so much salivating excitement

Pupils grow so large, tongues hang out, rise and fall of mens' chests

Become common-place behaviour, staring at my beautiful breasts.

by Joy Vanderhelm

Twin Peaks © Jennifer Phillips

Heart and mind

SAID the Lion to the Lioness-'When you are amber dust,-

No more a raging fire like the heat of the Sun

(No liking but all lust)-

Remember still the flowering of the amber blood and bone,

The rippling of bright muscles like a sea,

Remember the rose-prickles of bright paws

Though the fire of that sun the heart and the moon-cold bone are one.'

Said the Skeleton lying upon the sands of Time-

'The great gold planet that is the mourning heat of the Sun

Is greater than all gold, more powerful

Than the tawny body of a Lion that fire consumes

Like all that grows or leaps...so is the heart

More powerful than all dust. Once I was Hercules

Or Samson, strong as the pillars of the seas:

But the flames of the heart consumed me, and the mind

Is but a foolish wind.'

Said the Sun to the Moon-'When you are but a lonely white crone,

And I, a dead King in my golden armour somewhere in a dark wood,

Remember only this of our hopeless love

That never till Time is done

Will the fire of the heart and the fire of the mind be one.'

by Edith Sitwell

© Ayesha NuRa Ayanfe

Harvest moon

Come a little bit closer

Hear what I have to say

Just like children sleepin'

We could dream this night away.

But there's a full moon risin'

Let's go dancin' in the light

We know where the music's playin'

Let's go out and feel the night.

Because I'm still in love with you

I want to see you dance again

Because I'm still in love with you

On this harvest moon.

When we were strangers

I watched you from afar

When we were lovers

I loved you with all my heart.

But now it's gettin' late

And the moon is climbin' high

I want to celebrate

See it shinin' in your eye.

Because I'm still in love with you

I want to see you dance again

Because I'm still in love with you

On this harvest moon.

by Neil Young, Regine Smidt (songwriter)

Harvest moon - Copyright Free Images

Pride

My son with a fish he caught on holiday © Jennifer Phillips

You and me

I could not describe to you how I felt when I met you,

how it was when I was with you.

Your eyes a deep dark pool of Love.

Your arms embracing me. 

Your soft touch.

Your lips, the tip of your tongue, became my Home.

Your breast in the cup of my hand.

As the minutes and hours passed between us, I grew.

Inwardly I grew. 

I grew and grew until I reached the Stars at night.

I became a Star.

Everything around me, the very air I breathed was Electricity.

The 21st century and its boring, tiring humdrum was away,

I was in the Land of Magic. I was Alice in Wonderland.

No one understands the wandering dervish.

People think he has no home but every where is his home.

And here, there as he wanders through life there are moments, there are mountains.

I scaled a mountain with you.

I could not describe to you how I felt when I scaled the mountain with you,

Except to say those moments were unforgettable.

Alive and fresh, 

forever in my Heart.

With me today and always.

by Fareed Atman

Mount Buffalo © Jennifer Phillips

The Guinea Pigs' Holiday

The Guinea Pigs' Holiday

Follow link above to SoundCloud Recording.

Composer/Lead Vocals: (My 9 year old daughter)
Ukulele/Backing Vocals: Shorty (My older brother)
Sound Engineer: (My 7 year old son)

© http://turnlol.com/img/the-image-55858.html

Some family pictures

Me and my brothers

Me

The kids

Agapanthus - African Lily

You may not be willing to notice me.

I have an awkward sense of myself.

My name can be hard on the tongue.

I do not grow easily in places

where the sun only fitfully appears.

I've come a long way northwards.

Gardens do not flatter my needs.

I am a shy sheltered plant - my leaves

first come above the earth slowly - 

serpenting about, tasting the air.

Then my stalks flex tentatively

skywards uncertain of grace - people

walk by me curiously, expecting dis-

appointment when my flowers deign

to curtsey boorishly into the light.

They ignore I'm Agape not Eros, 

my passion is a mute kind of longing - 

a fund of good-feeling - I blend

much more than possess (respect

distance) bestow, rather than demand.

My flowers voice outwards - trumpets

toned down to temper their height.

My scores are obliged to be gentle.

I use only circumspect colours.

Love is better for not being showy.

by Rg Gregory

Agapanthus © Jennifer Phillips

Dandelion fluff

Dandelion fluff © Jennifer Phillips

Quotes on growth

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

by E.E. Cummings

Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.

by Andy Rooney

Stop beating yourself up.  You are a work in progress; which means you get there a little at a time, not all at once.

by Unknown

Fear, uncertainty, and discomfort are your compasses toward growth.

by Celestine Chua

When something bad happens you have three choices. You can let it define you, let it destroy you, or you can let it strengthen you.

by Unknown

Breathless

It's up in the morning and on the downs

Little white clouds like gambolling lambs

And I am breathless over you

And the red-breasted robin beats his wings

His throat it trembles when he sings

For he is helpless before you

The happy hooded bluebells bow

And bend their heads all a-down

Heavied by the early morning dew

At the whispering stream, at the bubbling brook

The fishes leap up to take a look

For they are breathless over you

Still your hands

And still your heart

For still your face comes shining through

And all the morning glows anew

Still your mind

Still your soul

For still, the fare of love is true

And I am breathless without you

The wind circles among the trees

And it bangs about the new-made leaves

For it is breathless without you

The fox chases the rabbit round

The rabbit hides beneath the ground

For he is defenceless without you

The sky of daytime dies away

And all the earthly things they stop to play

For we are all breathless without you

I listen to my juddering bones

The blood in my veins and the wind in my lungs

And I am breathless without you

Still your hands

And still your heart

For still your face comes shining through

And all the morning glows anew

Still your soul

Still your mind

Still, the fire of love is true

And I am breathless without you

by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Fitzroy Falls with double rainbow, N.S.W.

Fitzroy Falls NSW © Jennifer Phillips

Far, far away

Far, far away from those city lights

Might be shining on you tonight

Far, far away from you

On the dark side of the moon

I long to hold you in my arms and sway

Kiss and ride on the CTA

I need to see you tonight

And those bright lights

Oh, I know it's right

Deep in my heart

I'll know it's right

By the bed, by the light that you read by

By the time that I get home to say good night

I need to see you again

On the dark side my friend

On the dark side

by Wilco