by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor

 Lily-rose-jasmine, scented air
Paradise to gain, much to dare

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Good morning everyone and welcome.

Whatever your preferred flavour of life is – sweet, savoury, spicy or somethin’ else, welcome to the melting pot. I am on West African time, so ‘servez-vous.’

Even though we are helpless to change things on a macro scale, we can in our own small ways, align with love and the positive. As we contribute our quota, we are building towards a critical mass which can force change/s for good.
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Whilst trying to forge ahead with our individual lives, as indeed we must, we are often weighted down with past baggage, hindered by present constrictions, and fearful of future outcomes. In fact, the business of staying alive and living (surviving and thriving), may sometimes appear to be extraordinarily daunting. These instances may be akin to a situation where a non-mountaineer, is  faced with the do or die,  prospect, of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. In other cases, we may feel that we are swimming in dangerous, tricky waters, against strong tides; the shoreline may appear close, only to disappear like a mirage, the nearer we get to it.

Our travails are varied. However, the common denominator is that they are problems in search of solutions. In a way, we are all climbing the same mountain, and are all in the same needy boat.

Add to the conflicts and complexities, of one’s personal earthly sojourn, and saga, are the events of the outside world. Today, we are facing a once in a century global pandemic, on top of all else that ails humanity. Not the least of which, is fast–encroaching authoritarianism, threatening to destabilise the world’s oldest democracy.

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Maybe, our present collective crises, are a not-so-subtle prodding, to awaken us to the need to input into our drive and calculations, the fact that there is a reservoir of peace which we can tap into.This realization helps to keep us afloat, and cognizant, of the grand scheme; as we navigate the choppy, fickle waters of human existence.

These thoughts are crystallized in my poems.

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Pathways

The pathways lead to dreams
Alight with swans and stars,
The maddening din no longer screams
In its place, meandering streams
Journey to rainbows yet afar.

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Banished are dark fears and blight
Blue skies become celestial sights
Lily-rose-jasmine, scented air
Paradise to gain, much to dare
Within grasp, all things just and fair.

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Mount higher, yet higher still
On wings of might and love
Pure as the purest turtle dove
Nest delightful up above
Revelling in divine thrill.

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Peace and truth now kiss
Joy unspeakable, heavenly bliss
Grace and beauty hereto unfold,
Fly-fly-away, ever bold
Bird of Eden, heart of gold.

©2020 by Irene Fowler

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Daffodils

I sit musing; absorbed in the moment, mesmerized by gilded, yellow daffodils
Wondering what life’s endless fuss, frenzy and furor, are all about
Appearing beyond; imposing, peaked, silhouettes of grandiose, granite hills
Symbols and sentinels of uneasy stability, in a topsy-turvy world, turned, inside-out
Daffodils, a seamless, standing army of flaxen trumpets; brassy and bright
With riveted eyes, feasting on the heart-stirring, spectacular sight
From deep within, I hear a familiar, gentle, fleeting whisper
Caress my chafed, confused, soul; soothe the raw, painful blisters.
Outpacing the  great, blue,icy-giant Neptune; and the brown, watery-dwarf Pluto
The hidden, beneficent, warm, yellow-scarlet sun will arise and shine
Chase away fearsome storm-clouds, dense fog and approaching gloom
The good, gentle and kind, will in time align; like intertwined vines
Open-cupped, sun-soaked, drunken, nodding daffodils; mellifluous in silent song
Bells of joy, chime in unison, magically dispel, the unjust, brutal, and wrong
Daffodils, sown and beautified, in clumpy beds of dirt and dust, encrusted earth
Surely, in life’s thorny, tiring, travails; lie hardy, militant seeds, for glorious rebirth.

©2021 by Irene Fowler

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