all words and images by Kate Kennington Steer
Between April and August 2021 Creative Response Arts was working with performance poet Justin Coe and the Space2Grow community garden project from Farnham, Surrey to make a site-specific arts installation and to publish a book of written responses to the garden, its users, and volunteers. As part of the writing group, I was hoping to spend several long summer days in the Space2Grow acre, by the pond, maybe helping pick fruit or to hoe a row of veg, in between working at various writing exercises with a small-yet-wonderful group of other writers (who had never occupied the same physical space and time together). Sadly, it became apparent that the Space2Grow garden wasn’t yet fully wheelchair accessible and so I would be unable to join the group on these Garden days, getting to know the space to which we were to respond. Instead, I decided to shift my focus slightly and base my own work on what I could experience from my beloved Mum’s ‘greenhouse garden.’ What emerged was a sequence of thirty poems entitled ‘growing space.’ Some of these finally found their way into the group anthology ‘Where Seeds Are Planted Poems Grow’. This book was due to be launched during the Farnham Literary festival in early March, and since I was unable to be physically at the launch, I made several (really basic) short films, each no longer than three minutes, of me reading a selection of my poems included in the anthology.
As part of the celebrations and demonstrations around Earth Day/Earth Hour, I offer a couple of these short films to the Godspace community. For me, each word, photo and painting that together constitutes my ‘growing space’ sequence, is a miracle of grace: a dis-abled, isolating moment of potential exclusion was transformed into an opportunity for learning, expansion and community. It feels like my own personal parable of just one instance where beauty has emerged from ashes – again – to surprise and stagger me into remembering the Presence of the One who continues to Grow is beside me throughout …
growing space xviii
come into the garden of colour
dig down through the undercroft of umber
be bedappled below sunfiltered lime
interweave between smoked rounds of plum
and orange-zest edged in iridescent pink
breathe in lungfuls of rose for rest, then,
wander through the meadow of waving
white daisies turned pointillist painting
by cornflower, nigella and canterburybell blues
highlights of red campion, mauve borage
shadows of dusky lavender leaning into indigo
sit amongst the sunflowering solarseekers
let your face reflect buttercup gold
warm yourself beside the spiced flames
of marigold, nasturtium and yarrow
wade through waters become skywindows
duck-egg-shell wash under the cream-centred
lilies as they float, fill, tip, empty, float, fill, tip,
empty their rainbowed balm over your feet
seek your palette here where shades
display all their hues, shuffling in intensity
as the light falls, conjuring new dynamics
and harmonics at the moon’s rise
you who know your colour, come, rejoice,
you who can only feel alien in your skin
come, explore, and let the comfort
of colour find you, here, where
each tone has its tune, come,
bring your voice to add its riches
the garden of colour welcomes allcomers.
growing space vi
to become human again
make your own ritual:
before you dance,
sit quiet,
breathe
into this place,
receive
its’ breath into you;
be your own education:
hear the ant scurrying concrete,
watch the blackbird scuffing soil,
follow the petal’s unfurling
attune to the arc of the sun;
find your own purpose:
soak yourself in wind and rain,
saturate yourself in the orange
warmth of peeling brick,
shelter yourself in the shivering blue
shadows under eaves,
let the eyes of your heart
sink deep into scent,
inward and outward be opened,
listen to your own knowledge take deep root,
awake to the pulsations of connecting
and permit them to propel you
to where you are most needed;
accept your own responsibility:
bend your head and allow
this benediction of green
to flow over you,
blow through you, and then,
only then, find your means
to pass on such blessing
to another.
Editor’s Note: If you’d like to see more of our author Kate Kennington Steer’s poetry read, you can check out her YouTube channel here!
Celtic Prayer Cards include 10 prayers inspired by ancient Celtic saints like Patrick or contemporary Celtic writers like John O’Donohue. A short reflection on the back of each card will introduce you to the Celtic Christian tradition, along with prayers by Christine Sine and beautiful imagery crafted by Hilary Horn. Celtic Prayer Cards can be used year-round or incorporated into various holidays. Available in a single set of 10 cards, three sets, or to download.