Pen and Paint Ponderings with Karen and Karen: Art by Karen Tamminga-Paton with reflection by Karen Wilk.
Before you read the reflection below, we invite you to take a moment to contemplate the artwork. Pause and reflect, and notice your own observations about the work and what thoughts it sparks in you. Then read the poem below.
I Hear With an Accent
I hear with an accent
But not so this noble tree
Call it a default
a challenge
My descent,
Upbringing or past–
You have one too.
Mine has an accent,
Sometimes sweet retreat
But bias
jaded?
Blinded
Embedded
Deadheaded.
Makes me mad,
Makes me sad
Why couldn’t I hear it?
Why did I believe it?
Community prejudice
In gilded frames
Frames too tight for wiggling
For outside the line colouring
For growth and different thinking–
For majesty and mystery linking
to a bigger God
The God who makes little cones into
Douglas Firs
Ancient, regal, divine
Holding many secrets
Including those
beyond our time
Old but ever new
Deep roots
Ever seeking
Ever nurturing, ever reaching
Branches out stretching
To the sky
Soft, fresh needles sprouting
Shading
Nourishing little creatures
Song birds singing
Animals scratching
Wise One without words preaching…
Are we listening, hearing?
Why can’t we be more like this grand tree?
Age-old, strong, evergreen, free
Ever changing, growing to be
More and new
Waving, engraving space for scribbles
In gold
And green, orange, red, blues
What might the future hold
How might our lives enfold
If we could only let go
And hear, learn, share multiple accents–
In startling rainbow hues
Like many branches growing each unique and true
All a gift that life and thriving represents
Beyond our limited thinking
not bounded by our clouded contexts.
If I were to listen to the Tree
and more importantly
To the God who made it to be
Our Teacher
What would I hear and be?
Would Creator’s accent set me free?
Creator’s accent
Glorious, expansive
Radiant, vivid, advansive
Brave, and bold, glance of
Young and old
On the left and on the right,
In the middle and in sight
Inviting me
Curiously,
Into the subtlety
Of frameless holy profundity
To scribble in infinity
To play and learn and dance abundantly,
To be still in Fir Tree’s company–
To change and grow
To know, not know and let go
As I am and will be, aglow
Underneath Creator’s Tree…
Speckled sunlight beams
Underground living water streams
Engraced
Embraced
With space
Beyond frames’ measure
All are free– Ancient new fir tree
Golden growing Godly treasure.
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~ Goodfellow
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