Can I Show You Something?

10/4/2013

When I was little, I used to get overcome when I saw something I thought was beautiful. Once I ran down the hill above my house where we were working in the tomato patch to run back up with my camera to take a picture. I've lost the picture but kept the burning-lung gasping relief of getting back into the clearing and seeing the rainbow still there, holding its pose.

This picture shows me at 5 after pulling one of the roses that bloomed beside our cement block playhouse. It seemed so huge and fragrant and impossibly wonderful, I asked to have my picture made with it. My cowlick was in full flare, I'm sure I smelled like a puppy from playing outside. But that very moment had to be caught.

It is hard sometimes as an adult to feel such uncomplicated joy. But not tonight. For the past several years, I've been running in the yard in a different way, looking for things, writing them down, playing, working at the poems in my book. Now they are a thing, a real book. As tangible and exciting as that rose. Tomorrow I go into a room and share it with my family and friends and maybe some new friends and readers.

I am going to forgo all the tormented bullshit creative folks put themselves through and just offer it up like I've done before. Just hand it out and say, "Hey, can I show you something?"

13 Comments

SJ Ursrey link

10/4/2013 02:59:29 pm

That right there has inspired me deep. Real real deep. Perfect.

Michelle Castleberry

10/7/2013 11:55:10 am

So glad it struck a chord, honeychild! :)

Moni

10/4/2013 06:33:47 pm

those moments, while always there, come to light when we are open... enjoy it!

10/7/2013 11:56:07 am

I am doing my best, Moni! Wishing the same for you!

lne

10/4/2013 10:02:32 pm

What you see now is not new. Just wintered over, hidden by overgrowth, found again. From your blog a few months ago.
I'm so thankful that the wintering over is gone and now we see the beautiful bloom.

Bob Ambrose link

10/4/2013 10:55:38 pm

Stay young, Michelle, and keep bringing us roses, rainbows, and puppy smells. Thanks.

10/7/2013 11:56:58 am

Beautifully put. Thank you for being a kind witness.

Mark Bromberg link

10/4/2013 11:08:11 pm

Wonderfful ... What a great invitation to take a look-see, lol....

10/7/2013 11:57:45 am

Thanks, Mark!

Doreen Swaim link

10/5/2013 02:21:31 am

I, too, have been looking and searching and trying to cut through the bullshit. At about age 12, I had an experience at my Grandma's house. She lived in such beautiful country air. There were cows and horses and corn and every fruit, vegetable and flower growth I think known to mankind. I can remember her saying "Go outside and play, and pick yourself a piece of fruit...there are many to choose from." Then one night, as I sat outside of my Grandma's house, I felt the clearest and cleanest night air that I believe I was ever given before. The color of the night sky and the shining and dancing of the stars was fascinating. And like you, there was beauty and simplicity all around me. A Pure and Spiritual moment came over me of pure peace, of pure joy, soothing into my mind, my body, my heart and then into my soul. I felt so intensely one with the earth. Not the earth that I see and feel today, but an earth where I could see and feel the sensations of the dirt, the grass, the air, the flowers and plants and trees. But, most of all, I felt all of my given senses taken in by the color, the deepness, the aura of the night sky and the stars of such magnificent light of promise. Those angelic stars were not only twinkling, but also dancing around and around. I have never felt that feeling again. I relate much more than you will know, I believe...to the message that you have blessed us with today. All of my life, I have been clouded and thundered, and I have revived each time with much help. I, too, Michelle...have come to a place where I desire to sift out all of life's daggers to replace them with simplicity and peace and to have nature and goodness of mankind be my source of how I experience and complete my given life. You have enriched me with a great gift this day...the feelings of connection to you, to your outlook on life that seems so close to mine. It is always such a mysterious and amazing experience to me to feel and enjoy a relation with another person; who, although I do not know personally, but that is so far from being relevant. All that I know and feel is that your aura touched my aura, and I am grateful to you for that. Go and revel in your glorious joy and feeling in what you have to show. I believe that you have the capacity to shine stars of your own.

10/7/2013 11:58:57 am

Doreen, thanks for taking the time to share your experience of clarity of joy. Here's wishing you many more moments like that. I am humbled that my words reached you in that way. Best, Michelle

Nicole Tilde link

10/7/2013 11:09:04 am

I was sent here, to your site, by the poetry man. I wish you the best of luck with your book. Are there excerpts anywhere? Any samples?

10/7/2013 12:01:35 pm

Nicole, I am much intrigued by the referral by the poetry man :)
Thanks for the best wishes and feel free to amble over the the tabs marked "Read" for texts of poems or "Listen" for audio. Some of the poems from Dissecting the Angel are in both places. If that doesn't help you out, let me know.

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