healingwords: poetry for the soul

A week has passed since I have been out the door, a week since I have seen my family, held my newborn grandson, played with his brother. The sadness of isolation is tempered by the knowledge we are keeping each other safe.  As I write this the sound of Parcent band members is echoing over the village as they play together with Valencian musicians all over the Communitat in honour of San Jose. It is a fiesta here today, the celebration of fallas, a day when families get together. Today we do what we can to keep cheerful.  We also do what we can to protect our loved ones. As in times gone by when people suffered without hospitals, medicines and modern care we add a prayer and a wish to our daily routines, appealing to our Gods and Goddesses or just the healing power of love and nature. If it doesn't help it can not harm and at least we feel like we are involved and somehow less powerless. In my house we light candles, in memory of my parents who lit candles for us, to co...

If you raise your eyes from street level you can spot the rusting faces adorning drain pipes on old houses in the village. No one I have asked has an explanation for them, other than as decoration but in this land blighted by drought and flooding rain, I like to think she is offering up a prayer for gentle rain. Not rain that washes away roads and strips the hills of topsoil, flooding the plains and coastal towns but rain to nurture the earth, fill the underground rivers, to gush out of the ground in natural springs.  © 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.  

This image captures a moment at St Brigid's Well in Liscannor, Country Clare in Ireland. The well is found just off the road, at the foot of a beautiful, wooded cemetery. It is a modest place, a statue of St Brigid looking out towards the Atlantic Coast is enclosed in a glass case, surrounded by flowers in a small circle of stone paving. The grotto leads into the rock, the entrance walls filled with statues of Saints, photographs of loved ones, prayers, rosaries, burning candles and letters of request to Saint Brigid, many for sick or deceased relatives of friends. The fading photos have a deep poignancy and reverence and whatever ones belief it would be hard not to be moved by the faith evidenced here and the simplicity of the worship.  The well itself is a small square of water refreshed from a running spring. It is said to have healing powers and this well is just one of many throughout Ireland dedicated to Saint Brigid. She is one of Ireland's most revered Saints a...

             I am saddened to hear of the death of Mary Oliver. Her poetry bought inspiration, solace, wisdom to the dark places and over all hope in the transformative power of nature to heal our souls and bring us closer to the divine nature in all things.  I am writing daily Haiku, this is my distilled response to her death, I will spend my day reading her wonderful poetry. MARY OLIVER Mary Oliver walking in woods, poetry healing heart and soul. Words copyright  © 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill. All rights reserved.