nihly

****NEW PICTURES, MY ARTWORK OLD AND NEW***, being added in bits and pieces...

I said I would post this, to some, so here it is. It is a bit long so bare with. It is worth it, as always haha.

This is a poem I wrote in grade 10, but still rings as true as it did then. In fact I used in for an art project this year, an "artist book", where I wrote the poem out by hand in a notebook in india ink to look as if it were a journal and then I had photos of my favourite haunts of a certain area of Toronto on each page with old school black photo corners. Though you are never told who the ode is to, and the pictures do not directly link to the written subject matter...well, the whole point of art is that you are supposed to THINK, my friends. The photos are of my travels. And this guy always came with me wherever I went. So that is the link if you delve mentally deep enough. And the point the poem gives across too is my attachment to certain objects in my life, the memories they hold for me and my fear of losing them/letting them go. The artist book was called "Ode to Fred and Other Travels". I was not happy with it because I ended up, being a perfectionist, making it look too perfect instead of like a worn-out travel log. So I'm going to re-attempt it someday. But here's the poem, and it can count as today's story too:

ODE TO FRED, by NIHL:

Like a soft fuzzy peach
You sit on my bed
From the time morning calls...

And the rising sun peaks through my blinds
From beyond the bone-like trees of the ravine
Sending spears of gold streaking across the floor

I stir and crawl out of the warmth of my covers
To start yet another day.

It's afternoon.

You sit, waiting
Staring at the walls
Thoughtful but unblinking

Maybe the cat pads in and hops

Up

For a visit, and a wash
Then leaves again with the swish of a tail.

Evening dawns.

The room darkens with deepening twilight
I return, weary, and flop on the bed

A navy ocean of suns and moons
A rolling tide of restfulness
Lulls me to sleep

And still you look on
With those large, brown sympathetic eyes
And that mischievous, but tender, half smile

When it's been a hard day, and tears are threatening
I can make my way upstairs to you
Always sitting with your back to a mountain of pillows
Ready to lend a floppy brown ear

And you listen with patience
No one else has

To the problems
No one else understands

Soothing me in a way
No one else can

I gather you in my arms and go
Diving beneath the sea of blankets
Creating an ocean of my own

But you don't mind getting a little wet

Because you're my lifeboat
My life-long, silent friend.

I used to worry, when I was young
That the house caught fire
And flames were licking the walls
Just outside my door

And if I could save one thing

It would be you

I would tie my bed sheets together
And secure them to a post
Then we would escape through the window
Just like a fairytale

When we went on trips
You would always come along
You've seen as much of the world as I

I never left you behind

I would be sitting in the car
As we sped down highways
And drove up mountains
The summer heat beating mirages into the pavement.

The window would be open
Whipping my hair about my face

And I used to imagine that the wind
Would grab you from my arms
And pull you out of the car
Maliciously leaving you stranded on the side of the road
Someplace

And I couldn't get my dad to turn around

I'd hold you even tighter.


I may get older
No longer staging weddings with you as the groom
Or playing picnic with pretend foods

But I will always keep you with me
Close by my side,

As you have always been

And you always will be...








My Fred.


I wrote something else last night but that can wait another day. Another day another day. Today I accomplished a lot, so we'll see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully only happiness and the best of things. Good nite SG buddies!!!

LB