Monday, September 30, 2024

Tell Me One More Time

I took this photo on September 26, 2024 
as I was playing one of my favorite songs,
on endless repeat and singing,
and also had been writing an eulogy,
in retrospect, for my Dad and Mum.
And yes it was 2 days before Kris died,
in his home in Hawaii, on September 28, 2024.
He was 88 years old.
So I was bringing us altogether
one more time, like the old days.
And next day I was playing 'This Old Road",
another in that trilogy of albums,
the other being "Feeling Mortal".

The framed poster
of Kris Kristofferson with his guitar at the 2008
Live At The Olympia Theater- Dublin, Ireland,
is one of my collection, and came with the CD
'Closer To The Bone'.
It has the lyrics which are rolling on the rhyme.
So brilliant and quintessentially Kris, 
and why I repeatedly love singing with the album.
'Tell Me One More Time',
 is title of song by Kris Kristofferson.
 
I have been buying and playing his albums since 1971,
and do listen very often so I know all the lyrics.
I saw him solo live in concert in Adelaide in 2019.

Here are some words written yesterday on abc.com.au
"As with so many of Kristofferson's songs,
he whispers in your ear from some kind of warm
and transcendent philosophical place, 
offering comfort, perspective,
and the possibility of hope when all is lost.
'For The Good Times',
is a masterclass in empathy and simplicity,
being able to capture
the most complex angle on the human condition,
all with a few well-placed words.
I'll be listening to these songs forever."- Henry Wagons
 
Blessings, peace, truth, freedom and big-hearted Love,
will live on for The Pilgrim.
My heart is deeply grateful for all his creativity 
and deep soul expression.
Love Bee xo

 

Friday, September 27, 2024

Blue Light And Blue Skies

Today your Lilac
is gloriously blooming
in the sky above your small grave.
As I walk by many times,
all the gnomes are always present
while little pixie friends play.
 
I reached some flowers.
See them here for you.
Butterflies now grace our garden
as golden dandelions shine,
I see you resting in the violet leaves
of where you came to be.   
 
There is blue light with me at night
as I lie in a warm bed
listening to blackbirds singing in the dark,
calling the dawn of morning.
 
My heart is with you Bobby, and the lilacs.
This is my 700th post to Come Blossom Come Fruit.
When I started here in August 2012 Poppy, my Italian Greyhound
was with me constantly, so, in my deep grief,
many lovely verses came to me when she died
in early September 2013.



 
 

 


 

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

How Did The Doves Nest Just Arrive?

I breathe
I grieve.
Yesterday I think of nests,
garden birds landing beside me
as I stand among the flowers
blessing your little body in the soil,
feeling slow, as I ponder where to plant alyssum
and wonder when
I will have more able strength
to do what helps me sing and everything.

Twas from last Autumn to this current Spring,
the trees came down,
the flowering creeper went away
and I found myself 
grieving their loss and mine.
Now your love of sunshine
heartens me on this cold day
as blue skies above
brighten our little flowers with the gnomes.

Something happened overnight,
or with a magpie's flight,
as an empty very feathered nest
is resting in the violet leaves.
It is a sign that things appear
even though no tree is near,
it has joined your graveside place
and the birds are with me
as they were with you
when warm sunshine shines through.
 
(Written September 16, 2024)

 
 

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

'We Grow By Delays'

Decades ago he said to you:
"Finish it all, I didn't do."
and now I wonder what that was to mean
is there some understanding I am to gleam
from this peculiar dream.
 
And just before I heard that comment,
I heard him say again to you
"The doctor's advice came true"
when he said to the man
"Get a dog you understand."

These snippets of a life,
where his often perplexing misunderstandings
kept his body anguished by the confusion
of crossing intersections,
needless to know
misconceptions
of where to head or where to go.
 
Pondering the circles of indecision,
looking down at his feet
rather than the landscape vision
he could complete
and happily travel and sometime meet
new opportunities.
 
When loitering is helpful
and meandering is a pleasant path, 
wisdom shows "We grow by delays".
So we know
by going back to look again,
dreams may then flow
to let blocked emotions go.

"We grow by delays" is a quote by the author of
"The Cloud Of Unknowing" (see my previous post 
September 21, 2024)
Photo credit: Nigella, flower seeds for sale
Lambley Nursery, Ascot, Victoria, Australia
 

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Finish It All I Didn't. What?

I heard him say :
in conversation to his friend 55 years ago,
in his own tone of weary resignation:
 
"Finish it all I didn't. I didn't finish it at all" 
 
And then yesterday I found a quote 
 
"As the author of 'The Cloud of Unknowing' states it
"We grow by delays",
and for this reason the later expressions
of our plans are often
more productive and meaningful
than they could possibly have been at the earlier time".
 
"It is a question of the appropriate moment."
 
Quote from Ira Progoff, in his book
'At A Journal Workshop".
Dialogue House Library, 1975

Dear Friends,
It is all so healing and inspiring
to be now working with current dreams and inner wisdom,
and to find new possibility in this Now momentum,
many long decades later. In my wisdom years!
I thought my dreams of past months were in code,
and now I see creative fulfillment blossoming.
How astounding.
All of nature has laws and codes.
 
Blessings and love,
Bee

Photo credit: Lambley Nursery Garden,
Ascot, Victoria, Australia. Autumn 2024
 

Tulips and Bluebells

Things come and things go
people come and people go
days come and days go
so now, gloriously
creative gentleness is here to see,
tulips, bluebells, seeds, flowers, bees and trees.
 
Photo credit: Lambley Nursery, Spring gardens, 2024
Ascot, Victoria, Australia
 

As All Beauty Blooms

Now just walking by I see
your blooming glory showing me
everywhere I look this day
I witness spontaneity at play
so as I go along my way
everything shines today.
 
It is that nature has her time
where buds are growing 
as elsewhere flowers fade,
or are too long in the shade
so potential fragrance wafts away.
 
Some years her flowers stay bright for days
but in present time
the wind has come suddenly,
so now we wait a year
for annual flowering to reappear.
 
Each open bloom is only brief,
in life plants grow new leaves
to welcome the coming warmth of summer
when tomorrow presents differently
our loitering becomes possibility.

Photo: Bee Porteous, Vibernum carlessi, in my garden,
September, Spring 2024


 

Thursday, August 29, 2024

"Immortality" by Clare Harner 1934

Do not stand

          By my grave, and weep.
     
I am not there,
          
I do not sleep—

I am the thousand winds that blow

I am the diamond glints in snow

I am the sunlight on ripened grain,

I am the gentle, autumn rain.

As you awake with morning’s hush,

I am the swift, up-flinging rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight,

I am the day transcending night.

     Do not stand

          By my grave, and cry—

     I am not there,

          I did not die.
— Clare Harner, The Gypsy, December 1934


Above is the version published in The Gypsy of December 1934
(page 16), under the title "Immortality" 
and followed by the author's name and location:
"CLARE HARNER, Topeka, Kan."[1]: 424 
The indentation and line breaks are as given there. 
 
Photo taken: Bee Porteous, 1.09pm, August 19, 2024.
Delicate, open bell-shaped pink flowers Azelea/Rhododendron
'Abundance of Beauty' -
'A beauty that blossoms abundantly and without reserve'. 
"Flowers and Their Messages" - The Mother

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Treasures For Faith and Harmony

My tiny shadow lies beside me,
a small baby,
contained in a decorative lace bassinet,
so far away from familiar faces,
no places for me to see their smiles
as I am fostered miles from home
and this was then when
I lost the bonds of all I knew to be true.
 
I cling to soft ribbons and lace
I cannot swim, I never do,
I only float and hope
I will be found safe and sound.

Venus in Libra led me through
to my deep affinity with unusual containers
as safe places for treasures, feathers,
baskets holding fallen nests,
seed pods and bells,
gemstones and pebbles from wild places
in carved wooden bowls,
or in tin, or timber trunks,
storing Raku with gifts from you.

Almost all my containers
do contain more containers,
and somewhere within me
lives all faith and harmony,
knowing that what is tucked inside,
a floral or painted box
will be, found eventually.

I see these as places of safe-keeping
almost every thing will live anew with you
or 'who-ever-new, finds what is 'left behind'.




 
 

Saturday, August 3, 2024

Some Spring Is Springing

Flowing, growing, glowing, 
knowing, showing,
showering, flowering:
 
Oh Joy, I see a few new blooms
rising from the frosted soil.
They do it simply,
ever so quietly,
until two are peeping through,
so I see, these blue early signs
our winter will subside one day
as sunshine lights our way.
 
Some spring is springing
It’s about waiting and watching.
It’s about beginning and believing,
or believing and beginning.
It is knowing the soil will help the bulbs.
The rain will help the bulbs,
the sun will help the bulbs,
until one cold morning,
up will pop!! the beautiful flowers,
then more little bulbs,
keep on growing further on up the hill,
like a family always knowing,
Life blooms many times over, Roses to Clover....
 
I find Winter-Spring flowering bulbs
one of the simple joys of life.
 
Sweet joy to each of you 
Love Bee xo

Monday, July 22, 2024

My Love

I asked myself 9 days ago
What is my best way to Be now?
 
And this revelation came to me at 4.09am:
 
"I now know to Be my own true love."

 

Sunday, July 14, 2024

Bobby

Bobby Sweetheart,
this is one of my lovely pictures of you,
with your shining heart beaming through,
so much so, the vet always said,
when we thought it was the end,
"He's got a strong heart.
He wants to stay, he is happy with you,
so keep taking care of him"
In this photo Bobby was cradled in my lap
and we shared love and play for 9 weeks more.

With love to all for your gentle thoughts,
Blessings,
Bee and Bobby xoxo
 
 
 

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Noticing Quiet Things

This winter glow
brings quiet things
rarely noticed
but deeply felt as caring gifts
thankfully received
and continually cherished in my deepest heart.
 
Grace, peaceful blessings and deep serenity
to all, Love Bee xo
 

Monday, July 8, 2024

Lighting Our Way

 
Sweet love of mine, what joy I have
I am most glad to see you
dressed in pearly white this full moon night.

Shall we dance, sweet jonquil,
shall we sing quietly
shall the stillness bring us through.

The years of tears
are gently taken to heaven to rise again
and fall with the spring rain,
when time has passed and our hearts are lifted
with the artistry of daffodils
blooming on the grassy hills.
 
These Jonquils are chosen with fondest love
for my Dad, my Mum and my best friend, Bobby
who passed away,
in separate years, in the morning of July 5.

Sunday, July 7, 2024

One Day Before Yesterday

 


One day before yesterday
you gently passed away.
Your soul left in a second, 
so your glorious running, playing,
eating and now sleeping body is resting.
 
Yet, still I see you playing 'chasey'
or in your favorite tunnel nest
under the old lilac tree
with your toys and pixies
peeping through the strappy leaves
where tall blue lilies will always be.

Us always walking around together,
picking posies and sniffing flowers will be
my happiest memory.

Little Bobby Sweetheart,
everyone loved your super happy smile,
your joy, your play will always stay,
as your deeply gentle fondness
was shining brightly every day.
 
Best friends from the start,
Bobby, you will always be in my heart.
Always in my heart.
Bobby - November 2010 to July 5, 2024
 

Monday, July 1, 2024

I Lay The Past To Rest

There were different roads that I chose to go
and some long ways in another direction
but always, then came an intersection
with a higher way to take that day
and the next, until I found the best path yet. 
 
Not at all easy.
Some days my bones are going slow
so life it brings Simplicity.
I find Joy at the start of every path
back to the beginning.
 
Long ago, when I walked a different way
I shaved skin off my shinbone
I mostly felt all alone
misunderstood
so I did Tai chi among the trees
I walked home alone in the dark
yes for me,
some very contradictory ways to be.
 
I walked and walked,
I worked late shifts, up and down
ten city storeys in a time of little glory
when I could only just pay the rent but I went
bush-walking every morning.
 
I have taken inspiration on outback tracks
I have planted sunflowers in my country field
I have learned from relationships
I have looked to sea
the wide skyline of anchored tankers:
raw-iron-ore going nowhere.
 
So times were not easy to forget.
I was lost in a crowded place
I was invaded in my own space
Maybe I hide in plain sight
I have walked so many paths
I have bundled sticks along the fence
so little lizards hide in them.

Yes I could start a fresh.
So no longer looking back,
I find this track to stroll along.
Just following the flight of birds
and the whispering grass I have always heard.
 
I walk where the trees talk with me. 
I find The Simple Path is my way,
so life is ever so much better this very day.
 
July 1, 2024

 

 

Sunday, June 30, 2024

Little Sparrow Oh So Cold So Cold


I heard the little sparrow say today:
You cried when I was still alive
you cried when I died
of hypothermia
I will remember you with your warm hand
around my cold feathered body.
You tenderly breathed all warmth to me
as for a time my eyes were open.

Now again, we fly free with apricity*.
*Apricity
- warmth of winter sun on back - or face
- from 1600 
- a gardener's word, chirped by a little bird!!
 

Saturday, June 22, 2024

These Precious Feathers

I saw your gentle peace
each day we passed through,
so this quiet picture of a beautiful you
now rising to higher skies,
calls me to bless
your precious feathers left behind.
 
Turtle Dove,
you lived here with your family,
resting in the garden and nesting in the trees.
I know you flew on to live anew.
Still I cry as I softly bury you.
I cry as I bury you.