A Day of Juxtaposition

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A Day of Juxtaposition

 

Today’s a day of laundry and dishes

And also fulfillment of long-time wishes.

How can I hold them all in my hands …

Will I fly apart? Or can I stand?

 

Is there a key to contain it all?

Can I embrace it in a neat tidy ball?

The hum-drum of life and the everyday stuff

Seems odd on a day of dreams hewn out of the rough.

 

Or perhaps it is the other way ‘round—

The dreams-come-true are the oddity, I’ve found.

A two-hour slot to sign books at a show.

Not one, but two published, it’s crazy, I know.

 

And then, what’s more, my art on display …

The work of two years in sketchbooks each day.

Could this be happening as I vacuum my house?

Am I really that artist? I feel like a mouse.

 

So small and simple with very few cares.

Yet a mandate of wonder from my toes to my hair

Resides deep inside me; it must come out –

In paintings and books to share like a shout:

 

“Come see Beauty with me in the town where I live!

Come fly a Kite and be free to give—

Encouragement to each other, as daily we create

a Father’s love for His children, which will never abate.”

 

So with vacuum in one hand, books and art in the other,

I’ll receive His gifts, as artist and mother.

This is the key that I needed today …

To simply receive. May I remember it always.

 

-jpe

11/23/2013

0 thoughts on “A Day of Juxtaposition

  1. Elaine Magliacane says:

    Your dishwasher is loaded with such colorful dishes… my dull beige dishes never once inspired my art… and yet I wonder are her dishes really that bright, maybe it’s that she ‘SEES’ them that way with her artist eyes, and I’ve been looking at mine with my house maid eyes….

    • jenpedwards says:

      I do actually have quite colorful dishes…Fiestaware! I just love them for all their colors!! Even our plastic stuff, I chose for all the colors. But I do think we can see, even in the beige, colors that can lift our day! Sometimes it happens when we draw it! and we turn the beige into blue, red, and green! I hope you have a colorful day Elaine! And thank you for visiting and commenting here!

  2. freebirdsings says:

    I sure never thought to draw and paint my dishes in the dishwasher! I will say, they sure look nice the way you did it though. Nice poem. It covers things pretty well I think. Some days are so ho hum you wonder if the “wonder” is out there for real but then you stop and think, and realize it’s here, right under (in) the cleaning and dusting and cooking and “normal” run of the mill days. Sometimes we have the super happen such as your books but it’s the regular days that built up to that! Days of drawing dishes or the window you look out of or your children and husband for no reason but to do it and then pen some words here and there and whoa, it adds up to successful books, a blog and showing your art in places. It’s a dance with all of it mixed together isn’t it?

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