I've been away

I'm aware I've not had time to post on here for a while. I was away for 3 weeks of June on a retreat at Plum Village in France, which was absolutely amazing and wonderful! I wrote a lot of poetry then (see my other blog Mindful Living http://lauribower.blogspot.co.uk/)
but haven't done anything creative for a while as my Ph.D. and its completion is forefront at the moment. Tomorrow I'm off to Glos to co-lead a Mindfulness and Poetry retreat which will be great fun and then the next few weeks will be Ph.D. focussed but after that ... free time for some fun and creativity!!
So I'll share this with you for now, a little boat I made out of a magnolia petal and leaf, and the poem that accompanies it.

I made a sailboat for you
from a beautiful cupped petal
large enough to be the whole hull.
I formed the sail and mast
from a leaf and a stick,
the passengers were pebbles,
a coin and screwed-up silver foil.
My skills in sailboat making
are limited to say the least.
Attaching the mast to the hull
created a hole through which
water quickly floods.
I made a beautiful sailboat for you
to sail off in your imagination
far across the lotus pond
towards the sunset
to discover new, unchartered lands.
But this sailboat is for dry dock only.
© 4 June 2014