arroyo geisha
Inventory of items left in a storage shed
next to an arroyo in New Mexico
cordovan leather
cowgirl boots, the heels worn down like water-smoothed stones by the places I
had walked for two decades
a painting by a pueblo
artist of a feather shot by an arrow from earth and landed on the moon with the
shadow facing the wrong direction
a tiny tightly
stuffed faded black voodoo doll with eyes of glittery beading and a spiral stitched
into his belly
seven years of IRS
files and a ceremonial walking stick with a bear skull affixed with a band of beads
and feathers
my mother’s wedding
ring my widow’s wedding ring a ring in the shape of two sleeping horses
entwined a ring made of Guatemalan paper beads
a bird fallen from
a wooden carved circle of birds given to me by the first man I ever loved
the journal in your
handwriting which on the last page ended with the line I have stopped writing in this journal because she has found and read
it
a child sized manikin
dressed in the kimono obi tabi okobo my
father brought to me from Japan
she
stands faceless and white inside a glass display case
in
a storage shed next to the arroyo
waiting
waiting waiting
About the Poem
I am a military brat,
thus have lived many places, carrying my home on my back like a tortoise, the
latest being New Mexico and now Scotland
The title of this
blog is something of a tribute to my father, who is now age 92. Daddy Roy did
bring me the wee geisha kimono and accessories from Japan New Mexico
Some things were
too precious, cumbersome and expensive to bring or ship across the pond when I expatriated. Not only geishas. When I expatriated to Scotland
Waiting for…?
I left all these
characters suspended. In Scotland
So I began a series
of poems to try to get to the bottom of it.
Turns out it was a long, complicated story. As I worked through the poems, I often
wondered about that last line…what was the geisha waiting waiting waiting for? I kept thinking of her, in the dark of that
storage shed there in the hot sun-filled desert…
And then I
realised. She was waiting for me to
start writing again. To come alive
again.
Enter the Macleods…
So…I met Kim and
Sinclair Macleod of Glasgow Indie Writers, we began discussing self-publishing. I was so impressed with what they are doing,
and became excited about joining them as an indie writer pioneer, that I signed
up for their course to learn how to self-publish. The rest is history-in-the-making. Guardian of the Dark School
A little courage
Synchronicities
abound! That old adage is true, that if you pursue your dream, doors will
open, you will become aware of possibilities and opportunities you never saw
before…the idea that the universe supports a dreamer is one that I like!
So that wee geisha might
soon find herself leaving that display cabinet in the dark…the waters in that
dried up river bed (arroyo) have begun to flow again!
I like the irony
that part of the definition of a geisha is an entertainer, who uses stories and
conversation…not a bad metaphor for a writer.
Although this geisha isn’t writing just for men! In fact I write “just for people”.
I hope that others will
stumble upon this blog and give a second thought to their own dreams and what
might be waiting, waiting, waiting in their own storage shed…feel free to
borrow a little courage.
