Image credit: kesipun/Shutterstock.com
I am peaceful
I am flying
Towards the horizon
The rising sun
I am grateful
So content
With bread I’ve baked
And cloth I’ve spun
I am ready
I am willing
To take the reins of
What’s begun
I am peaceful
I slept long
But now I’ve woken
To the sun
(c ) Helen Valentina 2018
Image credit: Super Prin/Shutterstock.com
I remember all your colours
I don’t think you ever saw them
Always searching for the more
You were blind to all within
And perhaps it was your mother’s words
The balm of yesteryear
That held you such a prisoner to fear
The world would much more welcome you
Than you gave it credit for
Shaping all its indignities
As phantoms in your mind
When if you’d let your colours fly
I think you may have found
Acceptance and a beautiful common ground
You’ve flown to other skies I know
Where feathers shine in greater light
But what have you abandoned here
In such portentous flight?
I wish a mirror for your soul
To make you proud and make you whole
Embracing all your colours so
Your spirit finds its flow
(c) Helen Valentina 2018
Image credit: vita/Shutterstock.com
Where would we be
Without such rich diversity
Without each unique
identity
So many colours
In our sea?
To strip such colour here away
Become the bland, the drab and grey
What price we’d pay for us to be
So lost in uniformity
Speak not of difference as a curse
For sameness is a prison worse
A life should ramble unrehearsed
Adventure from cradle to the hearse
And in our difference we may find
The heart of truth
The soul that’s kind
And leave our anger
Far behind
Just leave it all behind
(c. ) Helen Valentina 2018
Image credit: Perfect Lazybones/Shutterstock.com
I go to the forest at night
If only in my mind
To find a tranquility
In darkened paths
And moonlit creeks
As if within the mystery
I seek
My own heart
Deep in the forest at night
I find a second home
This natural habitat
So suits my nature
Under mother moon
Until within the mystery
I find at last
My heart
(c. ) Helen Valentina 2018
Image credit: jamesteohart/Shutterstock.com
We float above it all
This glorious shining city
Of the free
We sing across the spheres
Triumphant glory songs
For the free
Adrift among the stars
We cannot lose our way
When we are free
The universe is ours
And we shall take it all
If we are free
(c. Helen Valentina 2018
Image credit: Sasha Molly/Shutterstock.com
Sweet thing so worthy
To wear the crown
And bear the sorrow
That power brings
You are here chosen
From all around
To witness tomorrows
Where heaven sings
And all your pains
And all your pains
Are offered up
As lesser things
Sweet child so pretty
As adult bloom
And serve your country
With sacrifice
You are the chosen
Within the room
To birth tomorrows
Of fire and ice
And all you give
And all you give
Is taken once, and twice
And thrice
(c. ) Helen Valentina 2018
Image credit: frankie’s/Shutterstock.com
“I contain multitudes’ – Walt Whitman
There comes a time we realise and feel
a lack of linearity within and confused
we stumble through our memories as if to excavate
the shape and form of who we are
from what we’ve been
But like a ghost unto ourselves
our pasts present the multitudes
of chosen paths and abandoned possibilities
and nothing more, nothing more
What is I, what is the form and being
that inhabits my thoughts and body?
Does it exist as something separate, inviolate
or does it merge with the all in ways
that blind belief in individuality shields
from my weary eyes?
Can I proclaim that I remain
an entity of separate form and matter
or in multitudes do I swim
another cell in an unseeable
and unknowable large schema
and nothing more, nothing more?
(c. ) Helen Valentina 2018
Image credit: Irina Alexadrovna/Shutterstoc.com
He made the promise to you
One perfect springtime morn
His words they were so precious
So much to wish upon
How could you know by summer
That he’d be gone?
Your dress it was so pretty
He said beyond compare
And all the flowers circled
In your wondrous hair
How could you know by summer
He’d not be there?
Such promises are sweet
They take your breath away
His earnest loving words
He’d never go away
How could you know by summer
He would stray?
So young girl take this warning
Turn not your pretty eyes
To look upon a lover
As something like a prize
Lest you find in summer
He only ever lies
(c ) Helen Valentina 2018
Image credit: Elena Schweitzer/Shutterstock.com
Admit me in
To the possibility
I have remained a novice
All this time
Read my books
And learned my lines
Awaiting on
The appointed moment
When the doors would open wide
And welcome me inside
Give me hope
Through the possibility
All my yesterdays
Guiding lights
Every token
Shining bright
Breathing through
The sea of wonders
Swimming to the other side
To be welcomed here inside
(c ) Helen Valentina 2018
Full disclosure: I’m a sucker for anything about angels, redemption, universal love and honour. So The Contract, by John Howell and Gwen Plano, had me ‘at hello’ – or ‘chapter one’ as they say in the literature world.
This is a truly unique book – a cross genre meeting of spiritual, action, thriller and romantic minds. One part evocation of spiritual growth and destiny, one part thrill ride through a rollicking mystery and political action rampage, one part one of the loveliest and most affirming romantic stories I’ve read in years. I’m not giving anything spoilery away by noting the story is about two souls that willingly contract to go to earth and avert a political disaster. But how this all unfolds is delicious and should be read by the reader, not told by the reviewer here.
I must say I’ve been a long time fan of John Howell’s writing. It is fun, fast paced, warm and engaging – much as I suspect the author would be. The fascinating thing here is how seamlessly his style and Gwen’s mix. I truly couldn’t tell which parts were written by which, so well did they merge from one to the other. It was very much like a harmony of two perfectly attuned instruments in a symphony.
They are the ideal writing partners to tell the story of two other perfect partners – of a different kind – as they fulfil their heavenly contract. ( And I loved the meta tip of the hat to this at the end of the book -very clever!) This makes me want two things: that they quickly do the sequel they promise at the end, and also I want to check out some of Gwen Plano’s other writing too now.
I thoroughly recommend this book to one and all – its genre mixing offers pretty much something for everyone, and by the end you will have enjoyed a wonderful, action packed, politically on point thriller that is also a romantic and life affirming ride.
As I said at the outset, I’m a sucker for honour and the spiritually uplifting, so I shed a few happy tears indeed in the final chapters. If this isn’t what the spiritual world is (and I for one hope it is) then it should be! Don’t miss out on a sublime experience – get your copy now!
Like most people, I have a number of sides to me. The most interesting one probably emerges through my writing, hence this blog. I love to read, and also to write, and so this is a way to share both.
Gravatar image credit: (c) iStockphoto.com/Lobsterclaws
