Collaborative Composition || Poetry ’n’ Motion
Whispers of Love
What was taken becomes what is given
The healing waters of love and acceptance
All of my life there’s a song I’ve been waiting to sing Is there hope yet to find, Have I courage to see, To explore what I fear to find — [Song lyrics by𝔅𝔅]
🪶J𝔞yl𝔢𝔢 ღ:
Within this brief but life-giving project is the voice of vulnerability, reaching out to bravely listen and support one another, to bring to form that which is pulsing within the shared chambers of humanities’ heart. As a consequence, we begin our story by sending a big thank you to Hollie for being the catalyst to our personal healing.
“Rocking Our Way to Fun” has been the symbiotic catalyst to reconnect hearts within our family-friendship circle, creating together purely for creation’s sake. It was due to Hollie’s August writing prompt in “Everything Fun” where she shared her own life passion for music, that motivated Raine and I to have a spur of the moment conversation on how the joy of singing has interwoven its miracle thread through many aspects of our lives. This also encouraged Raine to share 𝔅𝔅’s (Raine’s big brother) story narrations and current artistic endeavors with me. In turn we decided, in the spirit of community, to share some of our creative play and personal story/reflections with you.
For me, our co-creative play was never about entering into any kind of talent-pool quest. Far from it. Rather it was a choice to make visible what is hidden, to choose to be in harmony with the ever present sounds of healing for the “feeling” of love that music vibrates into being. To accept connection with the resonant hum that flows a river song through mother nature’s dream-lines, is to accept the sound of love which flows through all of our veins. This belongs to everyone, regardless of musical talent. With this in mind, I surrendered over my fears and was embraced by Raine and 𝔅𝔅 in their joint venture purely out of the bonds of love even though I’m not, nor have I ever, trained to be a singer.
In fact, this *Minnehaha's informal love of music was mostly born out of my childhood play with my twin brother — we spent many a failed school day wagging class to entertain our wayward friends. I have fond memories of clowning around with *Little Chief Running Water, singing a duet or two in our local bush hideout. (*side-note: these are nick-names the nurses in the maternity ward placed on our cribs at birth ;-).
Being born both land and water-babies we’d finish our rebellious afternoon gaining free access at our local public pool by spending our double-class act charming new mothers to assist their little ones’ to swim. This however, never failed to deliver an ice-cream treat or two! For me the chlorine waters were our birthplace of sweet treats, gentleness, acceptance and reciprocal joy.
We got away with our truancy for a while as we intercepted communication informing our parents of our poor ‘school-pool’ attendance. Not that this mattered for circumstance would have it my brother and I would soon part ways and lose connection. Not long after, around our fourteenth birthday, I made the difficult life decision to set out on my own. Self-determined, I put my long-distant running skills to good use and left what were the remnants of my untenable dysfunctional home, seeking to build safer new-world connections and sacred song-lines of my own.
My brother found his way through to make good of his life, refining his musical love by playing and writing mostly children’s songs, even winning some national music awards and I’m proud of him for following his passions. I also learnt very early on in life to tune in and listen solely to my fractured heart, which led me into a flourishing garden of light and love to become an early years’ transitions teacher.
My childhood storybook love for all things bush, music, movement and aquatics lasted the distance and became deeply intertwined in the children’s nature play as together we sang soft tunes to guide and nurture non-violent communication and peaceful environments. On weekends I found myself once more singing in harmony with and for small ‘crowds’ who would sit and gather to observe the infant swim-classes I was blessed to participate in and guide, as united we nurtured and strengthened the parent-infant relationship bonds assisted by the enchantment of nature-flow and the buoyancy of water.
🪶 Mother nature’s ecology— If one part of her system suffers, connection diminishes & all parts subside — yet if one part is embraced, all parts triumph for in unity there is no divisionღ
There is something deeply intimate and rewarding, softly singing and moving in fluidity as one organism within a new mothers group (embraced by a few dads, too!) who are entrusting you to guide them and their infants through the water safely. The reward was witnessing fear dissolve as we offered protection through song to the smiling light of newborn innocence. These child angels continue to be my forever guides with their mesmerizing magic, swishing and swaying in the arms of trust to the soothing waves of nursery rhymes and lullabies. It was their sweet powerful exchanges of love which struck a chord to heal the never-shed tears buried deep within my soul.
🪶Let the sounds of majestic water birds beat their fellowship wings to create reverberating river streams flowing in global friendship & love ღ
As Raine and I surrendered ourselves over to playful flow, united in reciprocal giving on that one brief exploratory afternoon, it was then I realized the importance of why these song-lines flowed into being. For me it was about the intrinsic reward of gently holding that tiny little seed of God’s beauty that is found within all of us to form into being all the perfect imperfections a new start brings. As what was once perceived as being taken away now becomes what is given, united in the passions of our shared love, we are able to come back into harmonious alignment as we support one another to heal in the bubbling springs of nature’s ever present humming waterfalls.
🪶No-one hears untold stories… voice your story & the listener appearsღ
｡☂ℜ𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔢˚:
The Seasons Haiku
Spring, summer, autumn, bring the winter of my life. Rediscover voice…
When 𝔅𝔅 sent me a song, (melody written by his son), with an invitation to sing 𝔅𝔅’s penned lyrics, I was very dubious.
𝔅𝔅 has a passion for rich musical creation, and I have been known to belt out a tune or two having had extensive involvement with bands and live performance. However, and to cut a long story short, I have a health issue that has had a detrimental effect on my voice over the years, and I had simply stopped singing. There was plenty else to occupy my time so I gave it up completely.
All of my life I’ve been waiting for a whisper of love Who’ll fan the flame and help me to find the life I’m longing to know — [𝔅𝔅]
On reflection, I began to think, “Why not?” Dee, (my hubby), had been at me to start singing again. I had been regretting my sudden halting of musical activities, so I mentioned 𝔅𝔅’s project to Jaylee. Her genuine love of music had often been expressed through her work with children where she taught in spirit of peaceful communication.
I was once privileged to see Jay guide a class of preschool children through a series of Shibashi movements to music. The fluidity of Shibashi expressed by beautiful children was a delight to behold. The concentration and innocence shining through eager-to-please faces lighted the room and hearts of all the parents in attendance.
One of her most beloved hobbies was guiding young children and new mothers using the calming movement of water, accompanied by singing. Hence, one of several reasons we chose to place water videos behind our voices. Synchronously, as youngsters, 𝔅𝔅 and I relished our time involved with water sports. We spent many hours together in the local pool, honing diving skills for competitions and even enjoyed time preparing a partnered clown-diving act to entertain at carnivals.
Recently, Jay expressed to me that she became aware that singing had been a shaping factor throughout most of her life and she was missing it terribly. Covid has played a major factor in our cessation of music.
I was excited — she had as much fun as I did playing & singing together, surprising each other with how much we achieved in just one afternoon. Some of our surprise was born of the fact that I was so rusty, and Jay had laryngitis! Talk about lost voices! Still, we managed to work through it all (and I was blessed with moments of blissful quiet between takes because of Jaylee’s affliction)!😁🤗…[🪶Oh my goodness, Raine! — please for once stop clowning around and try to behave, lol]…🤡ღ
𝔅𝔅’s song has brought us closer together than we thought was possible. The timing of this has been pure synergy in motion. 𝔅𝔅 and I are thrilled Jaylee was excited by the prospect of uniting in our endeavors, offering her love of harmony to any works that continue to evolve in the near future, and so a new chapter of project collaboration began.
Because 𝔅𝔅 lives in New Zealand, we faced many technical difficulties which weren’t able to be fully resolved in this instance — I won’t bore you with the details. It also helps to keep in mind that 𝔅𝔅’s musical accompaniment to his son’s melody was originally written with a choir in mind. Suffice to say, this is an impromptu new beginning. Jay and I are still novices in the digital music department, but we are happily working on improving the digital recording aspect as well as bringing in unity, colour, quiet strength and richness back to our recovering voices as we share our fun explorations with you.
This new collaboration has filled me with joy. Embracing and exploring our combined passions through fellowship, and collaborating with family who remain beyond our physical embrace, has brought a renewed spirit of love and reunification. Together, we are reigniting our passion for healing through the creative arts and our appreciation of each other.
And with your help together We’ll raise our voice And let the notes ring —[𝔅𝔅]
🪶Forgiveness flows
New wave of being in magical sea — Come join my new dance Sings love’s companyღ…
🪶Rewriting our own stories with compassionate wisdom provides others the freedom & space to reconnect to new worlds within & aroundღ
𝔅𝔅: I have a deep love of the arts…Music played a strong part in our upbringing. It’s hard for me to describe how thrilled I was when you told me, Raine, that Jaylee was joining us. Suddenly, something was somehow coming together that I had not realized was missing. There is a strong sense of fulfillment, as if parts that have been imperfectly connected are coming together in a very satisfying way. We are starting to join together what was separated for too long.
Jay — I started writing short stories, poetry, and songs from about the age of 17, and around the same time was involved in or formed several pop groups. Raine was developing her singing, and some of my fond memories were of how we would sing together while doing the evening dinner dishes. With her, I began to develop an interest in improvising harmonies. Around this time also, Raine and friends formed a singing group, The Quavers, for whom I possibly played the piano. My memory is hazy on this. But I do remember that my group, The Concords, backed Raine in a local talent quest.
I am happy to confess that I was close to tearful when you told me, Raine, that Jay first expressed an interest in joining us, and then wanted to continue doing music with you.
In bygone years, collaboration was an essential part of life. Rural communities could not have existed without everybody working together, and of course they then naturally played together. Our Celtic ancestors were renowned for their cèilidhs… Even though artists and artisans abound on both sides of our family, I cannot recall anyone in the family collaborating to produce something in the way of artistic endeavor. Art was seen to be a solitary occupation. In fact, I recall as a youngster being shut out of grandad’s workshop when he was in there, despite really wanting to see how he did things. I would have loved him to teach me, and looking back I realise a part of me was starved of something important.
Although I am approaching 77 years, I keep saying (and believing) that my best work is still ahead of me. If it involves collaborating with my family, then my response is “Yippee”. There is so much we have to share and experience of each other. I have long been somewhat in awe of your creativity, Raine, and I am greatly impressed by your interest, Jay, in healing through creative art, and working that out in many forms. We obviously have a lot in common. I look forward to exploring where this might lead.
🪶Here’s a clear thought…Tune your waters to kind melodic sounds for healing & expansive energy to inter-lace. Now that’s a classic idea!ღ
Will you reach out your hand, Give me courage to stand? In your eyes will I see loving care from your heart for me? — [𝔅𝔅]
｡☂ℜ𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔢˚ & 🪶J𝔞y ღ: We hope sharing some of our vulnerable notes becomes an invitation for you to take some precious time to explore and honor your voice in whatever way that makes you feel seen and happy. Remember there is always a seed of beauty to be found in imperfection. No matter how young or old, skilled or novice, give yourself permission to explore and to shine your unique light. Re-color your space and reinvent your voice in whatever way, shape or form that comes forth so you too can unite with us and with others to feel truly at peace in the spirit of fellowship and great company.
♡Thank you for visiting our publication, °•*⁀➷Poetry ’n’ Motion, R-vs-R, ‘Where imagination & wilderness meet’, By J. Reign & R. Lore,©, 2022ღ
P.S. Some of you may not have been aware Raine and I recently chose to pool some creative works together. If you would like to know how this joint venture began then please see below to see the plight of something old, to discover something broken,(that’s our sense of humor) to look for something borrowed (that’s the time we both now need to find to create something else for our new pub, lol) and reinvent something new as we welcome you to Poetry in Motion…
If, like us, you were inspired by the extract,'The Writer',written & narrated by,𝔅𝔅(J.McNeil),you can hear the full version of his incredible poem presented with musical accompaniment in its original context by clicking on the YouTube link: https://youtu.be/3d01Jaf1OjQ [An allegory on the Gospel of John, ch. 1. The Writer, creator of all, tries to join in with those whom he has created, but is rejected. Worse, he is killed. But some chose to accept him, and became part of his family]