The Red Pencil Newsletters (2015 and 2016)

Click here to read the 2015 and 2016 newsletters. I wrote most of the content and supervised the design and layout of the newsletter.

Art therapy (2/4/2016)

I saw a plethora of colours before me
I was awestruck yet dumbfounded
What should I choose? 
How should I choose?

She held out red and green crayons
placed them on her hand and told me
Don’t you think that the red brings out
the best of the green crayon
And that the green brings out
the best of the red crayon?

I chose watercolour instead
and watch the colours melt into one another
blue and orange emitted a comforting green
while red autumn leaves floated across the paper
and faded blue mountains outlined
in the midst of patterns and impressions

Tell me about space, she said
And my heart ached at the thought of
the space I had lost and could never return
Bring the space to you through art then.

I imagined the mist surrounding the convexes
of the magnificent mountainous landscape
then I saw snowflakes falling
remembered the stars scattered like dust
all over the horizon

I watched the painting come to life from afar
And my heart ached at the thought of
how I cannot be boxed up like others
content with comformity, comfort and conventions

Marry both colours together
Marry both selves together
They need not be polarising opposites;
Take your shadows by their hands
And dance with them.

You’re a volcano
full of energy and drive
integrate and marry different forms together
open up new creative possibilities

With a heart as open as yours
a flexibility and yearning to
search for the self
you’ll succeed;

you’ll succeed.

Touch (25/7/2015)

Every time someone lingers 
a little longer on her skin
she cracks a little more inside
scabs forming thick walls

Arms across her back
hands towards the waist
sometimes stomach
and other times the thighs

But she is not a doll
she is only human
yet with every trespassing
she is plasticised, objectified

She knows people love to touch
beautiful things
why can’t people see that 
the soul yearns to be touched too?

How could anyone even know her
when one begins and ends
with simply touching
the body?