"The Fire Within"
Updated October 28, 2023
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Boozhoo,
Today's blog story features a beautiful painting and poem written by Simone McLeod. The canvas and poem honor a great friendship that promised to last forever but eventually broke under the pressure of intergenerational trauma-related circumstances.
After she wrote the poem Simone explained it to me as follows:
"This poem is a depiction of when two people are bound by trust, respect, and harmony.""
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THE FIRE INSIDE
Held in the
warmth
Of love's embrace
Safe and secure
Looking at your face
Of love's embrace
Safe and secure
Looking at your face
Feeling your hand
So gentle and sure
You pull me close
With such allure
Last on my mind
When I seek sleep
First in my heart
Wake from the deep
The fire within
Burns strong and true
When you whisper
"I love you"
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About the authors/artists:
Simone McLeod (her traditional name is Aki’-egwaniizid, which is an Ojibwe name meaning "Earth Blanket") is a Cree/Anishinaabe painter and poet, born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1962. She belongs to he Name doodem (Sturgeon clan) of her mother's people, the Azaadiwi-ziibi Nitam-Anishinaabeg (Poplar River First Nation) of Manitoba. Simone descends from a long line of Midewiwin seers and healers and artists. Her artwork has been appreciated by several art collectors and educational and health care institutions from Canada, as well as by art lovers from all over the world.
Zhaawano Giizhik, an American currently living in the Netherlands, was born in 1959 in North Carolina, USA. Zhaawano has Anishinaabe blood running through his veins; the doodem of his ancestors from Baawiting (Sault Ste. Marie, Upper Michigan) is Waabizheshi, Marten. As a writer and non-commercial artist and jewelry designer, Zhaawano draws on the oral and pictorial traditions of his ancestors. In doing so he sometimes works together with kindred artists. He has done several art projects with Simone in the past.
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The wind remains, the sky remains.
ReplyDeleteLet us not upset the balance of nature by man's intervention.