Curtain Calls and Creativity, the Life Journey

John Lennon: “My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.”

This seems like a good way to conclude this week's creative journey! I'll freely admit, that I am intently enjoying my sometimes bumbling and some what stumbling pathway through the world of photo-essays, blogging, and creative writing. I've rediscovered some of my prose and poetry, as well as my efforts at digital photography. I'm delighting as much in combining them together to form something new within the “blogosphere” as I did at the time of each individual element's creation. My initial attempts at this were, perhaps, more grounded in expressing my own journey, both inner and outer. But even more so now, I hope that I have found a ways and means of giving a bit of vision and voice to those feelings, struggles, challenges, and victories for and from the lives of those around me, and of those who read my writings and view my photo-essay. (Reference the John Lennon quote!)

This piece of poetry seems a very fitting way to end this week-----it is (obviously from the “Sonnet I” in the title) the first true sonnet I ever attempted. (And yes, to those fellow graduates of San Marcos High School, Class of 1971, a big, if rueful, thank you to Miss Adelma Dale, the bane of our Freshman English Class!) This piece won an unexpected award on the poetry site I had come to frequent. It was a challenge piece---to write a true Shakespearean style sonnet, complete with correct rhyme pattern and in “iambic pentameter.” In other words, would Miss Dale have given it a pass as a “real” sonnet!

I've often used a great comparison to structured poetry and how we live our lives, and I cannot claim it is my original thought. Buried somewhere in the wonderful Newberry Prize Winning Book “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeline L'Engle, she uses this as an allegory. Without the proper format, the use of the correct meter, rhyme, and verse pattern, it is not a true English (Shakespearean) style sonnet. But, the use of format is only the outline, the choice of imagery, word usage, meaning, and message is unique to the creator. As a summation of how I envisioned living my life twelve years ago, it is true to myself. As a summation of what has kept me dealing with challenges and adversities, it remains true to who I am.

In going through my creative works, I have rediscovered many pieces expressing the challenges, pitfalls, negative (inherent human darkness, if you will) that have also influenced me in my writings. Sometimes I expressed my own anger, frustration, and depression----sometimes I reflected that of someone close to me, and sometimes I reflected a general empathic reaction to something less close but no less negative. This poem marks the end of one week's journey. Tomorrow I fully intend to keep a promise to my friend Pegs-the-Cupcake-Diva! I am going to, by golly, finish the first segment of how in the world my Beloved and I ended up going from Southern California to Northeastern Georgia---with three cats, one love-bird, and a 4X8 Uhaul! On Monday, though, I'm going to attempt to give voice and picture to some of the challenges and obstacles that are part of the ups and downs we all face as human beings. It is my hope that in addition to sharing the bright and beautiful with me from this week, those who have joined me here will stay with me on my journeys into the shadows, knowing that I have found a way back from the darkness. Much love to all Cyndy Shubert-Jett (AKA: Jazzie)

~~~Sonnet I~~~~
Curtain Call

In time I'll come to stand upon life's stage
To smile and bow and take my curtain call;
Then turn and face the ending of this age
To step beyond the shadowed curtain's fall.

The essence of my life will linger on
In glowing moonlight silvered on the shore,
That breathless moment light appears at dawn
To kiss the fragile star lit night and more.

I'll take with me your touch upon my skin,
Our child's life that nurtured in my womb;
At journey's ending other lives begin,
Love's memories survive beyond the tomb.

I give and take from life my very best
As legacy before that final rest.


Copyright: Cynthia L. Shubert-Jett

Sonnet:03-25-00; Photo Compilation: 03-10-12

All rights retained by Cynthia L. Shubert-Jett

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