Bones stripped bare of flesh
Pumping blood
The organs and cartilage and gristle
Wetness, slipperiness and mess
Leaving a dry clean purity
The bare bones of a woman
Dream Tide
I came to the end of the city and there was the sea
The sea where it shouldn’t have been.
I started walking down the slope of sand towards it.
When I looked up, the tide was coming in from where I had just been walking.
I was walking towards the sea, yet it was behind me
And rushing down the slope to sweep me away.
I saw a large rocky outcrop of brown sandstone.
I could run under that and hope that the water would pour over the top
Keeping me safe underneath.
What a mad, hopeless idea if it was a real sea!
But dream seas are unpredictable that way.
watercolour drawing
From Adam's rib
BoneFeatherBodice, ink on Japanese paper
Bone bodice
Allium seed pods
Creamy white empty
Crinkled sleeves
Along the seam
Runs the straight back bone
Holding it all together
Drawing ink on Japanese paper, allium seed pods, ribcage, opened bodice
Bone fall
Imagine a fall of white bones
Bleached and porous
They would not drift gently
Like feathers
But fall with a rush
Clattering together
And landing in a heap
Bonefall, ink on Japanese paper
To my daughter
My advice to you, dear daughter
is to press your feet firmly into the ground
Feel the earth between your toes
The dirt and grit and stuff of life
Feel it in your body
It is full weight moving upwards
Then lift your chin and face what is in front of you
Stare it unflinchingly in the eye
And give it what for
indian ink on paper
Jacob and the Angel
A little East of Jordan,
Evangelists record,
A Gymnast and an Angel
Did wrestle long and hard —
Till morning touching mountain —
And Jacob, waxing strong,
The Angel begged permission
To Breakfast — to return —
Not so, said cunning Jacob!
"I will not let thee go
Except thou bless me" — Stranger!
The which acceded to —
Light swung the silver fleeces
"Peniel" Hills beyond,
And the bewildered Gymnast
Found he had worsted God!
A little East of Jordan by Emily Dickinson
Feather Pelvis, ink on Japanese paper
Feathers and bone
A feather
A bone
Fragile yet strong
Feathers and bone, ink on Japanese paper
Deadly Nightshade
Swallowing just one black berry from deadly nightshade, the unsuspecting victim could die.
Belladonna, broomsticks and brain chemistry, RSC Education
Indian ink on paper
Pelvis
The tendon is damaged, torn from the bone, it needs time and stillness to heal. The surface is without feeling but there is a deep ache in the bone. It was a small thing that caused it, holding tight to anxiety, clutching fears closely, afraid to let go. The sadness comes in dreams, gently and you are there, quietly being you. You worried in life but in dreams you are more reassuring, as if just your presence is enough.
Skirt, ink on Japanese paper
Alternative Sleeping Beauty
I listened to Neil Gaiman’s The Sleeper and the Spindle on the radio. I love how he mixed the magic of a fairytale with grisly realism and a practical down to earthness. I can imagine storytellers of the past telling these stories in the same living, breathing way.
Watercolour on paper
Digging up a mandrake
…the most famous myth about the mandrake is that “the shrieks of an uprooted mandrake would kill anyone who hears it”.
This superstitious belief was widely adopted in the Middle Ages, when traditional herbalists were considered to be witches associated with Hecate Goddess of Magic and Witchcraft, who is often illustrated as a black dog. This may explain the origin of the suggested practice for extracting the mandrake safely - dig into the ground to expose the roots, draw three circles around the plant with a sword and tie a rope around a starved black dog and the mandrake; throw fresh meat to the dog, which will run towards it and pull the mandrake from the ground…
from The Love Potion by Tavian Hunter, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
ink on paper
Belladonna II
In 16th-century Italy, women applied eye drops prepared from deadly nightshade because it dilated the pupil, which was thought to make them look beautiful. Atropine eye drops are still used by ophthalmologists when they dilate a patient’s pupils to get a good view of the retina during an eye exam.
Ink on paper