by Bela Johnson | Mar 4, 2014 | family, musings, personal, poetry, relationships, Uncategorized
It’s complicated. I think of her lying in bed alone, ridged shit-stained fingernails and the blue bulge of veins under translucent skin; bony hands curved inward, silently cursing agility they can no longer manage. Silk lily of the valley embedded in white...
by Bela Johnson | Feb 25, 2014 | creativity, happiness, musings, personal, philosophy, Uncategorized
Although generally settled in my skin or in the garden, occasionally I discover, quite surprisingly, that I am also skilled at manufacturing worry. I wonder if it’s the challenge of many creative types at this time of life, where we find ourselves at the juncture...
by Bela Johnson | Feb 18, 2014 | animals, lifestyle, nature, personal, random thoughts, Uncategorized
I have never managed to save one, not that I haven’t tried. All my life I have discovered fledglings, either crowded out of the nest or cast out, or injured in the attempt to gain instant knowledge of flight. As a child it was neighborhood cats who preyed upon...
by Bela Johnson | Jan 28, 2014 | family, personal, poetry, Uncategorized
She drops down, swipes over polished floors, repeating back and forth motions, elbows cracking, jaw set and grimaced. It would be, could be zen, though it’s clearly frustration in motion, the drudgery of repetition maintained for decades. I, too, witnessed the...
by Bela Johnson | Jan 14, 2014 | musings, people, personal, poetry, Uncategorized
Regarding me over bins of oatmeal and millet, not comprehending choices – where is the plain, brown, recognizable? Offer of assistance precipitates wonder: Do I work there? Perhaps, and one never knows another’s motives, What qualifies me to answer?...
by Bela Johnson | Aug 13, 2013 | freedom, musings, nature, personal, philosophy, Uncategorized
I know a woman who labels everything. It causes me to smile sometimes and cringe at others, especially when she confers cutesy monikers upon wild creatures. It seems insensitive to me, to somehow expect the dwindling nonhuman free spirits of the world to be shackled...
