Jennifer O’ Neill Pickering, Pat L. Nichol and Mike Pickering

Microsoft Word - FlyerJenniferPatSPC.docx

Three Questions to a Daughter, Jennifer O’Neill Pickering (first appeared in The Voices Project)

 

  • Why did you leave?

Time won’t wait. I was born to fly away–open your hand-that is all it will carry. I wanted a room to fill with success, mistakes, jumble of drawers brimmed with scarves from Paris and Hampton Court, promise of love, my mess, my order a quiet place.

  • Why did you leave with a musician?

His music plays in the key that unlocks my heart.

  • Why have you chosen this drafty Victorian–rooms without furniture, stubborn windows that once open, refuse to close, a temperamental stove, lack of heat?

The rooms are furnished with light, through the windows float the delta breeze that chimes the ancient elms–his arms are the only blanket I need, I grow fat on love–because this is enough.

 

Camille Claudel, Patricia L. Nichol

 

looking at her slantwise

I see a human being

full of darkness,

light, and shadow

 

looking at her edgewise

I see no face, only rage

only a wild and unpredictable,

changing soul

 

there is a brilliance in her shadow

as she seeks

to overcome womanly restrictions

with their full skirts

 

looking at her straight-on

I am astonished at her beauty

 

at her fractiousness

at her stunning fragility

 

Michael Pickering- is a singer/songwriter who has preformed at the World’s Fair, the University of Redlands, and in and around Sacramento. He has published poetry in Rattlesnake Press, Sable & Quill, Late Peaches and received an Award of Merit from the Atlanta Review. He is also, a visual artist and an educator. He is working on a CD of his music.