Today we introduce you to Sally Mackinnon who comes to us from Australia where she nourishes her lifelong love of the ocean; surfing though both the sea, and her own oceanic soul.
In 2006-07, when working
frantically as an environmental activist and consultant, I had a major episode
of burnout. I decided to work part time for a while to recover my equilibrium
and it was when I slowed down and began sitting on my front verandah drinking
tea that I began to hear the whispers of the earth. And so I began writing them
down as poetry.
Most certainly nature-based writing is my passion.
I write about the mountains and
the ocean of South East Queensland and Northern NSW in Australia where I live,
work and surf. Mother Nature inspires me: the infinite sky…mountains standing
like blue truth in the ether…forests and trees and soil and mist…messenger
birds who scrawl symbols across the sky…oceanic depths…paddling into the sun
and the waves…home…
I never want to sound clichéd or
trite to others. So I always let a poem flow first, then I review it many times
and let it sit for a while too. Then I come back to it with fresh eyes to check
on things and cut away clichés. I also try to feel out poems with my body,
heart and soul and try to find the words that speak from these visceral and
vast places.
Through writing poetry I can make
sense of the world and how to live truthfully and open-heartedly in the world,
in this time and space.
Writing poetry is a spiritual
process for me because it allows me to hear the earth speak in her quiet,
beautiful, outrageously tender whispers…in the act of listening, hearing,
translating and writing I have an opportunity to connect my breath and my soul
to the earth; to align my pulse to hers and to celebrate Oneness. And in all of
that entirely internal, deeply personal process, poetry also becomes a vehicle
to share that connection.
Poetry enables me to live
vulnerably in the world: To open my heart to everything.
Writing poetry is my authentic voice in the world. It is
where I feel most honest and honorable.
I can speak my truth through poetry.
I have so many favorite poems,
poets or poetry books! I feel that Rumi is perhaps the greatest poet of all.
Hafiz too. Then there are contemporary poets including Mary Oliver, Rosemerry
Wahtola Trommer, Heathcote Williams (Whale Nation and Falling for a Dolphin)
and Drew Dellinger (Love Letter to the Milky Way).
When I take in the poetry of
others, I don’t feel nearly so alone in the way I see and experience life.
I realize I am a member of the poetic community, which
throughout human history has felt the storms and sunshine of life with unusual
sensitivity and tenderness.
I first discovered the Journey of
the Heart Poetry Project through an extraordinary poem of Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s which randomly crossed my path on Facebook. I was moved to my very
core and followed it through to find the Journey of the Heart Project. It was
such a delight to discover this secret garden of women spiritual poets.
Prior to discovering this project
I had shared my poetry a little through collaborative arts projects in my local
and regional communities.
But to share some of my poems through the project in an international
online community has taken things to a whole new level and connected me to such
incredible, creative, caring people. It’s been a completely joyful and
validating experience!
For a long, long time I was
frantic trying to ‘save the earth’. It was my life’s mission for over half of
my life. In the last few years as I deepen my practices of yoga, meditation,
surfing and as I continue to write and connect with other women writers and
surfers, I am finding my place at last as a sacred ecologist…seeing, hearing,
loving, celebrating this broken-open time and place on the blue
planet…glimpsing sometimes the connection between the microcosm of me and the
macrocosm of Big Spirit and the cosmos through my breath.
After all those years of
desperate, grief-driven activism I simply love and infinitely appreciate my second chance as a poet and soul surfer of life. Peace…
Sally MacKinnon: Sally struggles with biographical descriptions and labels for herself these days (apologies!) She lives in a small rainforested mountain community in South East Queensland Australia on a family property with her son, sisters and mother, a flock of chooks and ducks, and a trio of hilarious dogs of varying ages. She is a soul surfer (ha, a label!) with a grand and lifelong love of the ocean, the beach, the sand, the sun, the sky. Her authentic voice emerges through poetry. You may connect with Sally on Facebook here, or e-mail her salmackinnon@bigpond.com.
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~If you are one of the poetesses from 'Journey of the Heart', and would like to appear in this blog, just click here to request an interview. We are excited to learn more about you!~
~If you are one of the poetesses from 'Journey of the Heart', and would like to appear in this blog, just click here to request an interview. We are excited to learn more about you!~
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