NaPoWriMo: Michele Brenton take two!

April is National Poetry Writing Month. In celebration of poets everywhere, and to encourage those who are just embarking on their literary journey, I will be posting poetry (not mine) each day for the month of April. Please take a look and enjoy this special art.

Michele Brenton

Given the events over the past few days I hope people will find these offerings help a little.  One of the ways my poetry makes itself felt is in response to world events.  Sometimes my poems manifest as biting satire and sometimes they arrive in a more healing capacity.  These are the latter and I have married them with images which felt appropriate.

The flower images are wild flowers I snapped in my days on Kefalonia and the wall image was taken by my son Alister who is a promising photographer and who is the subject of the following poem:

Bedtime story.

Once upon a time

there was a genetic code
and the genetic code was made
of many tiny messages
and each message
was made of even tinier words.

And every story the genetic code tells
from the very first person
to the ones living now
is a story of growth
and of survival
and of how each mistake
and of how every change
means each story
is special
is unique
is the newest chapter
to be read with wonder
and astonishment.

And you my beautiful child,
with your questioning eyes
and stormy words
may be my 'broken baby'
but those breaks make you
who you are
and take your story into places
you would otherwise
never see,
and that is your adventure.

Michele Brenton
12th April 2013

Alister