What a beautiful world!
If you look from far enough,
The clouds blend land and sea.
No borders are visible
And stings of white webs
Connect everything and everyone!
These colours bring you peace.
From here you don’t see
The black smoke of fire
That comes from burning landfills;
The red faces of anger
With the other;
The yellow sands
Of the invading deserts.
Only the green heart
And the blue soul of earth.
The smells from your mothers kitchen
Are blended with summer roses
And the rainy soil after a storm.
What does it smell like from over here?
I breathe easily from here.
I am small and insignificant.
My problems are too far away.
My hands can only embrace
My hopelessness to fix everything
And my neck that connects me to my body.
Neck that I squeeze from time to time
To remind me of the power of oxygen
That feeds my thoughts!
Where is the sun?
Sun that brings smiles to the living,
Warms our hearts
And energises our skins!
Basking away from the shadows.
Shadows that darken our souls
And disconnect us from others…
The sun is much further away!
But you’ll chase that light,
Collect that warmth,
And momentarily close your eyes
As you face this warm light…
Like a contradiction
Like establishing boundaries
With your own happiness!
I want to open my eyes
Towards the light of the sun,
Without fears of blindness!
I want the sunsets and sunrises
To reflect a beautiful colour in my skin
As I share a smile and a tear with you
Connecting, like those clouds,
But thicker!
Where we can’t find the beginning
Or the end of our bodies;
Before we separate
And jump between the blue
and the green of this world.
I sit in a church
Observing this wonder…
Wondering this and more!
Reflecting on the roundness
Of this earth and my own life!
This circumference is drawn
With my finger in the air…
Going up, then down,
And then up again.
Never ending
And never back to the start.
Reflecting on the cracks and mountains
That make earth so beautiful!
Is this what makes me beautiful too?
Are the rivers,
and lakes,
and oceans,
How much the earth has cried?
Margarida Ventura
27th July 2023
Imagining seeing Gaia in Durham Cathedral
This place is special to me
First time I have attended a mass in England, and questioned why there was a bird as an altar. Where I found Portuguese art from Paula Rego and a dramatic wooden sculpture which is barely carved. I have brought so many people to explore this place. Every time a new experience. From tired bats, to silky stringy spider webs. Spider webs that inspired my first poem in English in November 2022, together with a turbulence of emotions lived that day.
