IMELDA ALMQVIST ART: JOURNEYS TO OTHER WORLDS, INNER WORLDS AND AROUND THE WORLD IN PAINTINGS!

 

POEMS I

About Grief and Loss and Letting Go

OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART 

 
E = MC^2
 
Einstein’s Equation tells us
E = MC^2
Mass and energy are interchangeable
 
In death
We leave our body
Just think of this
As an explosion of energy
 
The music of the spheres
Singing us
 
As the Light calls our name
Calls us home
 
Physics speaks of
Phase Transitions
 
Of things being what they always were
In a different state
Looking differently, behaving differently
 
If Birth is
Energy becoming mass
Then Death is
Mass converting back to energy
 
So why do we fear Death
Nothing is ever lost
E = MC^2
 
The Netherlands, 6 June 2009

 Once upon a time (about 15 years ago!) I used to keep a diary by means of poems: the Poem Of The Day. This inspired my mother-in-law, Birgit Almqvist, a published poet, to do the same thing in Sweden, she called it "Dagen's Dikt" in Swedish.

Then we bought a big house and had three children in four years. I stopped writing poems. Until the day I found myself sitting by my Dad's bed in hospital as he was dying of terminal cancer. Suddenly poems started rolling out of me. I carried a little notepad with me to 'catch' the poems wherever I found myself, as our family undertook the spiritual journey of letting him go.

Death is a very individual process. The nurses on the oncology ward told me that 'everyone has to find their own way of dying'. It was only over time that I realised that bereavement in general, and the death of a parent, are deeply universal themes as well. Most human beings must face the death of a father or mother, one day. This realisation is what gave me the courage to post these poems on my website. The hope that others will read them and say: 'I feel that too', or 'yes I have been there'. For this reason I will give permission to anyone who wishes to read or use these poems - but please do get in touch first, don't just 'lift them off the website'. Thank you!

On reflection I have decided that this page is for poems about 'Letting Go', poems about loss and death and grief. I have created another page for poems about 'Living Life To The Full', to balance this one. They are two sides of the same coin, you could say.

OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART

Lady in Grey
 
Sadness came
And brought
A prim old fashioned
Lady dressed in grey
Grief I said
Such grief
Why do human beings
Experience such grief?
Because
She said
It is part of the fullness that is life
Joy and grief are the
Two sides of the human coin
And to know what it means to be human
Is the gift of being alive
Of living every moment
As it comes
Then I was alone
Again with Sadness
 
27 May 2009

 

OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART

The Sacred Twins and The Sand Dollar 
 
A child lives outside time
A mother grieves
 
A child spirit plays guardian angel
Leaves evidence
Of a sacred twin
 
A mother to be
Walks on the beach
Speaks to her
Unborn child
 
Catches a glimpse of a spirit child
Riding the waves
 
She finds a sand dollar
A precious moment
Of extreme beauty
Frozen in time
 
As a child spirit watches
And smiles outside time
 
For C  15 August 2009
 
  
The Netherlands, 28 May 2009

  OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART

Heartbreak Is In The Minutiae   

My mother is asked about
Organ Donation
Less than an hour after Dad dies
 
And suddenly the hospital room
Isn’t ours any longer
 
Coming home to
 
Dad’s dirty clothes
In the laundry hamper
 
My mother opening
‘Get Well cards’
The day after his death
 
A shopping list
In Dad’s handwriting
 
A diary next to my bed
Of Mum & Dad’s dates for haircuts
 
Mum locking the gate
With a dead bolt
Saying
‘I will have to be even more careful
As I am going to be here on my own now…’
 
How many times
Can a human heart break?
  OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART
The Morning After
 
In the shape
You left in our lives
Birds sing
Flowers grow
Grandchildren play
Bring you
 
29 May 2009

  OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART

Sunflower
 
A neighbour brings
One sunflower
To watch over the coffin
 
On her way out
Dad’s dog
And familiar
Pascal
Barks once, sharply
 
And is instantly surrounded
By a cloud
Of butterflies
 
Will he now work the magic
Dad used to?
29 May 2009 

OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART

The Psychology of Change

(or: The Whiskey Trail)
 
In Holland
In a period of upheaval
A dying father
 
I stay
In the house of my brother
Renowned in the Psychology of Change
 
I sleep
Under a bookshelf
With tantalising titles:
 
“Whoever sows order, will harvest chaos”
“Impossible Choices”
“Learning in Freedom”
 
And finally
“From abbey route to whiskey trail”
 
Dreaming my way through change
As he dreams in the room next to me
 
And says:
What about a glass of whiskey before bed?!
 
30 May 2009
OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART
Adopted Chickens
 
My husband’s Dutch
Is horrendous
And hilarious
(He is Swedish, I might add)
 
This week he invented
The word ‘KIPSALON’
It translates as
‘Hair Salon for Chickens’
 
At Dad’s funeral
A local farmer offered
To adopt his chickens
To honour the spirit
Of the Farmer’s Son
 
My Dad in turn
Adopted those very same hens
My brother’s friend Jack got tired of
Because they never laid eggs
 
Maybe a trip
To the KIPSALON
Would give them a
Boost?!
 
5 June 2009

 

  OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART

Physics and Metaphysics
 
How many angels dance
On the head of a pin?
 
How many angels dance
In any thought or chance encounter?
 
How many angels dance
In what human beings call inspiration?
 
How many angels dance
Between you and me?
 
How many angels dance
On the head of one human being?
 
How many angels dance
In celebration
When a soul returns home?
 
5 June 2009
 

OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART

The Great Gardener
 
A Great Gardener died recently
And I went to say goodbye
To his trees and his Land
 
They said
Feel only joy
Just as he did here
One with the plants and animals
A true son of Mother Earth
 
A Great Gardener
Went to meet
The Great Gardener In The Sky
 
I heard him offer
To rebuild the Garden of Eden
He has already embarked
On Project Paradise Reborn
As I write these words
 
I can see him
Lift his spade
This son of Mother Earth
And Father Sky
The man who gave me life
 
My Dad
6 June 2009

 OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART

Cracks
 
Grief
cracks open
human beings
 
Creates a space
For seeds to drop
And new things to grow
 
Watered in the Great Silence
That follows the tears
 
There is the song
Of baby plants growing
 
The footsteps
Of human beings growing up
and taking the place
Of Those Who Went Before Us
 
In the cracks
Carved by grief
We find our angel wings
 
And if we strap them on
We fly
Once again
 6 June 2009

  OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART

I Was That Person
 
I am the people I met today
 
The little girl with the doll
The proud and exhausted mother with her newborn baby
The woman who can’t stop laughing
Angry lady
Wife and lover and best friend
Awkward teenager
Art student with pink fairy wings
 
All these moments live on
Parallel lives
Like sliced French bread
 
At any funeral
I am the person
Who loved and lost
I am
The person in the front pew
And the person nearest the exit
 
I am all of these people
And all of these people are me
 
Born of human parents
Into a human body
 
To walk in the footsteps of others
And leave footprints for others to step into
Is what it means to be a human being
 
I am all of those people
And I send love to all those people
I met today
 
3 June 2009

 OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART

The Tiniest Airplane In The World
 
Even atoms
Can be split
Right down to Planck length
And Planck time
 
Beyond that point
Going smaller
Has no meaning
And physics meets
Theology
Where we step outside
The bounds
Of physical reality
 
Our boys were trying to fold
The “tiniest airplane in the world” today
And one was the size of bean
 
Our youngest son was
Drawing an airplane
A “shuttle service” between
Our world
And the spirit world
 
Inviting all of us to board
So we can go visit Granddad
Who has just moved
Between worlds
 
How many people wouldn’t fly
Brendan’s ‘Atom Airline’
To worlds beyond ours?

6 June 2009

 OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART

 What planet are you on?
 
Atoms
Planets
The difference
A matter of scale
 
Far galaxies
Out of reach
No different from
Subatomic particles
 
All these universes
Known of
Yet unexplored
 
By human beings
Perched in the exact middle
On the spectrum of size
 
The Ones Who Came Before Us
Live where?
 
Future generations
Live where?
 
What planet are you on?
 
6 June 2009

 

OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART
 

 Gathering Of Mothers
 
When the world narrows
To a hospital room
And a human child
Lies between and betwixt worlds
Mothers gather
 
My mother tells my father
“Go, I will be fine on my own, go…”
 
The spirit of his much loved
Mother is in the room
Ready to welcome him
 
I am there
Mother of his grandsons
And sing my song
Without beginning or end
 
Mother Mary is at
The head end of his bed
There
As she always is
For a human child in need
Of the Divine Mother
 
The Gathering Of Mothers
Witnesses
That first step into another realm
As we have all watched our children
Take their first step
 
As a human child
Steps into another world
Mothers gather
 
Mothers who gave birth
Mothers who gave life
Let go
When death enters a room
To take a human being home
They let him go
 
6 June 2009
 
 
OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART
 
Room 361
 
Room 361
Oncology Ward
Medisch Centrum Alkmaar
 
For us that room
Will always be the place where Dad died
 
Room 361
Is just a room
Where people come and go
All shed skins the way snakes do
Some shed their entire body
 
Every case a rebirth
Back into our world
Or into sacred mystery
 
The Spirit of Room 361
Observes
Embraces
Pays attention
Even when nurses and relatives don’t
 
 7 June 2009 
OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART
Quantum Steps
 
Special Relativity Theory says
That the faster you travel
The more time slows
 
And isn’t it true that
The faster human emotions travel
The more time slows too
 
In a room where someone is dying
The human heart takes quantum steps
The chest that rises
Every time as if for the last time
Ticks off
 
long heavy lifetimes
teardrop shaped
pregnant and curved
Heavy with beginnings and endings
Unlike the featherweight seconds
On the clocks outside
 
In the sacred space
Of human hearts
A man lives on
Long after he dies
 
After the human heart
Once again travels the slow lane
And time speeds up again
 
8 June 2009
 
 OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART 
Wormholes
 
During the life burial
I am a worm
Deep inside Mother Earth
Dropping deeper and deeper
Into the Unknown
Where great beauty awaits
 
The next day
Reading about wormholes
In physics
Déjà vu
 
Wormholes
Imaginary tunnels
Between dimensions
Portals to different eras
Time Travel Tubes
Only exist in the minds of
Scientists digging at the cutting edge
Physicists say
 
They exist in my mind too
And quite possibly in yours
 
Have you ever met
A physicist shaman?
I’d sure like to meet one
Even
Do I dare say it
Be one
 
8 June 2009
 
OTHER WORLD JOURNEYS: IMELDA ALMQVIST ART 
Grandmother Angel
 
Says my five year old son:
It’s a shame Granddad died
I miss him badly
But obviously
He has only gone back
To the place he came from
The place all of us return to one day…
And so it is a pity he died,
But not a disaster…
 
(Brendan hasn’t been programmed yet
Not to remember)
 
On Grandma’s birthday
An elderly man in a wheelchair asks
If I believe
In Life After Death
 
I quote Brendan’s words
 
He says:
Beautiful words
Words that could make me cry…
If only…. If only….
 
Grandma herself said:
Brendan is so right!
 
For 10 days
Grandma is going to look after this friend
While his wife is away
Maybe there is a conversation
Circling
Waiting for permission to land?
I, for one, hope so…
 
Schiphol Airport, 17 August 2009
 

Imelda Almqvist, (Last updated: 22 September 2009)

 

IMELDA ALMQVIST ART: JOURNEYS TO OTHER WORLDS, INNER WORLDS AND AROUND THE WORLD IN PAINTINGS!