connecting

straightening your back

stretching to the stars

breathing into the open

turning your sight to an inner shape

resembling your heart

relaxing your muscles inside this shape

imagining

you in your essentials

spiritual street clothes

capsleeved floral flannel red blue white

embroidered plaid shirt

with loose fit indigo jeans the colour of night

you're standing waist-deep in indigo space

connecting to the green world

through your floral work shirt

flower fractals sprouting through the plaid

this is your street spirituality

bringing health to the city

from the vast indigenous indigo

where dolphins are tugging playfully

at your umbilical cord like astronauts

to mother ship or a mother to the green world

drawing green from the planet humming

through deep strata of street

up through your soles jeans

beaming green through your heart shirt

health to the city

a childhood dream come true

emotional intelligence walking

soaking up the green life force through

windows in the ground to the sky

waking from these fugues

your mind is full of golden apples

your skin is clearer too

Vera Kelgart  (with enhydro amethyst crystal)  2016

misty

falling down on your futon

longing to retrieve yourself

seeking your median line

making it the center of peace and quiet

in the big heart you're tracing

with the pencil of your inner eye

connecting with all parts of your body

feeling at home in your own breathing

imagining

you in a grey mystery gown

with a train of thought by a misty water

a line of swans gliding along

one silver belt swan

twisted around your waist

holding the billowing grey together

you understand grey

wearing grey denim skirts

and grey cable knits

nondescript but classic

but this is different

crepe de chine like a non-stop rolling steam

or smoke in a mirror

as a child you were misty

never could choose a distinct colour

always favouring intangible grey

a uniting frequency

all and nothing

the rainbow's origin

you were different

but here in this place you click into place

trailing your mist for miles

in your grey swan shift

bare-shouldered elegant mystery

moving between worlds

you're helping people crippled by implants

of trauma or pain

little clawlike flashback videos

you're cleansing their minds with intangible grey

you're flying

steered by the swan belt's free wing

being timeless

then you sit up

feeling good but a bit dazed

you're in your denim skirt and cable knit

Vera Kelgart  (with window crystal 'Pearl')  2016

The work clothes of creativity

The Artist's Tool Poems are meant as inspiring examples of meditative imagery. Each poem is structured as a visualization meditation, starting with the person relaxing, breathing etc., then imagining.

I got the heart shape from Donna Eden's Three Heart Hook-up, an energy exercise for centering and nurturing yourself. In the context of the poem it's meant to show the visualization as 'heartfelt', a true meeting with an inner source of creativity.

The character's creative identity will express itself through a garment, naturalistic or fantastic. The person in the poem then becomes a purposeful creative agent on an inner scene.
It is possible to experience deep feelings of self through meditative imagery. But will the creative identity necessarily translate into garments, 'spiritual style'? No, not for all of us. But after all, clothes are a symbol of identity in the real world, so why not in the imaginary?

My own interest in this form of imagery was sparked around the millennium, when I attended a spiritual women's group. Visualizing ourselves as Avalon priestesses om a magic island, the woman guiding the meditations told us to prepare for 'a comprehensive wardrobe'. We were encouraged to imagine ourselves dressed in gossamer silk with gold trimmings. I loved it, but the funny thing is, none of those luxurious dresses has stayed with my inner self.

When meditating now, I visualize myself wrapped in a soft white velour bath towel, tied as a sarong. I guess I've just stepped out of the mountain spring!

belonging

sighing you're sinking into

the softness of your mind

closing your eyes lightly

keeping the light on

expanding your heart surrounding

life

imagining

you in your usual jeans

but instead of your t-shirt suddenly wearing

this coveted twill shirt the colour of sandshell

alighting on you like pixels assembling

to a people's feel-good shirt

brand new but washed inconspicuously

making you one of the crowd

drawing you near to humanity

an observer's work shirt

hungry for belonging

you're stalking them like a peaceful cougar

listening in

sensing the beat of their dreams

in the heat of their skin

milling about with the crowd

sampling scenarios but still as a statue

with wings when you're filled

with filmic impressions

digesting

soundtracks subtexts

a prince enchanted asleep

your solid twill shirt dissolving

pearly

ethereal

you'll wake up when words start singing

Vera Kelgart  (with self-healed Lemuria crystal)  2016

An explorers notebook

Having started the Artist's Tool Poems, I feel like an explorer finally beholding her magical continent. These poems, combining my interests in visualization, creativity and clothes, seem to be what I've been trying to write from the start - without knowing how to do it!
The poems are formed as visualization meditations (or 'focused reverie', to use a term from Belleruth Naparstek). The protagonists will meet and embrace their own creativity in a dreamlike state, put on, as it were, the work clothes of their inspirational universe. Maybe learning to enhance it or balance it in relation to everyday reality.
Personally, I've been meditating like this for some time, but only recently thought of it as a poetic template.