art ~ spirit ~ transformation
e*lix*ir

e*lix*ir   #11
Twin Birthdays 2020
Poetry
 

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Editorial

Looking with the Eyes of Faith

e*lix*ir Poetry Collective

James Andrews
Harriet Fishman
Sandra Lynn Hutchison
A.E. Lefton
Imelda Maguire
YoungIn Doe

Translations

Remembered Music by Rumi, translated by Shahin Mowzoon

The Writing Life

The e*lix*ir Poetry Collective Writes the Creation by James Andrews

Essays

Love in a Time of Distances by Sandra Lynn Hutchison

Personal Reflections on Bahá’í Texts

A Finely-Tempered Sword by Melika Rezvani
Knowing God through His Creation by Nava Eslami

Art

Fabric Art by Helen Butler

Comic

Ruhi & Riaz by Eira

Voices of Iran

An Army of Two Hundred Men by Ighan Aghdasi Yekta
The Goddess by Saba Sobhanian

Looking Back on Books

Rooms Are Never Finished by Agha Shahid Ali


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Bev Rennie

JAMES ANDREWS

Manzanita

Following a trail at Point Lobos
I come upon it
suddenly
a living flame of red amidst the coastal shrub,
solitary

its bark peeling from sculpted branches,
caught in their turning by the August sun
revealing burnished
copper

I catch my breath,
my hand, tentative,
touches the living wood,
follows the hidden notes of an earth long here
and I hear a song
I had forgotten.

I follow the trail to China Beach
leaving behind the
manzanita
singing.


Hiking in the Ventana Wilderness

Mountain snowmelt plummets
over boulders
heaved by earth’s tectonic thrusts

courses over
rocks
hewn by ice and racing water
channeled within earthen banks.

Stones
polished by the Big Sur River
flow
invite a crossing to our campsite.

Boots
laced up and ready
give confidence

falsely.

First steps yield to
the slick surface
and the ankle twists
in pain.

Where is the benign Mother now?

The running ice stream answers
Here!

Tomorrow
carrying the wisdom of flowing waters
I will walk.


Where Sunlight Lives

A light breeze wafts
through the garden

lavender blossoms yield willingly
to the nectar thirsting honey bees

a hummingbird hovers above
to honor their homecoming.

Tomorrow there will be honey
again.



James Andrews

Artist Statement:   In writing poetry, I hope to contribute to God-inspired, gentle, and heartfelt social discourse, and to feed and express my artistic spirit. I look for the metaphors linking spiritual and physical reality, and for the subtleties in personal interactions that illuminate spiritual truths.


Bio:   James Andrews is a native Californian who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He and his wife, Patricia, live in San Jose, California. Theirs is an international, multi-cultural family, with nieces and nephews around the world.