the Unwinding by Jackie Morris
The Unwinding and other dreamings by Jackie Morris is a book for dreamers.
This book is not meant to be read from cover to cover. It is a book for dreamers. Slight of word, rich of image, its purpose is to ease the soul.
The paintings between these covers were worked on in the between times, an Unwinding of the soul, when the pressures of were were too much. Dreams and wishes are the inspiration at times like this. Threaded through the curious world of The Unwinding are words, slight and lyrical. Their aim is to set the reader’s mind adrift from the troubles of our times, into peaceful harbours where imagination can stretch, where quiet reflection can bring peace.
The Unwinding is designed to be a companion, a talisman to be turned to again and again, a place of respite from an increasingly frantic and complex world.
(From The Inside Dust Jacket)
the keeper of lost dreams
Does she have a name, this woman? If she does, it is known only to a handful of people. The bear knows. He is the only creature of the earth she would call her friend. Between them there is trust, love. Her world is between the dusk light and the dawn light, the time of the moths, of the owls and the bats. (the beginning One)
myth
All she ever wanted was to escape from the ground. Earth-bound, landlocked, gravity her enemy. All she ever d reamed was to lift light into flight, to soar upwards, take to the skies with winged things.
And bird. She loved birds - loved how even a fallen feather, held between fingers, would pulse and turn in the hand and reach skywards as if, like her, every feather longed to be back in the air. (from myth - the midnight fish)
harbour - a strange boat
The women love to see the light of the full moon in the daylight sky, how it seems so slight, almost transparent, a tissue-paper disc in the light of the sun, And they love to dance.
White bears guard their journey, Dark-eyed owls watch the waves. They are dreamers, these women, these bears, they are seers and speakers of truth, dancers of time, travelling the world, gathering stories, For now, for a while, they rest on the water.
Stand on the shore and watch. As the moon sinks towards the edge of the sea you might see her open her wings wide in the twilight and rise to the sky, away from the skin of the sea, into the ocean of stars.
(from - harbour - a strange boat)
rest - Bear And The Nightingale
Wind in the trees, rattle branch. Can they hear the stars, here where they lie in the hollow? Head in hands, head on paw, each rests in silent trust of other, while daylight moths whisper night songs and nightingale, the bird of summer threads his song of love through winter’s dark.
Hare love the moon, misses her bright gaze, knows that she will come again with a wild certainty.
(from rest- Bear And The Nightingale)
“Rest now, in the peace of the wild things. May the swan be your pillow, may teh gold owl bring you visions. May the red fox give you cunning, and the wolf bring you courage. And may the while hore lend her strength to all your days”
Please support this artist and her gorgeous books of beauty and poetic stories. You can find her at Jackie Morris. She lives in Wales in the UK. This particular book as it was mentioned is - a talisman to carry with you as you seek.