Artwork courtesy of painter, poetess Anita Fernandez-Velazquez

I'm always writing
I'm always imagining
I'm always plotting a scheme
Wrapped in a dream of far away scenes
Where all that I can imagine is free just to be
Then be a memory to fill in a day away from reality
Where everyday people become something special.

I'm always writing
I'm always imagining
I'm always allowing what could be to dream
Where it wants to be what it would become
What I can best make it.

I'm always writing
I'm always imagining
I'm always in the throes of some vision beyond eyes
Beyond what I would otherwise explain
Yearning to explain what is see-able, do-able
Needing a line of sentences that stretch across mountains
Dive into caves, wanders across hillsides
To satisfy my mind
To calm my adventurous spirit in search of its freedom
Digging through tunnels among gnarled tree roots
To face the light of day.

I'm always writing
I'm always imagining
I'm always in search of a place yet to be
A face to see, a river surrounded by trees
A person to describe, a family, a tribe
Who is a whole person, who isn't precisely defined
Who in my mind's eye is a sight for sore eyes
Wanting to be acknowledged
Wanting to materialize wanting their own rights
In a life where they live, alive and unbound
Ambitious and mature
Ready for the world and whatever might be in it.

I'm always writing
I'm always imagining
I'm always one thought away from a doorway
that opens into a room some empty, some full
of furniture and people, lights and sounds
smells, good or bad, food and starvation.

I'm always writing
I'm always imagining
Something I can't otherwise find.

Jade Jaspers