Ordeal.  The time of testing is here.
Words like fortitude and valor
mean something among people again.
Old agreements weaken and break.
When the knife reaches the bone,
your life must change.
Be glad the refining fire
is around you.
Laugh as you stand on this doorsill.
Out of your dry thorn opens a rose garden.
Rumi

Out of myself, but wanting to go
beyond that, wanting what I see
in your eyes, not power, but to
kiss the ground with the dawn
breeze for company, wearing white
pilgrim cloth.  I have a certain
knowing.  Now I want sight.
Rumi

I am not this.  Your beauty closes
my eyes, and I am falling into
that.  You cut the umbilical with
this love that's been with me since
birth. My mother saw your mountain
reflected in my face, you that lift
coverings, you that bring death.  We
agreed on this before creation.  I've
been so hidden.  Ask my body who I
am.  It says solid ground.  Ask my
soul.  Dizzy as the wind.  Neither.
I stand here facing Shams of Tabriz.
Rumi

Good things come in threes it seems - I've got lots to tell you this week! 
!) Issue 5 of Pink Panther Magazine is out and one of my pieces, Eyes to see, is on the cover!   There's also news of my exhibition and a few more images on page 15, and Cosmic mother 3 is on page 75.
2) Enchanted forest has just appeared in issue 4 of the online magazine Sublime Rush, on pages 192-203, in an article on the Energy Art Movement. If you’re interested in reading the article just click on the link and look for  Energy Art.
3) Artsyshark has done an update on what their featured artists are up to now.  If you're interested you can check it out here.

And now it seems a little paradoxical to move from self promotion to Rumi's poetry but, well, life's like that so here we go.

If you catch a fragrance of the unseen,
like that, you won't be able to be
contained.  You'll be out in the empty sky.
Any beauty the world has, any desire,
will easily be yours.  As you live
deeper in the heart, the mirror gets
clearer and cleaner.
Rumi

Just thought I'd let you know that two of my pieces, Enchanted forest and Web of life will be appearing in an exhibition called Energizing Radiance 2010 at Gallery Fifty Six (Memphis, TN, USA). The exhibition runs from July 9 – August 3, and I hope you'll drop by if you're in the area.

Day before yesterday,
fire whispered to the fragrant smoke,
Aloes wood loves me,
because I know how to untie it
and let it loose.
This burning must occur,
or nothing will happen.
Sperm cell disappears into egg.
Then a new beauty appears.
It is necessary for you
to experience nonbeing.
Love takes you toward that.
Asleep beside the splashing water,
let it say secrets into you.
Be a sleep and a pure listening
at the same time.
Rumi