Poems by Erin McGee Ferrell

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Erin McGee Ferrell

Professionally a Visual Artist for over 30 years, I occasionally have poems that come to me. Please look at my paintings, ArtistAMERICAN.com, and understand that both the pen and the paintbrush do the same job. One I am a master of, the other...poetry...a novice. The past year I have dealt with Breast Cancer. My collection of works on this site reflect this unexpected and difficult journey. The Pirate Crew Paper Doll Collection is a Breast Cancer Educational Tool featuring Ms. Mastectomy, Ms. Chemotherapy, Ms. Radiation, Ms. Oophorectomy, and Ms. BRCA2. These works are dedicated to all who have walked in this path.

All Poems Original Poems Translations

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Gather Round Me Nest

Oh gather these things round me.

Round my room and into boxes marked "new".

The money spent is silly in exuberance and steward-less sinfulness.

Two hundred dollar leather wool boots and Costco matters.

Pregnant and driven with unknown, excited anticipation.

Out with the old and chipped and into the broken boxes goes my MAINE home.

Erin McGee Ferrell

I M P O R T A N T

I need your help, to be important.

Other artists are having big shows; making impact - a drive I was born with.

All about right place and time. Determined to not waste any opportunity.

***

Yet, today, I sit with my work in the quiet of Maine, February.

Nothing happening...

by Erin McGee Ferrell

Night Grinding (TEETH)

My dental hygienist declares that I grind my teeth enamel - erosion and all that.

This news is strange to me.

Deep sleep and prolific dreamer - how would I know?

As my mind sorts and organises the day's information, my jaw responds as well, clenching as it processes my teenagers actions or a bill unpaid.

Molars clamping and shifting, thinking about tomorrow's to-do list; brain and jaw in sync.

Erin McGee Ferrell

Yoga Pants

At the airport today, my daughter met her group travelling to China.

"Where is your passport", I asked.

It is here, she motioned, patting the waist band of her pocket-less yoga pants.

Visions of air-plane toilet unit with documents plunging into the blue liquid, flood my mind - or worse, public Chinese restroom with hole to nowhere in the floor.

Please daughter, use your backpack.

Erin McGee Ferrell

PREPARATION

I have 10 days to prepare for the journey.

Double Mastectomy, 6 weeks limited arm us , possible Chemo.

Lord, help me to know how to do this.

My studio as a happy place to maybe paint with my feet.

Christmas decorated and wrapped.

Bills paid and blogs posted.

Erin McGee Ferrell

GREEN Sleepy Turtle View

GREEN And Blue Lily Pads.

Get me out of this situation.

My legs hurt from biking.

Water colours turning out horribly well.

Bikes strewn on path.

Erin McGee Ferrell

The Next Month

Lord, I'm intimated looking ahead to the next month. A solo show not yet created at Ocean House Gallery. Paint for preservation, so needy for money. Feeling stingy about an extra $2 offering at a visiting church today.

Thank you Lord, that Carla bartered painting for massage. I can't stomach owing someone something else.

Debt after debt piled on with no way of breaking FREE apart from painting sales. Paintings unborn that need to be created over the next TWO weeks.

Lord,

May my hands be yours.

Erin McGee Ferrell

PirateCrew

Thank you all who have lived to tell the tale.

You bedraggled crew of people with missing parts.

Lopped off by voyages into the unknown.

Walked the plank into dark waters.

Fed Chemo and now wear a scarf.

Talking around grog of the sickness of sway.

by Erin McGee Ferrell