Samantha Neal Artist Reflection
GetInTouch Byron Bay Art Resident
Submission: Poetry & Reflections
Artist Bio
Samantha Neal is a writer, menstrual educator and facilitator of Japanese, Syrian, Lebanese and Irish descent who currently lives and works on Bundjalung Country in Northern New South Wales.
With seven years of experience contributing to the field of menstruation by way of workshops, online programs and courses, she has supported thousands of girls, women and people in their understanding of menstrual cycle awareness.
While her work continues to transform and permeate wider realms, her source of inspiration remains tethered to her personal journey of healing and the practices, transmissions and traditions that support this path.
Submission
Birds Still Sing
In this broken world
Birds still sing
a tune so ancient
an instinctual divinity
if I wasn't humbled
by their blindfolded beauty
I could almost be angry
a fire in my belly
The world is broken
How can they still sing!
To a new dawn
To the ending of days
To all the moments in between
My own human heart
contracts
then softens
to a song sang so truthfully
In this broken world
What is mine to sing?
a muted melody of conditioned monotony
Or a free flowing range of life's beauty-pained harmony
I breathe in
shut down my eyes to better see
fill my lungs
sweet breath
and pause
so as to receive
For all we have lost
For all we still have
In this space
I open
Part my lips
and allow life's original song
to find its way through me.
Reflection
My wellbeing and creative practices are inextricably connected. I see my "wellness" as my mutable capacity to be with the moment, as it is and as unclouded by my own assumptions as possible. It is through this capacity that I create most honestly. And at the same time, in a symbiotic way, my creative practices help to bring me into presence when I feel disconnected. The very process of creating acts as witness to my inner experience, inviting me into a grounded sense of connection, and therefore an inner felt state of wellbeing.