Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

I recently featured a beautiful collection of poetry by Ms Lavendar which not only featured authentically truthful bits of prose about the cycles of life through the transitions of grief and sorrow but she had found a beautifully lovely merger between poetry and art! I truly loved spending time within the book – as the colour palette alone was a blissful retreat where the essence of her words, the artwork she included and the calming presence of light lavender against the pages provided me with a joyfulness of serenity.

When I signed on for the blog tour, knowing the nature of this special collection – I decided to cross-feature her poetry with a conversation which would allow myself and my readers to go a bit deeper than the surface of this new collection. I wanted to ask the questions which stirred curiosity in my heart and hopefully encouraged new visitors and regulars of Jorie Loves A Story to contemplate the potential reading of this book if the found the conversation something which would stimulate their own interest in Ms Lavendar’s creative vision.

I have appreciated my alignment with Poetic Book Tours these past few years, as they have given me a passage into Contemporary Poets I had not felt I could navigate myself and whilst I have striven to find a renewal of interest in pursuing my own wanderings into Classical Poetry, this late hour of Summer, I have seen the joys of ‘hearing’ poetry through audiobook renditions of the Classics. I am unsure if I would have reached this point in my Classics Club readings if I hadn’t been pursuing Poetry & Prose through Poetic Book Tours – which begs to refer to the fact, the more you pursue a literary interest the more happiness you’ll find in the pursuit!

I encourage you, dear hearts, to brew your favourite cuppa,

before settling into this conversation and hopefully,

finding a writer you will seek out to read in your own reading hours!

Aesthetically, I loved how the internal pages of this collection were ‘lavender’ as the colour is a calming hue and it befits the name of the poet. As you pause over the ‘Dedication’ you align yourself with the poet and realise how personally convicting the tone and collection will become for both of you. The Foreword is a continuation of the poet’s purpose and of the mindfulness approach she undertook to curate this collection – of thoughts, musings and the artfulness of combining word with art in an evocation of purposeful journalling of one’s reactions out of the dimensions of grief. Her art and her prose are left behind for those encountering their own path of healing – as a footprint left behind to support personal growth and self-renewal through healing with the words she has given towards that particular journey inward.

Each of her poems are paired with a different form of art – from photography to fractals to interpretive artwork, thus adding another layer of interpretation to the reader. The very first entry is ‘Untitled’ – it is evoking an awareness to the reader to continue to see out the Light (both in life and of the world) even if they walk through life with a weariness of fear or the doubtfulness of their internal conscience mind.

As you move through the pages, you notice this is a telling story of one woman’s search for truth, acceptance and understanding out of the periods of grief which have altered her heart and spirit. She has become awakened and sought to share this awareness with others if the words she can impart to explain her experience can positively affect another whose moving through the same difficult passageways she has endured herself. Each cluster of poetic insight fuses the heart of her ‘story’ together, adding layers of her spirit bit by bit in an effort to complete the portrait of her life.

It is a unique journey into the mind, heart and spirit of an artist and poet, who has found a strengthening of heart through the assemblage of this collection. For each crucial piece of advice is well founded in the realities we each can relate too but is elevated through the honestly of her words. She has found a way to write about universal truths with a compassionate insight of a woman who has come through her own adversities of loss to share the revelations of what she’s learnt in the process of healing.

These are the kinds of poems you want to pause over – to reconsider their meaning and to let your own memories swept you up into their messages to seek your own voyage of internal peace. When you’ve come through your own walk of loss and have found your own Light of truth, it is in appreciation of the kindness of a poet who can find words which resonate with the journey you individually took yourself to reach similar conclusions of the poetic mind.

Part Motivational guide and part Spiritual expose on the dimensions of a human soul’s search for truth out of the chaos of loss – Finding Hope in the Darkness of Grief is an entreaty into formulating a method of communicating what we’ve learnt during the darker days of our lives and emerging out of them like a butterfly whose left their cocoon for the realisation the time spent isolating through our transition better prepared us for the fullness of understanding the purpose of living. This is a book full of spiritual truths and a waking insight into how even if we approach the harder experiences we all face differently – there are universal truths we can all come to appreciate as being part of our collective experience.

-quoted from my review for Finding Hope in the Darkness of Grief: Spiritual Insights Expressed Through Art, Poetry and Prose

I was quite intrigued by the different mediums of art showcased throughout your collection of poetry, art and prose within the pages of ‘Finding Hope in the Darkness of Grief’. Which form of art is your personal favourite and why do you think you return to it time after time?

Lavendar responds: I enjoy all forms of art as expressions of my beliefs and experiences. I would have to say that I don’t particularly have a favorite although I really enjoy mixed media. I find it really fun to use several different forms of art for many of my pieces. It adds more layers of emotion and intrigue to my work. Quite a few of my pieces incorporate three or four variations of the types of art that I work with such as photography, digital art,  painting, drawing and fractal art.  More recently I’ve begun creating faces from photographs of people that I know or have taken pictures of. It’s really interesting to make computer generated people and to see how their different features work together! Read More