August 1999
Sara Russell
Penname:
Pinky Andrexa
Sara L. Russell was born in Woking, England. She grew up in Staines and
was educated mainly in Surrey, after her family moved first to Devon,
then to a small village in Surrey called Blindley Heath. This is where
she first began to draw cartoons - and begin to write poetry.
In recent years, the Internet has become essential to Sara's poetry
activities. After devising the light-hearted nickname in her newsgroup
signature, "Pinky Andrexa, last of the Cyber Vixen Poets from Outer
Space", she set up a web page for poets, with information and a guest
poets page, then became active on several poetry groups including Aylad
and alt.arts.poetry.comments. She later started the poetry e-zine "Poetry
Life & Times", featuring poetry and interviews with both professional
and amateur poets from the UK and the USA. Through this e-zine Sara met
her current publisher, Elaine Davis, of Kedco Studios Artist Profile
Press, and was later delighted to win Kedco's January 1999 poetry
competition with her poem "The Insomniac's Prayer" (featured below).
Two weeks ago Sara learned that she had also won a runners-up prize in
the Capricorn International Love Poetry Competition in 1998, with her
poem "Appendage", also featured below.
The most exciting thing so far for Sara has been the completion, in June
this year, of a CD-rom of her poems, music and art. The Kedco Artist
Profile Press CD, when it is released, will include 41 elaborate musical
poetry pages with animated headings by the illustrator/animator Graham
Ramsey from Australia and overall book design by Kriss Davies of Kedco.
It also has a broad range of Sara's video poetry recitals (recorded at
home with a mike and web cam), audio recitals, animations and music
midis - some famous songs, some written by Sara, for the poems. The
title of the CD can be made known when it is released, which will be
soon, announced on this website: http://home.earthlink.net/~kedco_ap/
This success has cheered Sara a time when she still misses her sister
Beth in America, also her cat Miggy, who recently had to be put to
sleep. "Whatever is going on in our lives, writing and the arts can
always bring us hope and eventual fulfillment", she says. "All it takes
is an ability to be inspired, rather than daunted, by the achievements
of the classic poets and artists. That can only come with a lot of
reading and an unwavering belief in yourself. Also, perhaps most
importantly, the patience to wait for several years, as I did - and
never give up." Sara would also like me to mention that Kedco have a
policy of giving new authors a chance. January is a good time of year to
enter their competitions and get your work noticed by them. At that time
of year they start afresh to look for new talent.
THE INSOMNIAC'S PRAYER *
Pinky Andrexa (Sara L. Russell) 1997
First Place, Kedco Artist Profile Press Contest 1999
The ripening berries
summer's last blaze
when her breath is of jasmine
and phlox is her sigh
let me dream, then, of summer
and float through the haze
peaceful breath
bed of poppies
ceiling of blue sky
Let me float
like a feather
in the arms of the breeze
let me drift
like a leaf
on a tide upstream
with the murmur of water
the soft hum of bees
in a garden, in peace,
in sleep, in a dream
Send me love's angels
to watch at my bed
golden of voice
and silver of wing
two at the far corners
two at my head
with my dreams all of heaven
when, softly
they sing
Send me a light
that can never grow dim
love, like a candle,
to lighten my heart
empty my mind
of each worry and whim
and the ghosts
of night's mantle
that tear me apart
Till I float
like a feather
in the arms of the breeze
and drift
like a leaf
on a tide upstream
love make me wise
through life's cruelties
sleep dry my eyes
make me still
let me dream.
* An audio recital of this poem will be on the CD.
APPENDAGE
Pinky Andrexa (Sara L. Russell) 26/11/98
Runner-Up, Capricorn International Love Poem Contest 1998
Did I mean to say I love you
in words or other ways?
Did we overlook each other,
through our busy working days?
Did we mean to spend more time
looking in each other's face?
Did we mean to give each other
all of this much space?
An appendage to your life,
I filter through your days:
Fixture, lover, wife,
through your absent-minded haze
and I love you with a passion
more insane than blind
and you love me in your fashion
and you are always kind.
So I wait as days race by
with the blur you leave behind,
no time stop and try
to mutually unwind
and I love you with a passion
too intense for pride,
surviving on love's ration
as my dreams walk by your side.
BOSNIA DREAMS
Copyright Sara L. Russell 21/10/98
Short listed by Capricorn International in 1998 competition
Do I dream, Anya?
This sleeping tome is my life:
a broken book of days,
a struggle for survival,
through the lingering torture of displacement.
Once I thought that security was furniture,
now I know it is the simple knowledge that you live.
Do I dream, Anya?
I seem to stand in the hall,
with a long wall of faces
that smile silently through glass,
through long-shadowed colonnades of memory.
Once I thought that photographs were treasure,
Now they are the measure of all that is lost.
Do I dream, Anya?
I think the fireplace was here
and here the bookcase stood.
There was a crystal fruit bowl,
which scattered sunlight on the top shelf's dark wood.
Once I thought that home would stand forever,
now it is a map drawn in rubble and ash.
Do I dream, Anya?
I seem to see you quite dimly,
a smoky, sweet-faced wraith,
reaching through my thoughts with empathic blue eyes.
Once I thought that children were our future hopes,
Now I see they are the mirrors of our pain.
Bad dreams came, Anya.
I thought they took you away,
but you still bring me food,
slipping through shadowy, ripped, ravaged streets,
half-savage with hunger, still nurtured by love.
Once I thought that good living was lifestyle,
now we are grateful, each day, to survive.
'Bye for now, all the best,
Pinky Andrexa
