Letter to Monty 4

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Dear Monty,

Did you know that Emily Dickinson the poet used dashes as punctuation? It is an alternative simplistic form of punctuation that I have always used in my journal - because I know my punctuation and grammar leave a lot to be desired.

The sun shines in the 'studio' filtered through the 'Italian' trees. - lighting up Boris the Simmental Bull. Framed in plaster now drying - like a vision - a moment of clarity.
Life is poised on a knife-edge. The distractions of wants, needs and rights cloud our days with a fog. I struggle through looking for the light. The jewel of it shines through from time to time.
This is my soul laid bare on this earth I came from - from dust I came to dust I return. Boris is an expression of where I came from and where I go - the cattle on a thousand hills.

My surname means castrated bull ! That is how I feel in this life...castrated by a job which is itself castrated by tick boxes and audit. What I am is a collection of experience and memory, of poetry, art, conflict and faith. Cows in some cultures are sacred. Boris is my sacred bull - he is the truth of my life. There is an honesty to working the land which is lost in our materialistic age. I cannot work the land, but I can garden and paint and carve plaster.

Cheers Monty.

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