with Linda Odom
I am Linda Odom. My birthday is April 30th. I think I share it with Willie Nelson. I was not named for anyone in particular. When I was in grade school there were always at least four Lindas in my class and perhaps a Brenda and a Glenda. So, my name places me in a period in the culture of the south. I grew up in Macon, Georgia.
I have been a part of Art & Soul for so long that I can’t remember when I wasn’t. I was in four consecutive yearlong sessions about three locations of Art & Soul ago. They were a great blessing, and I am reminded daily by all the paintings that hang all over my home.
Because of Art & Soul I also became involved in writing. I was in Merrill Farnsworth’s writing circles for many years and eventually put some of those writings into a little book: WHAT LOVE IS: Glimpses of a Life. I continue to write in Tobi Fishel’s writing circle, Sassy and Sacred. I have included a recent poem: Could I Be Loved?
COULD I BE LOVED?
Could I be loved?
Could I be LOVE?
Could I breathe it in
Until it fills me completely?
Could I breathe it out
For you to breathe in?
Could the little green light in my heart expand
Until I am surrounded by a bright green
radiant cloud,
That looks so delicate and fragile,
As though a gentle breeze could blow it away,
But that actually expands further and further
Like a fire that we feed with our breath?
Can the fire in my heart keep you warm?
Could it ignite the fire in yours?
Could we become a chain reaction
Spreading the sweet flames of LOVE?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if LOVE were contagious
And nothing, no nothing could stop it?
Linda Odom
February 1, 2021
Love you, Linda!