This photograph (below) of the "Artist-Surgeon" Lois Cordelia at work on her recent scalpel paper-cut artwork, "Gaze of the Green Man", recently inspired these beautifully crafted lines of poetry by Ruth Calder Murphy (aka Arciemme) - reproduced here, with kind permission from the poet. Please scroll down to read the full poem.

Push the shadows back
for the benefit of the artist-surgeon,
scalpelling papercuts of planets -
forests, leaves,
seeds on the heads of meadow grass
and the curling wisps of insomniacs’ prayers…

(The same artwork has also inspired a German poet - more details to follow shortly!)

"Shake it Out"
© Ruth Calder Murphy

The censer 
of the night sky
swings transcendence
like incense,
scattering stars
across the blanket
of Night.

Draw back the sheets -
reveal divers
in the darkness,
knives between their teeth,
looking for pearls 
in the hearts 
of their dreams -
and runaways,
pockets full of memories,
glancing back
at forgotten dawns.

Push the shadows back
for the benefit of the artist-surgeon,
scalpelling papercuts of planets -
forests, leaves,
seeds on the heads of meadow grass
and the curling wisps of insomniacs’ prayers…

Count the sighs and cares
- the tears -
and bottle them magical against the turning of the tides.
Lift the Sadness and shake it out;
beat it like a drum and watch the dust fly
to the rhythm of the dance
of the sudden-sunrise sky.

Lift the Sadness and fly away,
high and bright -
born from the ashes 
of the charcoal-burning Night.

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Ruth Calder Murphy is a wonderfully imaginative and diverse artist on many levels: a painter, poet, writer and musician. Please visit her website:

http://www.arciemme.com/