Gail Weston Shazor
It is finally here. This work has set inside my heart for 7 years. When I first learned that Donovan Lucas Shazor was on his way to change my life, I had dreams of me telling him stories and he telling me his. This telling of stories was second nature to me as I had been raised on a dusty board porch in the delta of Mississippi. The stories I heard on that porch would form the basis of not only my nurturing, but also my manners, my disposition and my quirky sense of humor.
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Preface
Notes from the Blue Roof was not originally written to be read, not even by me. The pieces have no titles. There is no particular subject, no sequence, just conversation. I write in my journals and literally and figuratively turn the page.
In the search for a place of solitude, quiet and sanctity, I wandered aimlessly around Galleon House Bed and Breakfast the first two weeks. I tried balconies and stairways, benches and pool chaises, I even tried sitting in the dirt on a hillside and I couldn’t get still enough to write. It wasn’t until one morning that I went down to paint my apartment that I figured out I could walk on to an adjacent rooftop. Hard, seeping blue color, exposed to the elements and dirty, it is the perfect spot to be still. It is the perfect spot to see, hear and reflect on what my life could mean.
Here, on my blue roof, I talk to God. I read His word. I smile at His beauty. I argue with Him. I plead with Him. I thank Him. I laugh at the smallness of my understanding. Here, on my blue roof, it’s just Him and me before the whole day gets started. I write because that’s how I know to order my thoughts. I write because it’s my way of communicating. I write because it is my way of making sense of this world we live in. I write because I love.
Bill and I have dream chats. We talk about books that we want to write or the direction that a project is going or sometimes just how we feel about life itself. During one of these chats about what I thought was my next project, he asked me about the blue roof. Previously, I had shared a few things here and there about my roof as well as making reference to it on a few Inner Child programs as a place of reflection and healing. We chatted about the pieces and he suggested that I gather them all in one place and publish as a book. I was hesitant. The pieces that I had not shared were even more personal and transparent that I didn’t think I could stand the scrutiny or the knowing that so much of me was in someone else’s hands to judge.
I took it back to the roof and there I understood that this is a gift. The words are a gift and meant to be shared. I can’t be scared of being judged for my faith, my lack of faith, my questioning, my joy, my pain, my journey. Here I am, all human, all greatfilled.
May you find the courage to ask the questions.
May you find the stillness to hear His answers.
Gail Weston Shazor
Gail Weston Shazor
Congratulations
Gail
Preface
I have long been enamored by letters. In school, I remember spending many hours learning to write letters, cursive letters among my favorite. These letters gave voice to a much too quiet, much too serious child. Letters, words, conversation, language is always better with curlicues and flourishes. Poetry gives my extra a forum. I can diminish the I and become the more when ink meets paper. I write in styles. For me, it is never restricting or confining. I find it freeing and natural. My flourish is the challenge on a well done write.
The creating of this book began with waking up and realizing that I had something to say. The habit of writing has allowed me to see that it was really never about the having to, but the needing to write. My truth, the way the world is revealed to me. I don’t deny the ink and that can sometimes lead to uncomfortable moments. Isn’t being a poet about being more than yourself? There is nothing about life that should be untouchable, no subject off limits, the bad and hard to talk about brought into the light and the good glorified.
Words create conversation and when we talk in community, we might find a solution for a problem. We might make something new. We might sooth hurt and find joy in triumph. We might make the world a better place.
My life has been a journey and I thank God for that passage. I am blessed to have lived in many different spaces in my life. Reading the pieces I have chosen will give you a taste of that path. Every place, every space, every person is a part of my journey and as we share this, my wish is that you nod your head, smile sometimes, be angry, laugh, cry and just understand that this is about being human. My wish is that we “might” because only then will we move to “can”. In that moment we achieve an overstanding of our purpose, our path to become better people and add feet and hands to our prayers of consciousness.
Bless up!
Gail Weston Shazor
Author
Foreword
There is a message out there. Some hear it and respond to its cadence.
Some can deliver that message with skill and dexterity. Then there is Gail
Weston Shazor a poet who hears a spiritual message of emancipation, uses her
incredible talents to scribe that message and thus delivers to the public a
freedom song.
I, Dee Greaves a poet in my own right, am a fan and devotee of Lady Gail. The eloquence of her phrasing, the power of her prose delivers the reader to another sphere, one in which hope is not a question but an answer. It is an answer that is heard for those with the privilege to experience her work.
Make a promise to yourself. Read this book and listen as it speaks to you. Very few have that gift lyrically phrased. You are now entering the realm of one of the few poets who has been blessed with a special gift. Enjoy, be educated and become spiritually emancipated.
Darwin Greaves
Author, Poet
Credits
Cover Art Painting
Luna Soolay
"Today I am greatfilled that the Lord saw fit
not to make my bed my cooling board
and my linens my winding sheet."
William Thomas Weston
01 Transfiguration.mp3