First Flowers!

One of the most wonderful things about joining Muse is the endless variety of flowers out there, just waiting for the picking. I’ve made friends that range over thousands of mile, from Canada to Pennsylvania to New Jersey to Florida to California to Scotland to England to – Malta. Yes, folks, I sit here in my tiny little Southern country crossroads of Jeffersonville and subscribe to and post comments on the Malta Times. How’s that for international sophistication? I’m a regular jet-setter. One of the first Musers with whom I formed a fast and firm friendship, one that I’m convinced will last to the back of beyond and further, is Tanja Cilia. And she’s special to everyone who collects her flowers. Take a gander for a moment at the beautiful image posted above the Muse icon. That, folks, is a portrait of the Goddess Athena, specially done for her by her friend Lisa MaGuire-Smith. Why Athena, you ask? Because like the Goddess Athena, Tanja Cilia fights for the underdog. It’s a priceless gift, one that Tanja treasures and uses as her internet image for Facebook.

Tanja is one of the Muse editors, but I didn’t know that for quite a long time. I call her my Maltese Falconess. She calls me Gail-Force, all unknowing that my nickname at work is “The Twiggs Tornado”, Twiggs being my home county. (Something about me and roaring winds, apparently. I don’t understand it myself.) Her Malta Times banner reads: “Tanja Cilia has been writing for Allied Newspapers since she was 14 years old – and hopes to continue doing so for at least another 37 years... Over the years she has covered most topics under the sun, and occasionally ventured beyond it too. But her favorite topics remain women's and social issues.” (That’s because like Athena, she fights for the underdog.)

Fleur and Lee stories began when Tanja worked at Fleur de Lys Primary School. Since then, they have appeared here and there, but mainly in Tagħna t-Tfal [Children’s Own] and Sagħtar [Wild Thyme], publications for Maltese school-children. She also freelances for print and online publications, in Maltese and English. She has a personal predilection for sci-fi.

But I’m here to tell you, folks, and you can take this to the bank – where she shines is as a reader of souls, a philosopher of life. I’ve always been an intense admirer of the art of Haiku. So much said in so very little. Seventeen syllables. No more. Such control, such precision! It’s possible I admire it so much because I’m pretty sure I’m completely incapable of ever producing one. I write long. (Go on, folks, collectively now – “Duh! We’d never known that if you hadn’t told us!”) But the haiku produced by my Tanya? Oh. Dear. Lord. Thank you for allowing me to share the beauty of those simple syllables, combined into profoundness with the skill of a Master Chef in his kitchen.

Tanja wrote her own perfect description some time ago, never knowing at the time that I would use it much later to herald this celebration of my Maltese Falconess:

I think in haiku
And dream in Technicolor;
Free-flights of fancy!

Oh, yes. She certainly does. She explores the secret facets of writers:

Open up your heart -
Swift strokes on a keyboard tell
What quills used to do.

Pictures don’t need words,
Just as words don’t need pictures;
Both can tell stories.

She explores the mysteries of life:

I fooled my shadow;
It disappeared in the sun...
Now I live in peace.

I paint my own world;
Using the Nature’s palette
To mix my own hues.

I smell the darkness
A scent of dank loneliness –
Heaps of rotting leaves.

Laundry on the line
Dancing madly in the breeze
Not free – they’re pegged down!

Life is a circle
No beginning and no end -
Embracing a void.

She explores the mysteries of love:

I looked, and I saw
Mirror image of my soul;
Shining in your eyes.

I cry a river
I weep for times that are past
Oceans of mem’ries.

Love is a marble
Hard glass encases a core
That’s unreachable.

Love is an onion;
Each layer that you explore,
Brings the core closer.

Love is an onion
It’s got several layers –
And it makes you cry!

She knows the secrets of friendship:

No man's an island
Just holler if you need me;
And I'll be right there.

I particularly love that one, because down South, that’s one of our signature phrases. We say it a lot, “Holler if you need me!” And somewhere down deep, I think she wrote that just for me, even though she didn’t know I existed at the time.

I could quote and quote and quote. But I’m not going to. Because here they are, should any of you be so inclined for further beauty. http://www.great-inspirational-quotes.com/haikus-by-tanja-cilia.html

You’ll find all the links to the collected Haiku of Tanya Cilia within that link! I love that woman. Can y’all tell? And so, until next time, and another flower for the fence. See y’all later! Y’all come back now, hear?