Word Wednesday - The Compass Needle

For me, collaging is a kind of therapy; all I need is a glue stick, some scissors, a few National Geographic magazines and some tunes, and I go into a sort of weird, peaceful trance. And I love the idea of taking all the things I've collected over the years, bits and pieces of other peoples art that I love and want to pay tribute to, and make them into something beautiful that's also my own.
I made this collage from magazines, namely Yen and National Geographic, the cover of an old Hotspot guide from 2010, and an old Glassons catalogue from a couple of autumns ago. I really like this one, and I ended up writing a poem to go with it.

The Compass Needle 

The needle
points north west, casts
a shadow like a spell
on sands to make them shift
underfoot
to make mountains heave
and separate
to swallow up lonely travellers
searching for pieces of
themselves in the dark

my heart is cavernous
the chambers filled with blood
lacking oxygen, blue
the colour of the sky
unnatural, but quite pretty
nonetheless
I cannot walk far for long
periods of time
but I bleed azure and it
causes quite a stir around the
campfire

I follow the paths carved
into the sand by the
shadow of the needle
I come to the home
of some wild friends
dressed as long lost
humans, in the hues and
patterns of forgotten
peoples
creatures surrounded
by creatures, commanding them
playing
music
the one with hair the colour
that my blood should be
offers me his peace pipe
I inhale the smoke into the
caverns of my body
and exhale cloud after cloud
of delicate lace

I want to fill those caverns up with
beats and melodies
until there is no room for blood
blue or red or otherwise
I want to stir the dust with my feet
and absorb all the colours on
the birdwing
I want to take flight! Please, creators,
commanders of the creatures, won’t you grant
me this one wish?!
I’ve heard it’s almost what love
feels like
and I want to know love
and I don’t
My heart is wild but
my mind is tied
not to love,
or to religion, but to
the compass needle
and the spell it casts