My journal page for Art Journal Journey today features Walter de la Mare's "Five Eyes". Now that is something a bit different to usual but in order to do the challenge at Art Journal Journey as set by Valerie and Erika I had to include a piece of poetry. And so my journey began with a search on the internet for one of Walter de la Mare's poems as I remember studying his work when I was at school. "Five Eyes" immediately stood out in my mind when I saw it and I thought maybe I could link it to my page using Dylusion images and somehow bring in the quote from 'Tim Holtz' Snarky Comments "I thought I was in a bad mood, but it's been a few years so I guess this is who I am now.".
As the poem is set in a windmill you can see a CBeebies short film about milling grain here: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4my5CdWyYCo
"A long time ago in Holland there lived an old miller called Hans. He had three cats, Jekkel, Jessup and one-eyed Jill. The cats lived happily in the mill chasing rats to keep them away from the grain that went into the milling for Hans to turn into flour. All of their activity took place at night when it went dark as that was the time the rats were most likely to come out. Most of the time during the day they would curl up and sleep and live normal cat lives.
Jekkel, being the only male cat, was most protective of one-eyed Jill, the baby of the family. You see their mother cat had crossed the rainbow bridge a while ago, but before she went she made Jekkel promise he would look after his two sisters, especially the youngest, one-eyed Jill, who had lost her eye in a cat-fight with another kitten.
Jessup was a real tom-boy type of female cat. She was always competing with her brother, Jekkel, to catch the most rats each evening. Sometimes she could be quite aggressive in her approach to rat catching and this often led to her and her brother having an argument. In fact only the other morning when they were totting up the number of rats each had caught she and Jekkel had a big argument. Jekkel began throwing out all kinds of accusations and bringing up past indiscretions of Jessups.
"I have enough to do looking after Jill" shouted Jekkel as he ran around in circles chasing his tail, "it's always got to be a competition with you Jessup. We are here to watch the grain and stop those horrible rats from eating it for Hans and his family. They need the money and without it there would be no Mill and therefore no home for us. Don't you see?"
"Are you saying I am in a bad mood?" asked Jessup.
"Yes, I am. And you are always in one, always have been to be honest" replied Jekkel.
"Yes, I am in a bad mood. I thought I was in a bad mood, but it's been a few years so I guess this is who I am now" she replied sulkily. "Or at least that is what you are implying."
Just then little one-eyed Jill spoke up. "Stop arguing you two. It is upsetting to me and I know I catch the least number of rats so I feel bad when you get like this Jessup."
"Sorry" said Jekkel.
"Sorry" said Jessup.
Just then they heard the door open and the familiar 'clip clop' as Hans began climbing the stairs. Quickly the trio sat in a line and greeted Hans with the usual "Miaow" chorus as they waited for the creamy bowl of milk they got in a morning."
