Getting to Know You
with Linda Odom

I am Linda Odom. My birthday is April 30th. I think I share it with Willie Nelson. I was not named for anyone in particular. When I was in grade school there were always at least four Lindas in my class and perhaps a Brenda and a Glenda. So, my name places me in a period in the culture of the south. I grew up in Macon, Georgia.
I have been a part of Art & Soul for so long that I can’t remember when I wasn’t. I was in four consecutive yearlong sessions about three locations of Art & Soul ago. They were a great blessing, and I am reminded daily by all the paintings that hang all over my home.
Because of Art & Soul I also became involved in writing. I was in Merrill Farnsworth’s writing circles for many years and eventually put some of those writings into a little book: WHAT LOVE IS: Glimpses of a Life. I continue to write in Tobi Fishel’s writing circle, Sassy and Sacred. I have included a recent poem: Could I Be Loved?
COULD I BE LOVED?
Could I be loved?
Could I be LOVE?
Could I breathe it in
Until it fills me completely?
Could I breathe it out
For you to breathe in?
Could the little green light in my heart expand
Until I am surrounded by a bright green
radiant cloud,
That looks so delicate and fragile,
As though a gentle breeze could blow it away,
But that actually expands further and further
Like a fire that we feed with our breath?
Can the fire in my heart keep you warm?
Could it ignite the fire in yours?
Could we become a chain reaction
Spreading the sweet flames of LOVE?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if LOVE were contagious
And nothing, no nothing could stop it?
Linda Odom
February 1, 2021