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