Contemplations Weekly Poetry Archive

Check out the reference images and videos mentioned in this episode in my newsletter {link below}
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://winphyo.substack.com
My paintings and poetry: https://www.winphyo.com


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit winphyo.substack.com

Check out the reference images and videos mentioned in this episode in my newsletter {link below}
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://winphyo.substack.com
My paintings and poetry: https://www.winphyo.com


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit winphyo.substack.com

Welcome Home
You have been through a
Long journey
You have crossed the
Most difficult terrains
Encountering the violent weather
Parched from the dessert
Heat from the rainforest
Your clothes are drenched
Your skin is dry
Your feet full of blisters
Welcome home
Now dear
Take a rest
Deep full breaths
Sip some tea
Let’s put a warm blanket
around your body
You are here
At the right place
And you are always
On time
In the Studio
It’s four days left before I take the train on Friday evening to London. Then an early morning flight on Saturday will take me all the way from London to Chicago O’Hare Airport where Brett’s dad will be waiting.
We are due to spend less than a day with his parents in the suburb, just outside of Chicago.
Then, an early morning drive on Sunday will take back us to Chicago O’Hare Airport again for a flight to San Francisco, where our second hosts, Brett’s brother and wife, will be waiting.
That means, by the time you get this message, I will be getting ready to get on my second flight, baggy eyes and all.
But look at me. Touring around the United States, kind of. I am happy to be with my American boyfriend, who has family there. It means I have a really good excuse to go back frequently. Experience the City life and immerse myself into a different culture.
A time to really get outside of myself to meet reflections of the external world that exist beyond my own.
Brett and his presence alone, gets me out of the house. That’s just the kind of person he is. He loves to stay active. He goes on lots of walks. He gets me out of my own world. He is very much a good influence, although the amount of travelling he does gives me FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) sometimes.
If you get to know Brett, you would realise how much he loves travelling.
When we got together, I very much saw that if there is one thing that gives back to him so much energy and appreciation for being alive in this world- it’s travelling.
Since I started pursuing my dreams, I’ve become a messy person.
The mess can wait if it means the idea is completed or explored.
I don’t do it intentionally. I just seem to forget everything else around me when I really have something I want to focus on.
And a week before this trip, I suddenly found myself working on this newsletter, rather than packing.
What else is there to do but write, as I felt compelled to do?
That is the thing about doing the work.
There is no other way around it.
The writer must write.
The speaker must speak.
The artist must draw.
The traveller must travel.

The identity itself is a label. We just do what must be done.
And to give time to what makes us feel alive always has a trade off.
For me this week, it’s the lack of sleep.
We don’t have graduation in creativity or entrepreneurship.
We don’t have right or wrong answers.
Artists rarely compete with each other but instead we compete with themselves.
And ever since I started asking questions about:
* how can I create paintings that resemble the feelings from my heart?
* or writing that stirs my soul?
* or questions about how I can let go off this idea that to be an artist means we must always act from a place of being wounded, or naive or being too introverted or too extroverted?
* and how to just let my expression be as diverse as my interests themselves?
Ever since I started asking these kinds of questions, I’ve never been able to look back.
I’ve become addicted to learning as an adult.
Learning as an adult on the journey of pursuing dreams is like playing a video game.
Every level completed gives a boost of confidence that this isn’t so bad after all.
That it is possible. I can do it.
And the deeper I go, the more I realise perfection is overrated.
It prevents one from learning.
It prevents one from taking risks and doing things.
It prevents one from experimenting.
And ultimately, it prevents one from growing and keeping an open mind in life.

We try to have everything in order but chaos has been the fundamen

Hi friend,
After nearly two years of hiatus, I come back to my newsletter Contemplations again.
It has been a long time coming and before I tell you about why I had such a long break and what you can expect in your inbox from now on, I want to say:
THANK YOU.
I am quite sure to bet that your life in the past two years have also been an interesting ride- full of both the ups and the downs, the peace and periods of fast momentum, of growing deeper roots, BUT -
You continued to stay subscribed to this newsletter. This act of loyalty and support, I am deeply grateful to you for staying.
Where have I been?
Shortly after ending last season of newsletter and podcasting, life took an unexpected turn.
After some years of persuasion from my sister and I, my mother finally left an abusive relationship with my dad. I experienced a heartbreak unlike any other romantic love encountered so far in witnessing the divorce of my parents in my adult life.
My mother moved in with me, taking with her nine cats and a rescued pigeon.
It was a steep learning curve to be an independent person, with a life filled with solitude to a life that took a different form ~
My boyfriend a few months prior got his visa and he made a big move from the US to the UK to be with me.
There we were: 3 humans, 9 cats and 1 pigeon in 1 relatively spacious but now feeling suddenly small, house. You do the math.
I won’t bore you with the details. But insert here moments of equal chaos, tears, anguish, confusion, happiness, love and laughter. We all had to grow out of our old skins pretty fast.
Where do we go from now?
Right in the middle of my parents ongoing divorce, naively or stubbornly or bravely (you decide), I made a decision to begin pursuing my dream of becoming a professional artist poet seriously.
I think my parents divorce and the changes I experienced made me realise that this life we have is short. I also no longer had my father’s fear driven thoughts beside me, but instead replaced by my mum’s infinite belief of possibilities.
So in the time you didn’t hear from me, I was doing my due diligence and much experimentation and learning to continue to grow as a creative person and as an entrepreneur.
This journey of pursuing my dreams have changed me significantly and I have grown much from the woman who started this newsletter back in 2021.
Welcome to the Season of Climbing
Just like the seasons of the year, my poetry is linked to the seasons of my life. The previous season I have named Season of Contemplations - a time of deep solitude, questions and searching.
I look up at the heights above me and
I feel my freedom knowing the winds and the rocky surface
Would give me the protection I need on this climb.
Now is the Season of Climbing, my friend. A season where we learn to revel in the very real, very practical, very unpredictable path of new beginnings.
In this season, we are not just dreaming, but doing.
We are not just resting, but resting intentionally to grow deeper roots.
We are not in solitude, but very much a part of a family, friends and community.
We climb steadily with enjoyment and hope, faith and laughter, and should we also grieve for a past long gone, we grieve with possibilities for a better future, undetermined but very real to us just like the ground beneath our feet.
Every Sunday, I will publish a short poem as written and spoken word - just long enough so you can enjoy it while you have a cup of hot drink (or water!) and take a moment of rest from your day.

Should it take your fancy, there will also be a short segment where I tell you about my week and what is happening in my studio. I decided to add this to my weekly archive because I think it can be quite comforting to know you are not alone in this climb and journeying along this game of life.
I hope we can continue to be on this path of contemplating and growing together.
Some housekeeping refreshers:
* Firstly, check out this page if you have forgotten who I am.
* I am using

Beyond my window
Is a whole wide world
There are trees swaying in the wind
There are birds singing songs
The dogs are barking and the cars
Are moving along
Just as the people who stop and stare
Or go about their business to somewhere
The sun still shines
The neighbour’s cat visits my porch
Everyone and everything continues
Beyond my window
There is a time for everything and today marks my last post of this season, which has unexpectedly lasted for 7months. When I first started this podcast newsletter, I didn’t expect myself to write for this long and consistently every week.
Sometimes the process challenged me, but more commonly, I found different ways of experimenting with spoken word, in finding old and new voices both in written and spoken formats, and turning up to a black page; surprising myself of the words that flowed out in front of me.
I also deepened some relationships and found a way of connecting with close and new friends, home and abroad. I found that a newsletter is a great way to connect with those far away. My visitation into their emails almost replicated the conversations we have when we are together. I learned from their sharing of their stories just as I shared mine.
Just as nature as its own seasons, I think I am also coming to a cycle of rest and renewal.
A lot of the poetry I read came from deep moments of rest and renewal. Of disconnecting to connect within and living life in many different ways.
It came from writing down my jumbled up thoughts without a form of organisation.
I’ve heard from a few people of how the voice I seem to have developed in many of my thinking and writing is of “wisdom.” But I don’t feel wise. I feel like for the past seven months, I’ve merely recorded flashes of insights that I recognise in my own or someone else’s life.
Sometimes it is not based on a true story but of a theory. Sometimes it is based on many stories interconnecting with one another.
Regardless, I think, for now it is time for me to take a pause. I’ve seen many people take different forms of breaks this summer. I’ve been denying myself of one until now.
I am curious to the next stage of how my writing will unfold and how my voice will evolve and in what ways I will use it for.
If there is a next season, it will be as purposeful as this one.
I hope you will give yourself the permission to rest and unplug. To not just peer outside of your window, as the poem suggests, but to step outside of it. To experience the birds, the trees, the dogs, the cats and the people who are living their own lives, living centrally in their own lives as the main character of their own projects and dramas, as we all do; and recognise that all of this and more awaits for our witnessing of them beyond the windows we have built for ourselves.
In the meantime, do go back to the previous episodes and archives of the newsletters and podcast episode. They’re available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and if you are subscribed to this newsletter, it will go straight into your inbox.
Thank you for coming on this journey with me for the past seven months. I have really enjoyed writing and recording for you.
May we all live by our own wisdom, and for that wisdom to be crumble every once in awhile to be built up again.
Contemplations
:
How will you be pausing this year?
What are your favourite ways of disconnecting to connect?
In what ways can you learn to pivot in your life so that a renewal can take place?


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit winphyo.substack.com

Have you seen a tree that grows to maturity in a day?
My mother once told me about spiders building their webs
“You didn’t grow up watching spiders so you don’t know,”
she would tell me
“The spider produces his own web and many times
he would lose grip and he would fall
again and again
He would then climb back up
again and again
Continuing to construct his intricate web”
This is the timeline of nature
Where no sequence of our life is constructed in 24 hour blocks
There is only wisdom and patience
that all things will grow and unfold in their own time
There is only the trust and faith
that all the nutrients and connections
required for survival will be given
Far from our own egoic interference
We can bear witness to these cycles of nature
Contemplations
:
What is your life’s work right now?
Where in your life have your sense of time become small?


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit winphyo.substack.com