Gentle Soldier of My Soul (Dave Carter)

So... I got my third tattoo today - I've posted before about my first and second. This is something I've been planning the last few years, knowing exactly what design would grace some part of my body eventually when the timing felt right - when a co-worker had hers done last weekend, I knew my wait was over.

It's no surprise to some of you reading that I'm a devotee of Dave Carter, the musician *and* the person - his death in July 2002 was devastating to me. I've written previously about the many dragonfly sightings which occurred following his passing and, to this day, whenever I spot one of the flying insects, my first thought is "Dave"... followed by a heart twinge and then a knowing smile - when Tracy Grammer, Dave's "partner in all things" released her Flower of Avalon CD, which contained her recordings of many of his unreleased songs, the dragonfly on the cover was the perfect symbol for honoring his memory. It now resides on my left forearm - hey-yah...

A bit of dragonfly science, history and folklore here...

SONG: Gentle Soldier of My Soul by Dave Carter

BOOK: A Dazzle of Dragonflies by Forrest L. Mitchell, James L. Lasswell

POEM: The Dragonfly by Louise Bogan

You are made of almost nothing

But of enough

To be great eyes

And diaphanous double vans;

To be ceaseless movement,

Unending hunger

Grappling love.

Link between water and air,

Earth repels you.

Light touches you only to shift into iridescence

Upon your body and wings.

Twice-born, predator,

You split into the heat.

Swift beyond calculation or capture

You dart into the shadow

Which consumes you.

You rocket into the day.

But at last, when the wind flattens the grasses,

For you, the design and purpose stop.

And you fall

With the other husks of summer.

QUOTE: "Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky." ~ Dante Gabriel Rossetti