Signe writes: 'These poems did not come about to illustrate the paintings. Nor were the paintings inspired by the writing. They have individually welled up in times of joy or pain, sometimes from a sense of futility, at other times with a feeling of discovery: Eureka! I have found!
'Many of the paintings were done in response to an overwhelming sense of beauty or a feeling of awe in the presence of the primeval power in nature. Often I had a feeling of kinship with living growing things around me, the sense that all life is one.
'And then there were pictures which appeared in my mind, unexpectedly, forcefully, without any relation to what I was doing or seeing at the time.This often happened in the early morning when I had a quiet time, or at night when I could not sleep. Surprisingly, it would also happen when I was alert but with my mind free as when I was ironing. Very often it was not until much later that I saw the significance in these mind-pictures.
'For years ill-health forced me to spend much time resting, alone. There was time to ponder, time to wonder, and time to wrestle with my uncertainties which were many. Occasionally it happened that poems came sailing into my mind. Some were like the softest whispers which were hard to catch. Others came with an audacity which surprised me. A few were already formed, like the small one "Bitter Brine". Others needed polishing or correction, with much work involved. Often I was not in the mood to take time off for a poem which I felt was forming. But I began to learn that there was some relevance, some message in them aimed at me. The knowledge dawned that stillness and aloneness were means of opening the senses to realites that I had often earnestly denied.
'I think there is an urge to share what we find along the way, and to take part in what others found. I believe that in the process we pick up something which adds up to the completion we all naturally long for. What would have become of me, I shudder to think, if I had not had the shared experiences of people of other times and other cultures as well as of people now living.'
English
