The stars are a wondrous thing to behold. They twinkle in the dark skies like little beacons of hope. A reminder of the light. For me, they’ve always held enchantment. The constellations even more so. After all, the stars are placed in the cosmos in no particular order. It is we who give them an order. We name them and connect them with pencil lines on graph paper and chart their position in the sky so we won’t forget. We name them according to how they look. Heracles, after the Greek hero, chasing the world looking for one more adventure. Cetus, the sea-monster, roaming the skies to satiate his lust for flesh. Dragons and fairies, hunters and beasts. All written in hard to read shapes across the skies. We have given our stories to the stars. Embroidered them across the sky so that thousands of years from now we won’t forget because the steadfast stars will be there, to remind us. So here’s me introducing – The Constellation Series. Telling the stories of the stars that we might not know, depicting emotions that we feel in stories we no longer remember, except on clear nights when we use our fingers to find the shapes. Creating the feelings that those stories were meant to so long ago when they were first inked across the sky.

For this series, I got a fantastic chance to collaborate with the extremely talented graphic designer, Sana Hassan. She’s done a lovely job creating the watercolor art for each poem!

Here’s an ode to the stars, the oldest storytellers in the universe…

on suns, skies and constellations

ERIDANUS ~ the river

PAVO ~ the peacock

ANDROMEDA ~ the maiden of sorrow

CASSIOPEIA ~ the vain queen

CONSTELLATION CHRONICLES