where is the center?
always moving–
I can’t locate
the pivot
always moving–
the place of stillness,
the pivot
of this labyrinth
stillness
retracing
this labyrinth
emerging
retracing
beginning
emerging
expanding
to begin,
I relocate–
expanding
the center
For Earthweal, where Ingrid asks us to consider our labyrinthine times.
K. 
It’s all we can do: keep moving until we find that place of stillness within! I love the stitching 🙂
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Thanks Ingrid. Stitching keeps me grounded these days.
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I might have to take up knitting again!
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You should!
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This is one of your favourite themes. Always makes me think of ripples running to the bank and back again.
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Theme and form…the pantoum does ripple I think.
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It does.
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I cannot get enough of your art, Kerfe. I can’t recall the last time I enjoyed somebody’s art so much.
❤
David
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Thanks David, that makes me smile.
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Stillness in our centre is what saves us, i think.
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Thanks Sherry, I believe you’re right.
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more deep philosophical questions but Sherry has the answer … love your stitching over the map, resonates deeply 🙂
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Thanks Kate. I love maps as well as stitching.
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I have a map – hard to get these days – maybe this is what I’ve been waiting for 🙂 Now to find it again!
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They are rare in printed form.
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exactly, now it’s online only …
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Sooooooo cooool, artwork and poetic wisdom.
your work is music
vibrations that thrum atoms
into unity
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Thanks Jade. I love your poetic response.
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You’re welcome and thank you for the inspiration.
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Perceptual scaling of the outer limits to find one’s inner self. Love the concept of the map and a labyrinth. I know I can get lost in the city even with a map. I haven’t been there since before the pandemic.
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Sometimes it’s difficult to get oriented and a map is not always the best way to figure it out.
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Maybe, we are forever circling? I went to a retreat where we were exploring roads and choices. I remember one student asking what if we never find the path out in the journey and we keep circling around? Wow that statement caused a lot of deep ponderings.
I agree a map isn’t always the best option.
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Well they do say life is a circle. So maybe that’s what we’re meant to do, instead of always looking for a way out.
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I really like your take on this challenge. Of course, that’s exactly what’s it about – these labyrinthine times.
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Thanks Suzanne. It’s uncertain where we are in the labyrinth, that’s for sure.
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A therapist once told me, “every access is a re-frame,” meaning my damaged past could find a new or at least more stable center when I reentered as dance, not death. I take your sense of “relocate” as that — a ‘recalibration” that expands the center.
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Those are wise words Brendan. I think that’s true.
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The perfect theme for you, Kerfe! Words and art go together so well—and I love the stitching.
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Thanks Merril. Yes, the perfect theme.
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This is a wonderful twist on a pantoum, and, as usual, you do it so effectively that I don’t see the repetition until I’m told it’s a pantoum. I like how you’ve minimized the text, as if arriving at the core of the matter.
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Thanks Ken. Originally the lines were longer, but they felt like they need to be pared down. Sometimes the poem tells you what to do.
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Wonderful piece of writing Kerfe, and love the art — as I always do your work.
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Thanks Rob.
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Reading this felt a bit like walking the labyrinth. Well done!
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Thanks Sherry.
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