Joan Mitchell

in the midst

My message this morning from the Oracle. I woke once again to clouds, but the sun is shining now.

spring winters
deep beneath the riverpath–
a dark season
thicker than dusk

did you fall moonwandering
into the long night?

or were you too bird-rooted
and windwild to see?  that
earth also breathes light–
full of treesong, growing in-between

The art is from NaPoWriMo 2018, when all my accompanying artwork was inspired by painter Joan Mitchell. I haven’t thought that far ahead this year; this April, I’ll just be visiting the archives for art I think.

now, when

what crowns morn
ing what binds begin
ning connects
endings to
portaled timelessness what re
news continues life

if not birds
if not stars if not
dawn if not
rain wind sky
if not fertile earth turning
into trees—what then?

For earthweal, spending some time with trees. My painting is, once again, inspired by Joan Mitchell’s tree paintings which I return to again and again.

breathing the bones

(at the heart)

may every
tree spread its roots interlocking
together to create a vast
community
bird-adorned canopy
meeting in
the intersected threads
cast by branches and
leaves    maple ginko
oak beech linden willow pine
walk with the wind as they sail
ancient stories of beginning
stillness echoed back

The NaPoWriMo prompt for Day 5 was to find a poem, and then write a new poem that has the shape of the original, and in which every line starts with the first letter of the corresponding line in the original poem. I chose Lucille Clifton’s “blessing the boats”

I was also inspired by an article in the NY Times yesterday about the wonders of the oak tree.

The paintings were inspired by the tree paintings of Joan Mitchell.

(in a) material world

material world tree s

If I could disguise
myself as a tree—ancient,
unnoticed, unknown–

when all was wild
unruled
each day began

alive, encircled
by the present
all was strangely itself

taking refuge
without before or after
neither first nor last

accepting changes
as intrinsic
to what is

a dance
always balanced between
darkness and light

material world tree close up s

Mish, at dVerse, asked us to talk about what has been revealed to us by our present isolation.  I try to write a bit each morning and this was composed from fragments in my current notebook.

The art is from my continuing series inspired by Joan Mitchell’s trees.