“You were once wild here. Don’t let them tame you.”
–Isadora Duncan
presence, breath,
the mystery of
the body–
here and now,
never once upon a time–
wild eternity
full of what
is—translating and
transforming
each step through
the labyrinth that is you–
synchronal, alive
This is a Kick-About prompt (the quote from Isadora Duncan) that I never posted. I had an idea to do collage illustrations, but the photos of Isadora dancing made me want to try to capture them in gestural drawings.
I haven’t used pastels in a long time, but I can see why Degas chose them so often to render his dancers. The body becomes transformed by dance, lighter and more transparent. Otherworldly.
For NaPoWriMo, and also linking to the dVerse prompt from Grace, The Body & Poetry.
black
hole
rabbit
hole—is it
curiosity
or gravity that pulls us in?
The NaPoWriMo prompt for Day 7 is to write either a shadorma or a Fib poem. I’ve written hundreds of shadormas (see Days 4 and 6 for example), so I decided to try a Fib, inspired by this article I was reading in the NY Science Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/24/science/astronomy-messier-87-black-hole.html
It’s a form that seems especially good for questions.
“But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle.”
–E B White, “Charlotte’s Web”
how the sun
multiplies dewdrops
hovering
on nearly
invisible threads tiny
iridescent pearls
scattered on
paths that cross woven
in waves that
whisper with
the breeze leaving sparkling trails
like a fairy’s wand
releasing
the magic of stars
to the light
connecting
sheltering enabling this
miraculous life
Today for Day 6 the NapoWriMo prompt says: Go to a book you love. Find a short line that strikes you. Make that line the title of your poem. Write a poem inspired by the line. Then, after you’ve finished, change the title completely. I chose “Charlotte’s Web” which has many many good lines to choose from.
Another shadorma chain, with art from the archives.
The NaPoWriMo prompt for Day 3 is intriguing. I already know about Michael McClure’s “Personal Universal Deck” and it’s on a long list of things I’d like to do as I love cards of all kinds. But it needs more than a day to do properly, and I only have an hour on this particular day.
So I stuck with the Oracle’s deck of magnetic words, as I do most Saturdays. She knows these are holy days, as is every day when we pay attention to the wonders of the earth and its seasons. Who will save her?
spring seeds light
birds flower air bees
following
walk with green spirits
on earth as it is
Linking to earthweal Open Link Weekend.
I’ve lived many places
in the same location—how
many deaths are contained
in those serial lives? And what
of the try-outs, the short
visits that only caused
chaos from beginning to end?
Not all remain empty–
I can still hear them rattling
the corners of memories
born in dreams. If
I didn’t fit into every
context I passed through,
I still left parts behind—
Words I wrote that make no
sense now that I’m no longer
there—echoes that still
linger around the edges
of every song I sing. Perhaps
they live in the parts
I can’t quite recall—
Or in all those apartments
that populate my dream
world, the ones I return
to again and again, traversing
dark streets—it is always
night—eerily quiet
with noirish cinema light.
Every one contains stairs
and phantom rooms, windows
in hallways and former
inhabitants—not quite ghosts–
but there, there, as much
as I, in what is called real
life, keep moving on.
This may have some relation to today’s NaPoWriMo prompt of the road not taken. Maybe.
“The world around us is absolutely mind-blowingly amazing….All you have to do is pay attention. Then the stars come out and they dance with you.”–John Muir Laws
Common you say. Everyday you say.
and it’s true: night follows day
follows night. Many things
form patterns, yet within
the patterns are mysterious
variations, expressions of one
particular momentary intersection
of space and time. The moon
playing with clouds. Water
coming in contact with light.
A tree, any tree, in any
season. Who can forget
an insect’s wing? Pigeons
swooping in unison between
the roofs of buildings. Common.
And yet. But still. It stops
me. Looking, listening, wondering.
Every day.
The NaPoWriMo prompt today has a link to an animation of the music of the Sun Ra Arkestra. Sun Ra was in tune with the world’s amazingness, but you don’t need psychedelic imagery to notice it.
Brendan at earthweal asks this week: What is the turning point that gets us out of this labyrinth of fated humanity? Who or what must we embrace? How do we find our way into the Totality?
We could start by just paying attention.
For NaPoWriMo this year I will mostly, if not entirely, be using art from the archives. I am in the pre-panic phase of my move–a little over 2 weeks before the movers come. I may not post every day, but I’ll do my best.
You can also see my art this month at the Ekphrastic Challenge at Wombwell Rainbow. Two other artists, and many wonderful poets, including Merril Smith and Jane Dougherty, are participating.
