all
most dreamed
synthesized
otherworldly this
hour this hidden light
found by shifting seasons
like a song already known
a secret spellbound heartsown with
haunted melodies resonating
as echoes returned from a lost refrain
For Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday where the prompts this week were a photo provided by Trent McDonald (above) and/or synonyms for the words “MOVE & MAKE” provided by David Ellis.
I had a lot of false starts with the Oracle this morning. She definitely wanted to talk about both shadows and the sea. This is where I ended up.
mist shadows
recall blue moonlight
whispering
dreamlike languages
on seas of no sleep
And it does reflect the kinds of nights I’ve been having. Once again, art from the archives.
My poem, “The Healing of Emptiness” is posted on The Ekphrastic Review today, immediately following Jane Dougherty’s luminous “Horse Dreams”, acting almost like a coda to the ruminations of her protagonist’s mind. The inspirational art is Franz Marc’s Tower of Blue Horses. You can read all the selections here.
My thanks once again to editor Lorette C. Luzajic for supporting my work and the interaction between the visual and written arts.
it’s easy
to say no—but what
does that word
really mean,
exactly?—“not now”?—“never”?–
“I don’t understand”?—
“I don’t want
to deal with it”?—what
lies between
the letters,
the sounds hard and long? if you
take away the n
what is left?–
only a surprise,
a sense of
wonder—worlds
filled with possibility–
the magic of ”o!”
The Kick-About prompt this week features a photo of the Cottingley fairies, above, taken by two girls in England in 1917. Looking at the photo from the vantage point of digital manipulation in 2020, it’s easy to laugh at the fact that anyone could have actually believed that they were “real”. And yet…
(and here I find I must make more birdlings)
Are fairies true? Are birdlings?
ghost ships rise
along the crescent,
shadowing
their moonmasts–
sails blurred blue into oceans–
dusk stilled into night
For Sue Vincent’s photo prompt of August 20, below.
I posted my original painting on memadtwo with the Oracle’s meditation on Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I was dissatisfied with it and intensified the dark for the painting above. I had written the poem at that time as well (even though I was offline), and it complements the Oracle’s words I think.
The crescent moon circle was taken from one of my photos, but I think I should have glued it down. A small task I will get to soon.
Also sending good wishes to Sue as she deals with a serious illness.
the always of after
leaves why to wither
lonely without root
or vine
how can never become
when?
who seeds the birdwind?
ask this quiet deep light
growing into moonsong
The Oracle was full of questions today. As are we all.
gathered in
like harmony
spilling out
like wings
like harmony
a stillness
like wings
unfolding
in stillness
each chord
unfolding
the world
each chord
filling
the world
with song
filling
the edges
with song
reaching
the edges
uncontained
reaching
the invisible
uncontained
singing
the invisible
to eternity
singing
beyond reason
to infinity
all needs
beyond reason
spilling out
all needs met
and gathered in
An unrhymed pantoum for Sue Vincent’s photo prompt, above.
For Frank Tassone’s #haikai challenge 151, autumn storm/darkness. I wanted a much gentler vision, but the Oracle was having no part of it.
delirious sleep
pounding its raw grey stormchant
wind language dreaming
mad with shadows whispering
in a momentary light
When I saw what the Oracle had given me today, I went looking for an old post I had done on blue whales. What I wrote six years ago is only more true today.
The blue whale is the world’s largest and heaviest existing animal. Hunted almost to extinction by whalers in the 19th century, it is currently endangered, like many other species, by habitat loss due to pollution and climate change. Toxic chemicals and the warming of the ocean disrupt migration and food sources, sonar disrupts whale communication, and whales also collide with ships and become entangled in fishing gear.
Humans have not been kind to whales.
A good, if depressing, compilation of whale and human history can be found in Philip Hoare’s book “The Whale”. My review on goodreads is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/118181104
http://www.whale.org/
http://www.savethewhales.org/
Also linking to earthweal open link weekend.
ancient blue
spirtsong follows
deep moonpath
listen as
secrets breathe between
waterlight
