The Oracle was obviously missing the birdlings.
ghosts linger as dark stars
dazzled holes of lost time
ask the angels how to remember
flying the sky
melting color like sacred fire
dancing with air
if we sail our breath
with wild naked eyes
vast and opened into listening
who will we become?
Also linking to earthweal open link weekend.
The same foolishness
everywhere. We talk over
each other, repeat
words until they are erased.
The lines become solid form.
We can’t see either
forest or trees. We respond
without listening.
The same actions, recast,
broken up, taken down. Angry
outlines drawn like guns.
Hanging over cliffs, waiting.
Holding on, out, back.
We banish heart, soul. Burning
every single bridge. Drowning.
Early in my blogging life, on memadtwo, I did a series of paintings titled what is it good for? Then I did some embroideries titled war is not healthy (for children and other living things). Unfortunately, it’s (always) (still) relevant. Even in my city (mostly) young men are killing and being killed every day by gang and turf wars that are little more than macho posturing. And of course, as in every war, civilians are merely collateral damage.
Three linked tankas for Colleen’s #TankaTuesday with synonyms for life and move.
Carapace—
who speaks?—carapace—
dream landscape
indigo
blue paths going from nowhere
into nowhere else.
A shelter?–
a support?–cosmic
tree growing
up and up
with turtles all the way down
to infinity…
Sarah at dVerse asks us to consider the word blue. I did have a dream with a disembodied voice repeating “carapace”, and used it as inspiration for the shells I painted for the Kick-About prompt “Museum Wormarianum”. The dream was saturated in blues.
Both Nina and I have painted and drawn and photographed turtles and tortoises many times at memadtwo. They are wonderful–and need I say? endangered–creatures, believed by some cultures to hold the earth, and all life, on their backs.
And here’s some classic blues performed by the Turtle Island String Quartet.
The Oracle is still in a spiritual earth-affirming mode.
come by this
fertile listening
blue spiritsongs spring
out of up from
the ancient wild between
earth water air light
a deep knowing
through which to breathe
What is?
Why not say blue
mirror, say deep well–
Why not say sun
light, say bright fire?
Dancing circles
into braided beginnings,
the meeting of earth and air
Weaving flowers
to welcome back
the missing and missed
Swallowing the past,
planting the future–
doing and being both—
Balancing the between
to expand
in both directions
What is?
Why not say moment
of birth, say the point when
life begins, say spirit,
breath, embodiment?
What is?
Why not say the pivot
of is and is not?
Sarah has given us the inspiration of Beltrane at earthweal this week. Whatever you choose to write about, remember that this is a celebration, of new life, of love and of the endless bounty of this planet.
I too like the places
where categories are neither
and both—indistinct forms
replace the sharp edges and play
with what is no longer there.
Past and future give way
to presence, and dissolve
who I am—nothing
has yet been decided.
There is no need
to consult time, to hasten
the turning of the wheel–
life pauses–
the landscape seems different,
unattached to words
or specific actions as it
gathers me in, murmuring
my pulse with invisible
currents.
Crow calls to my soul–
a shadow casting deeper
than darkness or light.
The NaPoWriMo prompt for today is to write a poem that responds, in some way, to another. Liu Xia is a Chinese artist, activist and poet. “Twilight” is one of the poems in her book Empty Chairs. Although that particular poem is not available online, you can read some of her other poems here.
“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 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.
Not a body or voice–
something is listening,
filling me with prescience,
nourishment, shelter, rest,
warmth, an embrace. Time and
space have no horizons.
Who knows what is
hidden—earthbound
or beyond—singing
in parallel time?
And where am I?
I can’t comprehend,
can’t contain this feeling–
it is always spilling
out and then refilling
with gratitude–I just
let silence reflect me,
imprinted on the land
Thanks Sue.
