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No army of beasts or men now darkens this way–
this solitary timeline of an arcane place–
no footsteps follow, no watcher casts an eye

What nourishes this soil, this evaporated sea,
this tangle of intricate light and grace?
No army of beasts or men now darkens this way

Bones resting shallow like lines on the palm of memory–
ghostly wanderers, shaded in lace–
no footsteps follow, no watcher casts an eye

What lasts but flowers pressed between a sigh?
just out of reach, these names without a face–
No army of beasts or men now darkens this way

Return these paths to elements that signify–
erase the human presence, leave no trace–
no footsteps to follow, no watcher to cast an eye

These sagas without end, without anything to say,
these battles over nothing that debase–
let no army of beasts or men darken this way–
let no footsteps follow, no watcher cast an eye

A villanelle for Sue Vincent’s photo prompt, above.  Villanelle is the featured form at dVerse for the month of April.  As far as I could tell, I’ve only done one previously, for a hawk I saw out my window.

We’re about to begin NaPoWriMo–I managed every day last year, and hope to do it again.  I’m sure we will find a few villanelles merged into the daily prompts that you can find here at the NaPoWriMo website.  Submit your site, and then your daily poems in the comments section.

 

springsong

 

The Oracle is gently optimistic this weekend.

trust the evening sky
to receive the voices
of the night–
wishes dreaming in music,
filling every sound with flowers–
a language of dances
and winged stars

 

Playground

Another drawing of just the playground structure: no humans in the picture.

I am having a sort of rebirth of drawing, probably because of spring. April is my birth month and I start to wake up around this time of year.

There was a piece in The NY Times about people on Instagram writing longer captions. They called IG the new WordPress. Never!

Kerfe encourages me once again to try harder and find time for art. I’ve done just that and as usual she is right. Just to start something and get caught up in it is what art is all about to me. I hope to continue in this vein.

Have a great weekend!

Playground (spring)

Another sketch on black paper: a scene out my window looking over at the playground across the street. Children playing and adults standing around is nice to see.

Sketch in just white pencil. I like the look of this but always feel the need to put in color. Have a great day!

Self portrait on black paper

Quick sketch of myself sitting in front of the mirror. Artistic license to make the eyes stand out: my eyes aren’t turquoise.

Fields of Dreams

A haiga for Colleen’s tanka Tuesday words, hobby and play.  There is a long tradition of baseball haiku, both in Japan and America.

 I first thought of Rickey Henderson when I considered sketching a base stealer, but then I discovered that Jackie Robinson was the major league leader in steals of home in the modern era–he did it 19 times–so I used photos of him as my inspiration.  Just one small part of his extraordinary legacy.

This second haiga is for Frank Tassone’s challenge of swallows.  When Ken at rivrvlogr posted his response, it reminded me that the place I see swallows in NYC is at the ball park–clearly stadiums have good nesting places.  And always plenty of dreams.

I’m definitely out of practice with my sketching, and I forgot how difficult it is to draw catchers.  But Opening Day is just around the corner…

Couple of drawings

I was goofing off in my room and did a couple of sketches. This top one is my dog Birdman. This is how he can usually be found.

My feet in moccasins with a lamp and a painting on the wall in the background. The lamp is from Home Depot.

It is beautiful and sunny in northern NJ today but still cold. My hostas are starting to come up- they are usually the first to peek out. I hope everyone has a great day.

Weekend Sketching 3/25/19

I love sketching the old Paterson buildings. This was a black and white photo which I took the artistic license of coloring. A lot of the old buildings were constructed in brownstone and I imagine this one was too. I gave it some stained glass windows.

Spring is arriving but slowly. Yesterday I went over to take care of my neighbor’s chickens only to find they had “flown the coop”. I can’t figure out how as the fence was up and all doors locked. But the girls cooperated and I got them back in (as a large hawk was circling). They also laid a few eggs in the yard making same eggs certifiably free range. Love those chickens!

Hallow

summon the bones
uncoiled dream
chasm, koan
raw energy

uncoiled dream
glimpses of signs
raw energy
vanishing lines

glimpses of signs
particles in sync
vanishing lines
held on the brink

particles in sync
images transpire
held on the brink
omens, desire

images transpire
time distills
omens, desire
nowhere reveals

time distills
chasm, koan
nowhere reveals
summon the bones

One more pantoum for the dVerse March poetic form, inspired by Sue Vincent’s photo prompt above.

Sabio Lantz posted a pantoum that I found very appealing in its brief rhythmic images. He said in his post that he had discovered that the original Maylay pantoums had very short lines, so I thought I would try one in that spirit.  I’ve always thought the pantoum form worked well for chants, and the shorter lines magnify this feeling.

 

Equinox

Nina gave me a magnetic board for consulting the Oracle.  This was her first message…of course she had to mention this week’s full moon!

In between all the rain and wind, it was a clear, if misty, night.  I like the way the moon mirrored the streetlight rising over the buildings too.

breathe spirit from within
be nothing but a moon song
speaking with the wind