Threaded

On its way
from crimson to blue,
violet bleeds
dusk–verses
threaded through the deep silence
of retreating skies.

Sue Vincent’s photo prompt, below, was the inspiration for my embroidered watercolor and poem.

The land and air have morphed into water I think….

Sky Dancing

like calligraphy
skywriting black against blue
clouds and trees dancing

Sue Vincent’s photo prompt, above, gave me a chance to try an idea I’ve been thinking about for awhile.  A few years ago I did a cross-stitch poem on paper, and I was intrigued by the pattern that appeared on the back.  This seemed the perfect opportunity to see what would happen if I tried it over some watercolor collaged together.

I think I may have overdone it with the stitching, but I can always pull some out; the holes in the paper will make a subtle and interesting pattern too.  I’ll look at it for awhile and think about it.

Here’s the poem side, with part of the haiku and some patterns (I wanted to try those out as well).

 

If It’s Magic

I did this little magician stitched collage for Rochester Contemporary Art Center’s (RoCo) 6 x 6 fundraiser.  I can’t remember where I first heard about it, but I’ve been sending them a piece of art to sell for a few years.  The opening is tonight, so if you are in the neighborhood…

magic growls liquid
breezes haunted by secrets
foolish wild wet stars

night is bleeding vast desire
day embraces naked sky

The Magnetic Oracle made me think of Stevie Wonder today.

If it’s magic
Then why can’t it be everlasting
Like the sun that always shines
Like the poets in this rhyme
Like the galaxies in time
….
It holds the key to every heart
Throughout the universe
It fills you up without a bite
And quenches every thirst

 

Go Make People Among Rain

Go make people among rain
gather kin beneath the storm
hold the lost and the forlorn
go make people among rain

Ask the echoes to explain
watch silence being born
go make people among rain
gather kin beneath the storm

Dance the circle round again
dreams enchanted into form

chords of color greet the sun
singing verse into refrain

Go make people among rain

On May 25, Robert Okaji posted his beautiful translation of Wang Wei’s poem “Apricot House”.  He included the Chinese-poems.com transliteration of the original poem, and I was taken by the line from it, “Go make people among rain”.  Robert challenged me to take that line and make my own poem, which I did, based on a slightly altered Rondel form.

 

Inside Out

Window
frames skies tearing,
the boundaries erased.
Feelings pass through thinking and weep.
Defenses dissolving,
cleansed by water
and air.

For Sue Vincent’s photo prompts, below (late again).

 

Feel Gardens

Nina and I consulted with the Magnetic Poetry Oracle way back in February for this one.  I’ve been working on this illustration for a long time, but my stitching is always slow.

Cover cold wind
feel gardens
follow bright stones
behold harmony
breathe wild blooms
of secret sanctuary
listen to
the beautiful song

 Nina has a completely different interpretation for our collaborative verse which she will be posting today as well.

Portents

The clouds are cold, still
heavy with winter.  Layers
reveal blue borders.

Earth holds its breath, forecasting.
Throw spring, uncautioned, to wind.

Colleen’s weekly tanka prompt words were clouds and spring, accompanied by the photo, above.  I also used most of the Secret Keeper’s prompt words from this week.

(…and we will catch it, gladly.)

When the Cold Wind Blows

If you see fire, if
fire is spilled, smothered by rain,
stolen from the sun–

are bridges burned, rivers run
dry?  A cold flaming.  Unquenched.

James Taylor released his album “Sweet Baby James” in 1970, the year I graduated from high school.  It was a constant in my life for the next few years, and remains a touchstone for remembering that time.

When Colleen title her tanka challenge this week “Fire and Rain”, James Taylor’s song immediately began to play in my head.  Almost all the songs on “Sweet Baby James” talk about the sun, yet there’s a touch of melancholy in every word.  Colleen’s prompt photo, too, seems to reflect these contradictory feelings.  Endings, beginnings:  fire and rain.  My tanka is an imagined conversation with the album and the song.

You can read the lyrics to “Fire and Rain” (the source of my tanka’s title) and listen to the song here.  James discusses some of his songs for Rolling Stone, with musical accompaniment, here.  (But you don’t need to explain yourself, James.  We understand these feelings only too well.)

Draw a Bird Day: Red Rooster

“Watch out strange kind people
Little Red Rooster is on the prowl”
–Howlin Wolf, interpreting Willie Dixon

This embroidered painting was inspired by a Mexican Carnival mask and the blues, and also in honor of the Year of the Rooster.

Red as a rooster. Red
as a heart that bleeds with
fire.  Red as the rose
that blooms inside the heart’s desire.
Red as the anger that
is trapped inside the flame.  Red
as the burning blood that
saturates the vein.  Red red.  Red.

The poem uses the red rooster as a starting point.  I finally managed to do a quadrille properly:  44 words.  The rhymes just happened.

Happy Draw-A-Bird Day!

Drawing Constellations

Drawing constellations in skies of dream,
landscaped as colors growing wild, extreme,
pulsing surrounding vibrations unseen,
in star-gathered moonlight, whispering beam
unconscious, unlimited, in between

Continuing my recent star theme…I actually did this awhile ago, but I’ve been tweaking the poem on and off.  This is for Jane Dougherty’s last poetry challenge posted back in the end of September.  The poetic form was her own invention:  a single stanza of five lines of ten syllables each, and the five end of line words all rhyme.   Here’s the artwork she provided:

I miss Jane’s prompts.