June 2017 More Water Lilies

Water lilies—mirrored
sky holding deep dreams, rampant
with riotous light

Another Monet-inspired grid.  Happy June!

Mosaic

These are the edges of the woven piece from yesterday. Not exactly a grid because they are all different sizes but I may try doing a Kerfe style grid with even squares. There is something about this I like. I like how the colors work together and how it moves from the blues to the pinky oranges. 

April 2017 water lilies

water lilies—pink
finds green awakening
regeneration

Putting magnetic poetry aside for today, my April grid–another in the water lily haiku series.

It’s the season of renewal.  Happy Easter, Passover, Spring to all.

 

Water Lilies Revisited

A few years ago I did a Sketchbook Project of haiku and grids based on Monet’s water lilies paintings.  So when I saw the dVerse prompt for work based on impressionism, I decided to revisit my obsession with Monet’s work.  The Magnetic Oracle was helpful in getting me started, and then I did one on my own.

You can see my complete “Water Lilies” digitized sketchbook here, and previous posts on the subject here, here, and here.

I think I will be staying with this for a little while again too.

February 2017: Crows, Tides, Time

They end their flight
one by one–
crows at dusk
–Buson

Shape-shifting in the gap,
the border of the map a light
of shadowing, not quite
prepared to reunite the tide
with ebb and flow implied
by intervals inside of time,
the pause between the line,
the missing paradigm unfilled,
the end of something.  Stilled.

I’m a bit late with my February grid, but I thought it complemented Sue Vincent’s “Low Tide” prompt this week, so I did my own poem in response to both Buson and the photo (above).

Once again, I tried a new poetry form; this one is Vietnamese.  It’s called Luc Bat, and you can read about it here.

A New Year

beyond
stars beyond
star
–L. A. Davidson

Born in Montana, Laura Agnes Davidson (1917-2007) traveled and lived all over the world before settling in New York City in the 1960s, where she was introduced to haiku by a friend.  As an active member of the Haiku Society of America, she both wrote and advocated for the poetic form she called “an art of evocation”.  You can read more about the poet here and here, and read her own thoughts about haiku here.

Laura Davidson Tanna kindly gave me permission to use her mother’s haiku to begin 2017.  May we all travel that beautiful highway of stars in the months to come.

haiku © L.A. Davidson from “The Shape of the Tree”

Tree Star Sky

I went back to the magnetic oracle for my response to Sue Vincent’s seasonal prompt, below, this week.  And yes, another mandala.

But look closely:  a grid, too.

tree star sky
vast window
child breath life
morning night
heart eye wake
remember
listen
fly

December 2016: in northern lands

grey tides, dusk
saturated thoughts
repeating…
but then light!
shimmering bridge over tears–
passage to release

I’ve been looking at Sue Vincent’s wintery lights photo prompt for 2 months now, and it finally came together in this grid and poem for December.

 

October/November 2016 Grid with some words from Gary Snyder

Gratitude to Plants, the sun-facing light-changing leaf
and fine root-hairs; standing still through wind
and rain; their dance is in the flowing spiral grain
in our minds so be it.
–Gary Snyder, “Prayer for the Great Family”

I pledge allegiance to the soil
of Turtle Island,
and to the beings who thereon dwell
one ecosystem
in diversity
under the sun
with joyful interpenetration for all.
–Gary Snyder, “For All”

“I try to hold both history and wilderness in mind, that my poems may be the true measure of things and stand against the unbalance and ignorance of our times.”
–Gary Snyder

Two months have passed quickly.  Nina put together our exhibit, and she did a great job.  I have definitely missed the inspiration and support from everyone.  Not sure how quickly I can return to normal routine; we’ll see what happens.

September 2016: the sky is filled with voices

How cool the breeze:
the sky is filled with voices–
pine and cedar trees
–Onitsura

Onitsura is one of the masters of haiku, a contemporary of Basho.

For the grid, I painted a landscape in gouache, cut it into squares and rearranged it, and added circles cut from magazine photos on top.