Perhaps I need to do another #introduction here, since it has been some time since I did it last. My regular forays here include composing #smallpoems, writing #smallstories, sharing #smallquotes and other connected sharing threads. If you write there, I'll try to respond. I may even remix as a way to honor your writing. I try to keep my heart and mind open.
Run, rainbow, run
Drop your colors
from the sun
Drip your ink
while we're young
Run, rainbow, run
Chalcentrous
(Facing any challenge)
No matter
the battle
the barrier
the challenge
We still enter
quiet expanses
with inner strength
With fortitude
of ancient netherstone,
roboreus, yet rooted
in bronze
Inspired by an exploration of the word in The Cabinet of Calm (Soothing Words for a Troubled World) by Paul Anthony Jones
Little Geometry
One single silent
snowflake, loose
– a goose lost from
its group – slow-motion
tumbler
Its landing softened
by her outstretched
hand: melted time
then, her lips
on skin
on ice
on sand
We're lost in a
moment we may
never understand
💐 Flore des serres et des jardins de l'Europe
A Gand: chez Louis van Houtte, eÌditeur, 1845-1880.
https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27760982
"Moon marked and touched by sun"
— from A Woman Speaks by Audre Lorde
A man might
mark her moon
and trace her sun
what a man can't do
is walk her shoes
for she's the spirit
of grace and love
the one, and only one
Catacosmesis
(efforts at organizing what’s disordered)
There is no sense
in making sense
of this nonsense
but still, we pretend to try
with lines and lists
and maps and clicks
and written paper slips
of disorganized crimes
Some just let it go,
for one really never knows
where information goes
when it flows from our mind
Inspired by an exploration of the word in The Cabinet of Calm (Soothing Words for a Troubled World) by Paul Anthony Jones
”... meeting you, exposed, in open water”
— from Something You Should Know by Clint Smith
We saw the otters from afar,
just beyond the beaver dam,
past the old abandoned yard
of broken tractors and forest bones,
debris brought down by last winter's
storms;
their eyes were at the surface,
floating on the quiet tension
of our curiosity, neither scared
nor angry but no doubt wondering
what ripples we might make
in our wake as the river called us
onward
This wind -
this ferocious wind -
this wind that sings
with gust and din,
this wind that brings
a fury as it flashes in,
'til I'm wide awake
to the siren call,
and up and out
before the day
begins
Carpe Noctem
(feeling as if time is running out)
Diem’s sister
haunts the sky of night,
the voice of history
beholden to none but light
as Noctem’s journey
tugs each of us along,
the passage of time
singing morning’s song
Inspired by an exploration of the word in The Cabinet of Calm (Soothing Words for a Troubled World) by Paul Anthony Jones
"We walk into that which we cannot see"
— from Elizabeth Alexander, Praise Song for the Day
Always there is
unknown, uncertainty,
a doorway opening into
obscurity
Lives are spent
considering options
of inquisitive regret
or incremental
courage
for the movement
that brings us forward
into something
we cannot ever see
until we're there
Beaute Du Diable
(worried about losing looks, with age)
You never told yourself
you were beautiful,
when you were young
It’s only after time’s passage
and your portrait, painted,
has it even begun
to spin its net,
that regret that arrives
to us all, growing old,
the ones whose
mirrored eyes know:
this, story, too, will be told
Inspired by an exploration of the word in The Cabinet of Calm (Soothing Words for a Troubled World) by Paul Anthony Jones
"And the sweet earth flying from the thunder"
from Storm Ending by Jean Toomer
Soundscapes
beckon, frighten
foreboding thoughts
tighten the spine
There is light
before the sound
There is sound
before the night
This winter god's
a vengeful sky,
with broken pieces
on the ground
"... visioning the world
where none is lonely ..."
- from Frederick Douglass by Robert Hayden
Freed but frozen,
the man stands -
the statue commands
our attention
Words reach from
the pages of the past
with stories, and the
little boy pauses and
stares and touches
the bronze lectern
as if to rub off
into his own hands
the forever call
for freedom
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1udol7-pcOIJ3yiFtdG6RTj7gAHRXN7ecYM3gqJsymzE/present?slide=id.gbb0b13625e_3_9
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Frederick_Douglass_(U.S._Capitol)
Autoschedism
(Definition: Spontaneity, to break from routine)
Even when
the needle’s stuck
We’re still the ones
who’ll break the rut
by doing something
unexpectedly nuts
like turn the compass
inward, on love
Inspired by an exploration of the word in The Cabinet of Calm (Soothing Words for a Troubled World) by Paul Anthony Jones
One for every one
thousand; one thousand
for every one
Collectively composing
eulogies, etching ink
in the shadows of candles
of lights of remembrance
One for every one
thousand; one thousand
for every one
inspired by the candlelight vigil marking the US pandemic death toll at 500,000 (and acknowledging, too, the 2.5 million, worldwide)
Any writer working
with words easily
becomes dazzled
by science;
Like mapping
the Sun's magnetic fields:
each daily interruption
a cause for disruption,
light years beyond
our vision and thought
Such science, fuels art
inspired by https://scitechdaily.com/unprecedented-map-of-the-suns-magnetic-field-created-by-clasp2-space-experiment/
Oh, Root, can't you,
too, do
the corkscrew?
Can't you
twirl
and waggle
and boogie your way
t
h
r
o
u
g
h
Or maybe you can't yet dance
because you can't yet feel
the rhythm of the soil,
singing its song just for you
inspired by
https://phys.org/news/2021-02-time-lapse-reveals-hidden-roots.html
”... some roots can't do the corkscrew dance. The culprit, they found, is a mutation in a gene called HK1 that makes them grow straight down, instead of circling and meandering like other roots do.”
*Sharing Your Work*
Write late at night
While far out of sight.
Rhyme in the morning
No need for warning.
Paint using digits
Or with acrylic wet bits.
Sing in the shower,
Yes, at any hour!
Sew straight or in a curve.
Macrame often; do it with verve.
Capture beauty on film
Dawn shots of the hills, hmm?
Whatever your art needs,
Done quietly alone, or
Prompted by news feeds,
Share what you can;
It's the "Fediverse Plan".
Found letters;
Gathered archives
older than dust
and time,
boxed from way
back, when; then
we start to re-read
the world,
following each step,
in order to find
our way forward,
again
— inspired by a passage about Sankofa, an African (Akan) symbol of learning from the past – from #write4right
I teach. I write. I explore. Sometimes, I find my way back. http://dogtrax.edublogs.org/