December 2024/Visitation
Angels need no maps of the stars,
no compass to locate the forces of infinity–
they are the not that is,
a geography larger than what can be written down.
No compass is necessary to locate the forces of infinity
that gravitate, pull, and repel inside
a geography larger than what can be written down.
Larger than shadows, veils, and mirrors,
they gravitate, pull, and repel time.
They ride on invisible strings woven through air,
larger than shadows, veils, and mirrors.
Their landscape inhabits their very being,
riding on invisible strings woven through air,
moving on currents of skywind and dream magic.
Their landscape inhabits their very being,
alert to the pauses and imperfections of the light.
Moving on currents of skywind and dream magic,
they become feathers and wings–
alert to the pauses and imperfections of the light,
they become vessels and messengers.
They become feathers and wings.
They balance the world as it slumbers and waits.
They become vessels and messengers.
They become what is seen with closed eyes
They balance the world as it slumbers and waits,
echoing and reflecting the pull of the unknown.
They become what is seen with closed eyes,
the outline filled with what isn’t there,
Echoing and reflecting the pull of the unknown.
They are the not that is,
the outline filled with what isn’t there.
Angels need no maps of the stars
A final month of birdlings before I go back to my geometry for the beginning of the month next year.
The pantoum, inspired by Chagall’s “The Dream”, below, was published in The Ekphrastic Review this week right next to Merril’s poem “Temporary Shelter of Dreams, 1939”.
May your December be filled with the people you love and hopeful dreams.
A Little Cosmic Energy
…to distract us from the Election.
Urge For Going (October 2024)
If I could
launch myself aloft,
feathered appendages unfolding
in a sudden flurry of magic
freely navigating
the air above the waters
and the land
my eyes
mapping the distances
strung beyond the horizon
listening
for the windsong
to follow to echo
to ride
A quadrille for Lisa’s dVerse prompt of string. Autumn always makes me feel restless. But, like Joni, I never seem to go.
I will be taking a little time off–family visiting and various things to attend to. I will try to show up for the Oracle on Saturday though.
September 2024
Milky Way–
river of transmigration–
celestial birds reach
across the seasons–
a conduit
between worlds
mackerel
clouds constellated of light,
harvested from growing
darkness, shorter days–
nets of wonder
pull me in
brevity
overtakes me—remaining
heat lingers, dissipates–
skies unfold as stars,
crystallized with
clarity
A seox sequence for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday, where she provided kigo words Milky Way, mackerel clouds, and remaining heat. It does not look or feel like autumn here yet, but the city does seem to be holding it’s breath, waiting.
Both my parents were born in September, and my father died a few months after September 11, so the month always has a melancholy tinge for me. Rosanne Cash captures the feeling well in her last duet with her father.
Beach I Ching 18: #53 Chien (gradual progress)
1
The journey seeks
completion, gradual transformation.
2
Roots are patient–
foundation unfolds unseen.
3
Skywind beckons birds
to follow the path of the seasons.
4
Growth yields to the rhythm,
the ongoing process of life’s turning.
5
Time bends, knows when to wait,
when to open wings, dance.
It’s been awhile (over two years) since I’ve done a Beach I Ching post, but my visit to the beach recently made me want to get back to it. This photo is from 2014, the first year I started arranging shells in this way, and I’ve been doing photos every year since then. But I’ve only done 18 of the 64 Hexagrams, and I’ve only just almost finished the photos from the first year. Each year’s photos are slightly, and sometimes very, different, so it will be interesting to see how that affects what I do with the rest of the hexagrams. Hopefully there will not be a two year gap until the next one.
I find that when I do finally get around to it, the hexagram is always appropriate to the times. The poem with my synthesized interpretation of the message is a quadrille for dVerse, where Lisa provided the word bend.
And, as usual, here are some quotes from the resources I consulted about #53.
Let each step be its own adventure and it’s own goal. Now is the time to focus on today. Tomorrow will still come.– ifate.com
Beware of greed and egotistical ambitions. Concentrate on steady long-term goals with a focus on real values.– motheringchange.com
The natural order of things does not push the tree to grow faster, nor does it try to influence the speed or course of the river.– Bobby Klein
We grow into life’s possibilities.– Hilary Barrett
June 2024
robins awaken early before dawn–
flickers and mourning doves wait
to greet my own rising
trees newly green expand the horizon–
embracing tourists, natives,
the cloud-patterned blue sky
my knees complain about the lengthy walk–
inside the cocoon of dusk
I sip my iced coffee
Three kimo for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday. The dawn photo was this morning at 5 am–that clarity has turned into haze, but what a wonderful sky to awaken to. The photo of Central Park was taken yesterday on my (long) walk to the Japan Society to see an exhibit of brush paintings. And the bottom photo was dusk, last evening. The long days make me happy.
My kigo words are newly green, cocoon, and the birds I heard yesterday morning.
I’m hoping this lovely early summer weather will continue and leave the endless rain behind…
Flowers
your laugh infectious,
opening like a flower–
I smile in return
My daughters gave me some flowers for Mother’s Day, and I decided to paint them. Flowers are a subject I struggle with. I was happy with the result–not that it’s a great painting, but I enjoyed the process of it so much. I really need to make the time to do more painting just for that reason. I used gouache for the top one, and then did a watercolor abstract mandala. As my daughters’ kindergarten teacher always said to the parents–process, not product.
Here’s some Mother’s Day flowers I drew in 2016–I think I must have used Neocolor. I did a more abstract version then as well.
When I was in my early 20s I did most of my painting in oils. I would not do that today because of my allergies. But I’ve used acrylics on and off, and I think that would be a good medium for me to use more in painting as well. The painting below is one from the 1970s I like a lot–my older daughter asked for it, and has it hanging on her wall.
The little poem is from a haibun I wrote a few years ago about my Great Aunt Lil who loved Van Gogh’s flowers and had the best laugh. It still makes me smile to think of it.
Labyrinthine (Thursday Doors)
“Our steps trace a map,
fictions, in place of answers.”
–Sun Hesper Jansen, Danse Macabre
I am dancing with myself, or perhaps just an invisible partner–a mirror image—the opposite of me. None of us has a recognizable form. I have learned not to look too closely at what isn’t there.
Yet each day I rearrange the unseen patterns, constructing a new facade. I pretend that I am who I don’t appear to be, folding everything that doesn’t fit anywhere into a cabinet of hidden curiosities. Boxes and boxes of me that will never be revealed. A riddle that repeats itself, over and over, inside the shadows.
unlike birds, my bones
are dense, unfeathered—gardens
in a secret vase
Frank at Dverse asked for a haibun that considers the Japanese idea of Mono no Aware–transience, pathos, the ephemerality of life. I thought the endless mirror photo from the Thursday Doors Writing Challenge, above, by S. W. Berg via Oddments, fit that idea well. I’ve also included the kigo word of gardens for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday challenge.
And some art from past Kick-About prompts.
You can find more doors, as always, and lots of responses to the Writing Challenge photos, at Thursday Doors, hosted by Dan Antion.
May 2024
hot, humid–
I finally clean
the fan blades
We had a taste of summer the other day, which was enough to get me to do some spring cleaning I’ve been putting off for weeks.
Wishing everyone a month full of both rainbows and birds.
April 2024
grey returns
to untranquil dawn
–not even a hazy moon–
birds enter clouds
as crow’s voice lingers
The weather report has promised us another grey and rainy week. But we all know what they say about April showers…
I’m a bit late for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday. I’ve written kind of a gogyohka peunte using the three kigo phrases she provided: tranquil dawn, hazy moon, birds enter clouds
I hope to be doing NaPoWriMo over at kblog…we’ll see.
Happy April! May it be filled with birds!
method two madness 
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