If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud. — Emile Zola
I do not believe that a violent imitation of the horrors of our times is the concern of poetry. Horrors are taken for granted. Disorder is ordinary. People in general take more and more “in their stride” — the hides grow thicker. I long for poems of an inner harmony in utter contrast to the chaos in which they exist. Insofar as poetry has a social function it is to awaken sleepers by other means than shock. — Denise Levertov
So it’s a bizarre thing to be a blogger and an artist and writer. Part of the reason I blog is to share my process and work in progress along with whatever catches my eye or ends up in my camera. Sort of journal/diary-like but not too personal.
Truth be told though, part of being an artist and writer is getting your stuff out there into the public view and these days almost every single entry form says something like “cannot have been published, even on a personal website.” Just this year Quilt National relaxed its view on this but after all the years of such a big fuss being made over what constituted publication, I didn’t feel comfortable showing this quilt until it was done.
And frankly, the whole thing makes me laugh since on a good day I might get ten to twenty visitors and a few of them are my mother. So yeah, previous publication, big deal.
But, you have to play by the rules of others when you enter their arena. So you’ll probably be seeing more painting and photographs than poems etc for awhile anyway. More musings about process and life. Not like things will change that much but just in case you’re reading this and you’re wondering what’s going on.
…the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master’s, ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo’s side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep.
~~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, Book II, The Land of Shadow.
I spent the afternoon and evening doing little mundane jobs. Enjoyed a movie – Captain Fantastic. Had some dinner, fiddled with the scanner (why so blue, why?) and like everyone else waited for the magic midnight hour. The cats seem to be happy that I switched the blankets around – putting my new wool blanket (from wales! natural undyed dark sheep colors) and the down comforter on the bed. They took turns trying it out for awhile and then settled in together. I gave them each a toy from the catnip jar and a little pinch of the good stuff so they could party a bit before midnight.
At last the hour and moment came. True to our family tradition, I went down and at midnight I opened the front door to let the old year out and the new year in. No one was waiting there to be the first across my threshold so I took myself out into the night. That’s my own personal tradition, to go out and see what the first night holds.
Tonight it was filled with the sound of wind – mostly in the high pines across the road. Road noises brought first some lights swinging through the brush and then a car. A minute or so later the sound of distant fireworks began. The sky was all clouded over and it was cold. As it should be on January first.
Back upstairs the cats were resting from their party and I have clambered into bed, enjoying the moment of a freshly made bed, nice and warm from the heated pad. The fireworks are still all around and people will soon be heading home to their own warm houses and beds.
Safe travels in the year ahead everyone – take time to look around, do the work, paint, write, photo, sing, whatever makes your heart happy. Share it. Love people, do good. Laugh. Be strong and brave.
Anything more than 500 yards from the car just isn’t photogenic.
