Happy Earth Day! Looked and felt like rain a good part of the afternoon but no. Had dinner and visit with mom and came home thinking I’d be in a zoom meeting but no. So I sat down and painted instead.
wind sparking light
sky caught in tree branches
i lay down, content.heavy afternoon
willingly i lay down
my to-do lista wind rushes past
signaling incoming rain
the earth sits waiting.
Beautiful bright sun today. So many birds singing.
I’m needing a nap —
sat on the front steps painting
fading daffodilsOnly I know what
the front yard looks like today
things caught by the sunfull of yellow
my eyes think even the sky
is golden today.I reach to prune
but bumblebees are busy
yellow fairy wings
Yes today is 4/20. Yes today is the twentieth day of a month of poems and paints. Today it was hot. When I sat outside to paint the small biting flies were pestering me. I went to visit Mom and the cats and had a lovely dinner.
From the edges
Spring grass comes into its green
so suddenlytoday wild cherries
low flying clouds against
the greening hillsthe weediest tree
today flaunts her yellow-green
bright tasseled earrings
Yesterday was Day 19 of 19 of doing at least one watercolor each day during National Poetry Writing Month and I’m sticking with it. When doing a month-long writing thing, I have found it nearly impossible to paint so that was my resolution for April, even if it made both things rocky.
Last night I really didn’t have an idea about what to paint so I impulsively chose a photo I’d just taken of the one spot of bluebells that blooms so briefly in the garden. It had been too cold to paint outside in the afternoon. The garden is full of daffodil leaves and daffodil flowers which are starting to go past. The day lilies and hostas are turning into clumps of leaves.
The result isn’t the best work of the month but while painting I was thinking of one of my earliest teachers who taught me about “juicy” watercolor and negative painting. So yes it was messy – just like the scene – but I am having a real moment of gratitude for my teacher Fred Lisaius and my other teachers Tony Conner and Robert H. LaFond and will endeavor on.
One piece of paper at a time!
Morning appointment with Mom. Tried to look at an electric car after we’d had some brunch but – sorry – we don’t have any. You could put a deposit on one and when it comes in, see if you like it. If not you’d get your deposit back. That might take six months. I’m short, so I prefer to actually sit in a car to see if I fit and can see everything but thanks. Restocked the freezer on the trip home and here I am. Between all that and the looming brush pile in my driveway, my brain is messy. But it’s that very brief interlude of daffodils and bluebells.
cut down the cedars
which the deer had pruned into
something scrawnythree misshapen shrubs
now piled up by the driveway
please deer, eat them nowdefrosted freezer
so clean and strangely empty
fill it, start again.
Update on yesterday’s paint:
The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination. — Carl Rogers
Garuda: Crazy Wisdom Outrageousness
