Looking ahead to August

No doubt in August I’ll be frantically trying to finish this current quilt but what the heck, I signed up for the August Poetry Postcard Fest.

The August Poetry Postcard Fest was initiated in 2007 by poets Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers. On or about July 27 each year, participating poets write three original poems directly (1st take) onto postcards to the three names below them on the list. On August 1 poets then write one poem on a card a day to each person below those three on the list until the end of the month, ideally incorporating themes or motifs from cards they have received.

Examples are given about responding to others’ poems or ideas that you receive via postcards or working within a theme or using the pictures of the postcards themselves, so the possibilities are pretty broad. The prospect of creating each poem on the postcards directly seems a bit daunting but sounds like an interesting challenge. One poems a day after the first three, so maybe also an exercise in pondering and then getting down the words.

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Art, Developing and Tradition

quoting my pal Sandy’s blog here with the ulterior motive of chewing on this awhile:

Art, to me, is that way too- you look at as much as possible from all styles and genres and subconsciously gravitate to parts you like and can adapt within your own work. It might be something as subtle as a new viewpoint, say tilting the picture plane a bit, or it can be outright thievery working up a copy of the Mona Lisa. The thing is, borrowing, adapting, taking inspiration, whatever you call it there is a tradition behind it. What must be done is to make it solely yours. That means you bite off big chunks, chew them well, spit out the bones and seeds and fur, chew some more, finally swallow- and then let it sit in your belly until it’s fully digested, only THEN let it out to use. (gross analogy, I know) Tracing your inspirations can be just like tracing your ancestors- you keep what is best from each ancestor, and ignore the black sheep in your various family lines. Think of your imaginary chart of where it all came from! Cool.

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Fourth of July Sum Up and a Quote

The temperature finally broke and brought a solid inch and a half of rain with cooler temperatures. (I had to put a light blanket on the bed tonight – yeah!)

I had thought about going to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown today for their big re-opening but luckily looked one more time at their web site before heading out and found they didn’t open the galleries today until one, which conflicted with meeting Hugh and Naomi for coffee. So I sent them membership money instead which means I can coax myself to go more often, at least that’s my plan!

Then I had a nice visit with Naomi and Hugh and was amazed to find that it wasn’t raining at all in Albany. When I got back the road in front of my house was still quite wet, but it wasn’t currently raining.

Did a little beading and watched the Macy’s fireworks after listening to the new John Williams arrangement of the national anthem.

Wrote a haiku riff on an expression that Naomi uses “only for you, birds!” and she gave it a title:

Birder’s haiku

only for you birds
my alarm’s set dark o’clock
hope you will be there

Astilbes

Almost forgot the quote:

For man to be able to live he must either not see the infinite, or have such an explanation of the meaning of life as will connect the finite with the infinite. — Leo Tolstoy

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Killing and Revenge (and a firefly)

you killed the children
your enemy’s and your own
as though you would win.

First, your enemy’s
then your own children were killed
noone’s tears mattered

No war was ever won
by killing and revenging
the children of all.

[***]

a firefly alights
having come to my bedroom
he is watched by cats.

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Sunset, July the Second

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I renamed the flickr album “Sunsets July 2014” since this might be a thing.

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