Saturday, April 30, 2016

new

hannah is building me a website
trusting a recommendation from the amazing shanna leino
we're trying square space. 
it's built, i just don't know how to use it.
yet.
knowing me, 
it might not ever happen.
shhh, don't tell hannah.

two precious objects from australia
 stitching up a sheet of paper
 closer vision
 a grouse makes a brief appearance
on my way home last night.
 and then there's shanna's little awl
(check out her store, you will love her things.)
 unwrapped.
this too is exactly what i needed. 
small for my small hands
with a big point.

Monday, April 25, 2016

safe

safe.
the new work is all about being
safe.
 feeling safe.
enclosed, not cloistered.
 i've been photographing these as i move through the work
and then i realized friday night
i felt safe 
at home.
deeply safe.
vulnerable, scared,
myself, definitely flawed and unable
to tie up 
the loose ends.
those ends.
TAUNY
(tradtional arts in upstate new york)
our local folklore organization with the (let's face it) bad name
has mounted a quilt exhibition.
 i love the real ones
the simple,
made from so little, ones.
 these are the cloths that speak to me
 and these photographic
patches of quilts
please my eye
and my sense of safe.
 meanings lost in time
but not the caring.
 beautifully stitched reminders.
the gallery space is large and those quilts soften 
and humanize the bigness.
i liked it so much.
 i was stitching this weekend
sampling
in case paper with kami-ito
and other samples came, too.
feeling safe.
 i buy anne johnson's cards at tauny.
they make me wonder
what it must be like to work as a botanist in this place.
to know the land that way.
 i come home to make more samples
as i think about things:
gratitude that my son is well,
my daughter is, too.
my love is well
over at our new home.

tauny had another surprise
 poems by a friend
john scarlett
 he practices farming with oxen,
sugaring,
husbanding, grandparenting
blacksmithing,
and writing.
i imagine him behind his team mowing his haymeadow: 

the children's path
through the grass
mown away

 (a haiku from his new collection, between waves, available at TAUNY)


Wednesday, April 20, 2016

stillness

taking a few hours here
marking stillness.
robins greet the morning
as do i
and i take a day away
time to regather my wits
my worries
my responsibilities and
my love.
 there have been some challenges
as i count down the days 
teaching special eduction
in a local school.
 sometimes i feel a little suspended
tangled
formed by hands
and 
 always fiber
 the lilacs are beginning to leaf out
 and a flicker came to the new place
giving me a show
as he explored the eating
 just outside the front wndow.
 what a beautiful bird
one i've only seen as it flickers by
or leaves yellow and spotted feathers 
as gifts i accept.
 there are a pair!
spring.
hope.
oh, and more to the point.
sex.
 everytime i return home
 whitetail are behind the yard
 in front of the barn.
these are for my children
this little flock.
my old house 
needs a new young family.
so i can take
myself over to the new place
and begin learning to live
in a wilderness place.
(there, i didn't mention
politics.)

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

upside down

neki and melissa both let me know
(with kindness)
that all of my pictures of
the japanese account book
were upside down.
it figures.
everything has been upside down lately.
 from ledger books
 and their beautiful details
to the people in my life.
i thought i was paying attention. 
and
i thought i could make things go as i see fit.
students' lives tossed around like baggage.
my own beautiful and gifted children struggling with grief
and upsidedownnesses.
until i was given a bit of sight,
 insight, when
a loud, very loud THWACK!
of two beaver's tails
woke me up.
pay attention, 
they shout.
you're needed here. 
now. 
i am listening.
i really am.


Thursday, April 7, 2016

book stuff

this small kozo ledger 
was given to me.
 it has a lovely little "staple" holding it togehter
 and a special notation 
added in
 inks of black and some bits of red
 who knows what they say?
 out walking i see marvels
like this ice. 
it's been really cold this week.
 so the walking and thinking came together this way:
try to spin a little kami-ito
with one sheet from the ledger.
so i spun it up
and wove a page
 and the whole thing looks like this:
page, booklet, shifu 3 x 6 inch page, small bit of kami-ito leftover
 the page holds all sorts of marks
including a wee bit of red.
a book in the making.
and
please!
to everyone who contacted me before the australia trip
asking for a copy of the new book,
please remind me.
i've lost the list somewhere, somehow,
and before i put it up on the for sale page
i need to honor your requests.

Sunday, April 3, 2016

return and refocus

there is a simultaneity to this growth
and my return
and my recovery from jet-lag brain.
i found a rock book on my walk at home
but at the place i'm now calling Home
i heard a symphony of robin and woodcock and peepers and frogs
friday night
that made my heart sing right along.
even though the fool played april
i've been looking at what i've brought backfrom oz
not all of it tangible
in fact much of it 
not.
i loved this little pod
and was gifted by a student
at the grampians.
i've been asked to return to the grampians
to teach a master class.
i'm thinking about this amazing opportunity.
i finally located a copy of this
to read on the LONG ride home.
i also traded for this zine
which i found to be somewhat disappointing,
not the trade, but the quality of the piece,
an editor was needed.
gifts and abundance
triggering thoughts and imaginings.
and the work of john wolseley
which i wanted to see more than i can say
but missed.
some bones were waiting my hands
one of which i injured on my first morning there,
but is better now.
emu feathers
i intend to weave with.
scales dyed madder red
and the one cloth i brought from the long dyeing session with felicity.
this was waiting for me
from catherine,
and i still haven't opened it
but i will!
and i am scheduling my teaching
 for life after public school teaching
retirement at the end of june-
some summer commitments, 
a wedding,
residencies
teaching and learning
and my house for sale, still.
i am hoping it will sell 
and i will be fully moved to the place i call
HOME.

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