Weekend Poetry Date - Week 4

Weekend Poetry Dates are a weekly series of posts reporting on this newbie's exploration of poetry during National Poetry Month (April 2012). See all the posts here.

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"Poetry... is ear candy. It's a blind date with enchantment. It's the first refuge against indifference."

~ J. Patrick Lewis

It's the last week! Where oh where did the month go?

I didn't quite write as much poetry as I would have liked to nor did I read as much, but I did read some and I even tried my hand at a few superficial haikus (read: I only followed the 5-7-5 rule, none of the others and I'm now just learning that I counted syllables and not necessarily ons, soooo looks like I just wrote a few really short poems, but I digress...). All of this is more than I'd done in the past several years - plus I posted about it all here.

I'm happy.

I thought I'd leave you with one of the haiku-like poems I wrote following the haiku-based 5-7-5 syllable guideline and a beautiful true haiku by Issa.*

Mine was inspired by a child's reaction to, from an adult's perspective, rather unfortunate circumstances:

Toddler stomps with glee

Father sighs and brushes car

April snow falls white

~ SG

And I leave you with this one by Issa:

Live in simple faith

Just as the trusting cherry

Flowers, fades, and falls

~ Issa

I hope you enjoyed our weekend poetry dates. I know I did.

* I discovered the poem by Issa thanks to a lovely application I purchased for the iPad called Chasing Fireflies. Combining haiku with soothing sounds and visuals, it's a delight to the senses.

On Owning Our Words...

 

setting up for the interview, view from the interviewee's chair

"My name is Stephanie Guimond. I'm a painter, I'm an ar... I'm an artist, I'm an all-around creative person."

The first words I spoke for our interview.

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During the past week I've been the subject of an artist profile, working with a local film student on his mini-documentary assignment. Last Friday was the interview portion.

Going in I was more nervous about my physical appearance during the interview than my answers. The last time I saw myself on film was at a community event and I cringed at the spastic-looking facial expressions that happened when I spoke (y'all are so polite, nobody's ever told me!).

To make a long story short, the interview went well and I responded to the filmmaker's questions calmly and with ease.

I saw some rough footage this morning and even the facial expressions aren't too bad, though mental note: looking straight into the camera is a more flattering angle for me than looking up - which I tend to do often when I'm thinking and answering questions on the fly.

What dawned on me after the interview was how irrevocable my words and thoughts were now that they were captured on film and witnessed by another in such an intimate one-on-one fashion, how I could no longer disown them.

Scary and power-full.

I decided then & there to start owning my words whether captured on film or not. It's time to live them, believe them and acknowledge their validity.

I guess I better choose and use them wisely.

"The more she spoke her words, the more she grew into them."

post-interview piece, prints available in the shop

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What kind of words do you use daily? Are they mostly positive? Negative?

What if the more you spoke them the more you grew into them, would you choose them differently?

Photo Pause: New Growth (and Trust)

Another trek to my beloved Mud Lake had me seeking and capturing new growth with my camera.

I feel like I'm in the same space - a space of promise and expansion. The only difference is I suspect the seedling knows it will grow into a tree whereas I do not know where the next growth spurt will take me.

Or maybe the seedling doesn't know at all and simply trusts...

vibrant growth

soft growth

grounded growth

mama pine cone and her little ones,

nurtured growth

growth in flight

Weekend Poetry Date: Week 3

Weekend Poetry Dates are a weekly series of posts reporting on this newbie's exploration of poetry during National Poetry Month (April 2012). See all the posts here.

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Mud Lake, Ottawa, 2008

This weekend, in honour of Earth Day, I offer you a poem by Wendell Berry. His words make me swoon.

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

~ Wendell Berry

In The Works... (or Life is Full)

So. Many. Exciting things in the works...

• painting, painting, painting, stretching out of my comfort zone, trying new things

 

a step outside of my creative comfort zone that's leaving

me both perplexed and exhilarated

• working on new items to put in the shop
• 100 iPad Faces project (54 and counting!)
• agreeing to be the subject of a mini-documentary/artist profile for a local film student's class assignment
• a new Website, learning how to build it using Wordpress
• "springifying" my home, tidying up the studio, renewing my physical spaces
• exploring poetry and reporting back via Weekend Poetry Dates here, in honour of National Poetry Month
• spring hikes with D., playing with my camera

baby pine cones, all in a row - Mud Lake, Ottawa

• working with a consultation client to help her fulfill her calling, witnessing how her eyes light up with inspiration when the a-ha moment hits
• new juicy service offerings to help YOU fulfill your calling

Oh my, such goodness and such creative energy! It must be spring.