three - 1890 vs ?

feathers and powder and lipstick
dresses
primping and preening
like a peacock for the camera
hundreds of dusky photos
always the same sweet
half-smile
i am a good girl
i am not normally like this
but i am so hungry
for love
kisses and a/c
fizzy cold remedies
just lie quietly
don't worry
i won't give you too many
all at once
i know how your heart can be
piles of drawings
are these my aunt's?
is grandmother here?
luxurious wealthy
can afford to be slovenly
making things hard to find

i just want to trace the lines

whisked away by a winter wonderland

well i've been remiss in my dream poetry posting these last two days...but i have an exceedingly good excuse. my car got kidnapped and buried by a blizzard atop a mountain where i was visiting my friends ruth and paul...and the power went out...and i didn't get any sleep anyway so i have been a bit dream deprived. but not SNOW deprived. what gorgeousness! if one is going to get stuck on a mountain, it might as well be decorated with the lost frocks of ten gazillion snow fairies. and i must say, a nice long hike through the snow in the woods up the ridge does a body good...

TWO - impressionism

(photo by kcrusher)

phone keeps ringing
i keep slipping
sliding
falling out of bed
so i know i am not awake

cats running crazy
kali climbing curtains
puck leaping gleeful across the lawn
i scold him merrily
for staying away so long

someone made a mess in the kitchen
blender won't work
i turn it on
and tv goes from
black and white
to color

now i am in school
office ladies
clucking and chattering
snickering at me
for getting what i want
by being sweet

blond tim
my junior high crush
puts his arm round my shoulder
walks with me
'a little older?'
he asks
'a little colder'
i reply

under his other arm
a potted bush
long stem white roses
he bends one flower to my face
i breathe it in
no scent
he says
the cool soft petals
make most exquisite paintbrushes

108 dreams

(this is the bird on my toe in the artwork on the cover of gravity...)

i am really loving the 108 nights 108 dreams experiment. so much so that i think i will also post my own contributions here as well...

the first poem i submitted yesterday:

ONE - bird heart

cowboy biochemistry professor
teaches a renegade class
on how to fly
glasses of wine
videos of clouds and sky
playing over and over
till we are immersed
i practice
with one foot anchored
so not to fall
finally
i let go
and i fall

and fall

until i remember
that tiny feeling in my chest
which with softest focus
i expand

and expand

till it keeps me afloat

i wonder if this is why birds' bodies
are all heart

a new world

i seem to be about as consistent with blogging as with almost everything else in my life...except...well...hmmm. music??? i do crave more consistency even there, but i do keep going...even if slowly at times. when it's the "slowly" part, i try to remember that quote i heard from one of the great jazz men, which one exactly escapes my steel sieve mind at the moment (maybe Charlie Parker?), but he said (probably in completely different words) that sometimes we must set music down and go live life, because if we're not living life, what have we got to write about? well my heart and mind are full to reeling these days, so believe me, i'm writing plenty. i'm currently on song number ELEVEN (!!!) for the new album...maybe even twelve...and yes i'm counting a couple that are mostly complete in my head but i haven't actually sung them into the microphone yet...

i did a workbook called the Artist's Way several times many years ago, and it really changed my creative life...one thing i remember from it (other than bookshelves full of 'morning pages') is that we have to remember to 'fill the well' - like our creative ideas are like fish in a pond, and we've got to keep feeding the fish and stocking the pond...well, one thing that stocks my pond is...um...fish...i LOVE them. betta fish especially. i've been keeping them for so many years now i lose count. one betta in my personal long lineage who stands out for having the longest life is Gurgi...he lived for five years, which from what i understand is quite unreasonable for a betta! wish i could find a pic to post...but my current bettas are Monet, (seen above, and named by my friend Ana) and the latest addition to my little family, Pinky. i may have to get another betta and name him The Brain. here's Pinky in his new biorb world:

i'm totally in love...and finding ridiculous excuses to spend more time in the bathroom, which is his new kingdom...hmmm...may be time for another bath...

oh, i'm really excited also about a creative experiment my dear brilliant acupuncturist artist friend jena has begun, called 108 Nights 108 Dreams - the participants write down dreams as poems and post them...108 of them. as they come. i wrote down my first one this morning. i love this brilliant little experiment. a lot of my musical inspiration comes from dreams, and i've been lazy about mining them for jewels lately...this is a great excuse to un-lazy-fy myself...and the poems that have been posted so far are beautiful...

lately, instead of worrying about all the things that slip through my fingers, i am trying to amuse myself by watching the pretty patterns they make as they fall...