Cheesecloth Moon

2007-11-13T12:34:00.002-05:00

YAY!! I'VE FINALLY MOVED!!!

Cheesecloth Moon will now reside at http://cheeseclothmoon.wordpress.com/

Please do not leave any comments here on Blogger as I will not be checking back here again. See y'all over at Wordpress!

2007-10-26T12:44:00.000-04:00

Hey guys, how goes it? I know I've been missing in action for some time now, and this has to be brief because I'm alreayd 10 min over my lunch break, but I wanted to let y'all know three more of my ATCs have been published in The Faerie Zone Vol 3, soon to be released AND (get ready!) I've been asked to submit 5 pieces of artwork for publication in an art book - how cool is that?!?! I'm planning to do 2 larger pieces (4x6 and 9x12 maybe), 2 art dolls and maybe an assemblage. The theme is to revolve around circus/faerie/whimsy/magical. I've also been busy with a circle journal (6 players, each makes 2-8x8 pages for the 5 other players and they make for you - we're doing photo manipulation. The themes are landscapes, metal mania, our town, details and reflections.) I'm getting ready to put my third set together now. Lastly, I've been to Cape Cod, Massachusetts and back for vacation recently and I have scads of pictures to post. Stay tuned....

2007-08-03T12:24:00.000-04:00

Ok, I admit it. I've been totally lazy with resolving the dns problems. So, I've been thinking, why not just migrate everything over to a new blog? So, that's probably what I'm going to do. I think. Well, let's just say I'm mulling it over.

In the meantime, things are status quo - no new publishings or otherwise exciting news. Been trying to write some new poems while at the beach, got a few very coarse nuggets so far. Now and then I tinker with some of my NaPo 2007 poems. I find the longer I let my poems rest, the easier it gets to revise them. Demand for my atc cards has been phenoomenal - seems I can't make them fast enough sometimes! But I love making art even more than I love making poetry (yep, I do admit it!)

Been out with the camera off and on - finally got myself over to the arboretum during the summer on a heavily clouded, imminent thunder stormy type day - I have summer and fall shots of this one spot in the arboretum and I want to make a 4 season photo montage on canvas with them. Now all I need is winter. I will return back her to post the shots I do have so yuo can see them for yourself. And I got some great shots of the Piping Plover babies still full of down and maybe all of 2" tall. Gosh, they are the cutest little things...

Well, gotta scoot. Lunch 1/2 hour is now lunch 40 mins. Be well, and stay cool (or warm, depending on where you are in the world!) and stay creative!

2007-07-16T12:28:00.000-04:00

Just a quick hello and some good news. Five of my ATCs have been published in The Faerie Zine Magazine, Vol.2. How cool is that. I'm beyond thrilled about it! How I wish it were that easy with my poetry!!! lol. and still, I go on beating myself about the head tyring to improve my writing. aiy. no wonder so many poets drink or die early. well, maybe by the time I'm 93....

2007-06-26T12:04:00.001-04:00

Folks, still haven't remedied my DNS problem with my carrier, so I can only log in from work during my lunch 1/2 hour. It comes down to me having to call my carrier's techhies and let them examine my firewall settings, which is fine, but I have just been too busy or too brain dead to do that. So, the problem persists. My apologies.

2007-05-29T12:05:00.000-04:00

Here's the rest of my NaPo poems!

April 16

Rocket Man

Horizon traveler, I call your name
and you disappear into a glimmer moon,
climb dust ring steps to another beyond;
you’re always leaving me too soon.

Your lambent trails are comet tails
not tied to any orbit, but, you hitch
along until you find new nebulae
light years beyond my habitat.

Come home to me, I miss your touch,
your 101 tales of galactic nights.
My bed is small but I guarantee
I’ll show you a few new galaxies.

April 17

Saturday Night at the CoCo Bop Club

Keep along the rythm track
Girls be showiń how
Now you start to arch your back
Man you got 'em now*

The harvest is in and there’s plenty of fresh
flesh on the vine, ripe and ready for plucking;
all the succulent ladies are lined up three deep
at the bar just waiting for their Sex on the Beach,
Foreplay and Slow Screw up against a Red Wall.

The booze flows better than a good poem here
at the CoCo Bop Club, whose throbbing strobes
make even the shyest fox want to fandango
after the fizz of a few drinks melts the ice
in their glasses.

They stand there with their perky c-cups
making a pointed statement in the hiked up AC,
their tight little yumyums just barely hidden beneath
the merest snatch of a clingy microskirt
that falls just a few inches shy of their oooh-la-la’s;
begging to be sonar-scoped by some truculent boy-shark
smoking in the shadows or leaning against the wall
tonguing his Michelob, all attitude and smirk.

Speakers thrum-blare hot grooves and lure the ladies
into licentious posturings on the dance floor.
Pretty soon they’re competing to see who’s
shimmy shimmy coco bop, shimmy shimmy bop (aaah)*
delivers the most orgiastic bang for the beat

while the sharks circle in the dark recesses, watching
the meat machine grind out a hot meal; teeth hidden,
tongues licking the last bit of beer-swill from their lips;
fins fully erect,
planning their angle of attack.

*lyrics from the song of the same name by Little Anthony and the Imperials

April 18

Bombshell

Uptown, where the concrete reach extends
past the top of any ladder, she busies herself
at the bar. It is ten in the morning when she shakes
then pours a double dirty martini into an extra
large flanged glass. It will be the first of many.

She takes large gulps as she stares at the scene
below. The park trees are still naked, though
there is a fresh covering of snow; the cabs
blitz by like little bumble bees scouting nectar
in the form of cash; dozens of unconcerned
head dots bounce along as people fast step past.

Insulated from the noisy city by thick slabs
of glass, the action down on the street
is no more than a passing pantomime. Sometimes
she makes up stories as she watches, but not today.
Today she is insulated from everything.

Today, she stares, empty. Empty of thought, empty
of feeling, empty of tears. She is so empty she feels
like she’s become a passing afterthought;
a being composed only of air. She’s not there
in the moment but shock-cemented
in the moment that’s just passed.

The one where the phone woke her from a dream
of a family trip taken long years ago when the kids
were young and her husband was alive.

Now she is stuck in repeat mode, hearing
and rehearing a matter-of-fact voice
expressing their condolences,
saying her son had been blown up in Iraq
four days ago; four days before she died.

April 19 (2 sevenlings and a triolet)

Pathways(Sevenling)

We traveled long and far:
Tuscany, Bourne,
Venezuela.

We settled down and rooted:
a home, two children,
a victory garden.

Only to split apart, like the continents.

===========================================

Tedium Ad Infinitum (Sevenling)

Another day at work. Eight hours
of stress supervising the help desk.
Minutes pass like millennia.

Our customers are computer challenged.
They have no clue about how to change
their passwords, toner cartridges, saved files.

...And there’s nowhere to hide in my cubicle.

=======================================

Question of Values (Triolet)

What would you have me do? To dig a hole
would be to shirk responsibility, become a mole
and burrow within shallow moral pathways.
What would you have me do to dig a hole
and burrow within shallow moral pathways?
As payment would you bare your bloodied secrets?
Why would you have me dig a hole,
shirk my responsibility, thereby become a mole?

April 20

The Moon must be squared to the Sun, in the sign of Cancer today

because dusty memories are knocking at the back door;
irreplaceable days spent with family and friends
now gone to the eternal beyond; easy summer days
spent idling by the sea drifting with the tides,
main sails pregnant with the off-shore winds.

A certain melancholy stirs within, all those shiny coins
thrown overboard years ago for good luck,
and all the while that slick pirate named time
was finding then burying them deep in the sand
and hiding the treasure map.

Too fast is the passing of life, half over before
your boat comes in; so many things you want to do
back on shore yet haven’t the time or money for;
and always the reminder of empty table settings
for those who have been lost at sea.

But the days pass like seconds on a stopwatch
and you’re caught up in the running game
far away from the seashore’s cool breeze so busy
and occupied, sweating your way to the finish line,
that those shiny coins have little chance
of getting dug up.

Foolishly you self-talk yourself into believing
you’ve grown past holding them in your hands,
until a day like this come along
like a sneaky cat to curl up in your lap
demanding affection on its own terms, reminding you
that life follows its own capricious whims.

You rue at not spending more time
with the people who really mattered,
for ignoring all the golden apples
that you thoughtlessly let go to rot;

and now it’s too late to say or do
the things you should have done,
and the future is an unknown
that only knows how to say, “hurry up”.

April 21

Waiting

A whisper of what he once was,
I look at him and think
of a golden raisin desiccating
in the sunlight that spears his bed.

He knows me now as the lady who sits
by his side every other day or night
while he speaks in fragments about
a red tow truck he once owned
or asks for my mother,
who’s been gone for five months,
asks when can he go home.

His words circle into each other
for what seems an infinity. He tires,
naps for awhile in blessed silence
until he startles, points and says
there are faces on the wall
staring and taunting at him
then becomes agitated, shakes his fist
and yells, Go away! Leave me alone!,
attempts to get up but is held down
by the harness that holds him back
like a dog on a leash. Giving up he settles down
to groping at the catheter hidden beneath
the rumpled, blue bedcovers.

A white uniform comes in, checks
the drip and angle of the needle’s fangs,
then leaves.

I sit and wait while my hands
hold on to each other, and wonder
how long, how long...

April 22

Springtime

Magnolias wag their thousand pink tongues
as they gossip in the breeze; birds symphony
and don bright plumes, strut their colors
and call for mates. Daffodils trumpet
their yellow annoyance at the hyacinths,
jealous of their pink and purple scent;
ballooning tulip heads open and flange.
The sun grows stronger, days grow longer
and snowflakes have blown back to the north.
Coats come off and reveal porcelain skins
that thirst for the first kiss of sundrops
and welcome the zephyr’s caress,
anxious now for winter to rest.

4/23

The In-Between Time

The day latches its door shut
as the lid of night swings open.
Nothing stirs, not a single branch;
no owl hoots; no word is spoken.
Life slows to a trickle, ebb-tides
and waits for the catalyst of light.

In between come the dreams.
The mind balloons, detaches,
muses among the days microcosm;
or lives a phantasm, foreign
and soon forgotten
when the chamber maid, consciousness,
pulls aside the curtains.

April 24

Magnolia

By mid-April her hirsute buds
have swollen and burst at their seams,
and she sticks out her satiny, pink tongues
to ruffle in the breeze; her final say
a large, collective raspberry aimed
squarely at fast fading winter.

The warmth of growing days
splays her tongues open
into creamy cups and saucers
that trail along her wide-spread arms.
Perfectly balanced and upturned to heaven
she sings her paens to the goddess Spring.

Those translucent petals snare the light,
distill its ambience and glow from within
iridescent and ethereal, lambent;
scent pleasant to the nose
as we mere mortals stand close by,
dare to stroke her, and are transcended.

April 25

The Lightkeeper’s Daughter

It had been fun when she was five; the sea
had been a playground that each day
offered up a cornucopia of treasures
for the taking, or busied her with the pleasures
of sunbathing and making castles in the sand.

But she had grown up
and now felt stuck on this wave struck island
without the company of friends
while a moon-song siren serenaded her
with sweet songs from afar.

She longed to stroll the city streets, go shopping,
hear the sound of machines; hear anything
other than the perpetual swoosh and break
of the waves, the gulls mocking chatter,
the foghorn’s lonely bellow in the fog.

She was tired of being tied to the light; tired
of her father’s dependence on her to tend it
while he left her for long days to go ashore,
always returning with the scent of a woman
or a week long hangover spent in his bed.

She was tired of hauling the fetid oil
around and around the spiral stairs,
of keeping the wick lit through the night;
resentful of polishing the light’s prism heart
while her own was rusted by the salt of the sea.

April 26

At Arlington

the day is warm as sunlight dapples down
through the pink, heady scent of cherry trees;
it’s the kind of day that should be spent
idyllically idling in the park
or romping with the kids.

Instead you find yourself among the company
of stoic men standing as rigid as stone-cut statues,
all eyes gazing straight ahead to the horizon,
showing their unwavering loyalty
the best way they know how.

Your dress uniform is crisp enough to snap
and feels like large-grit sandpaper against your neck.
You’ve spit polished your shoes to a mirror shine;
donned white gloves, hat, and medals; all perfectly aligned.
As you march with your brothers a slight breeze stirs
the half-masted flag.

Today is a lifetime away from crude dust and terrorists.

The procession marches along the long promenade
past countless rows of evenly spaced teeth,
past the tomb of the unknown, behind the horse
drawn wagon bearing the flag-draped casket home,
the rear guard brought up by a steel band
and twenty-one guns.

As you pass, headstones whisper countless names
of the soldiers who lie beneath
and you wonder how they died;
who they were and the families they left behind
before the uniform sealed their future.

Your fallen comrade sleeps now,
unaware of the pomp, he’s gone on
to a better place. This ceremony is for those
who remain, closure for another senseless death

and when it’s all over and you’ve returned
to the comfort of family and friends
all you can ask yourself is
Will we ever learn?

April 27

Circe at the Gate

She stands ready with sickle in hand,
eyes scored deep into her chiseled face.
Do no pass! she seems to say,
I cannot offer you safety;
for further on, where the ocean laps
the rough-edged rocks shiny-smooth,
those silly she-birds may beguile you
as they croon in their sugared voices;
or, if whimsy whispers in my ear
I may cast a spell of woe
upon your willful spirit.

I stand back, study the handiwork
of the mason whose clever hands
culled her from stone; note the ivy
lei around her throat
and the bouquet of laurel leaves
she cups against her right breast;
admire the fine knit of clavicle and neck.

I spit, make the sign of the cross
and pass but do not look back
as the hairs on my nape lift up
in the abrupt gust of an errant wind.

___________________________________________

Water Tower

I am driving when I see it
condom sheathed;
the unsightly thing jutting up
out of the earth; its yang of passion
revealed to all who pass.

Spring; she brings out
the lothario in all of us
and we can only play a tiny
role in the grand cycle
that spins us along
infinite routes.

April 28

Postpartum: Life Begins Again After 50?

Her kids have grown into their own
kids, careers, affairs, divorces;
wholly absorbed with their own
navels and its fat balls of lint.
They’ve finally hoisted their sails
after the long years of them
sinking her boat deeper in the water;

and the hubby has bought himself a new
big-daddy, notice-me-red Corvette,
had a hair weave and joined a gym.
She knows what that means;

and looking in the mirror today
she sees the shadow of future jowls
forming from frown lines,
getting plumper by the moment;
a smattering of liver spots;
a swath of silver roots that need to visit
with Lola at the salon.

She’s heard that life begins again after fifty:
retirement; travel; the good times and relief
that come from the disappearing demands
to be care giver; house maker;
do-it-all, be-it-all mother to everyone
and to all their damn friends besides

and she wonders how many bricks shy
of the load they are for making
such a claim. Who are those people,
and how much prozac are they taking?

But what really grinds her gears
are those mid-thirty-something’s who think
they’re old. They whine about the lack
of energy; the pinch of their personal time;
the boss who demands their blood in a paper cup
as token proof of their support

and thinks they’ve no idea how lucky they are.

April 29

Webs

Spiders spin silk webs
......................and people spin their own
...............................................truths;
simple, yet
............complex.

We are spiders spinning webs
.............................to catch
.....................................our own truths;
and when we do, we wrap them
............................in silk,
only to consume them
......................when we have need
.........................................for food.

(*forgive all the dots, but there's a specific white space structure)

Webs (Experimental)

Spiders spin silk webs.................We are spiders spinning webs
and people spin their own..............to catch
.........................truths;.......our own truths;
simple, yet............................and when we do, we wrap them
...........complex.....................in silk,
.......................................only to consume them
.......................................when we have need
.......................................for food.

(*forgive all the dots, but there's a specific white space structure)

Still Life

A sway-backed, wooden chair
with a cane-woven seat rests
before the opened door.

Late afternoon light scatters
through the storm doors’ dust
coated window and casts
creeping silhouettes.

Looking outside
the window halos like a saint;
you have to squint to see
the crack where a startled raven
once snapped its neck.

The yellowed linoleum is scuffed
from millions of foot falls
and too few waxings, worn down
almost to the bare wood beneath.

Next to the door a mahogany,
spindle-legged table sits in repose
piled with the week’s unopened mail,
it’s lace doily turned the color of amber.

Outside the yard grows and grows
with corn, its silk shining in the sun.
The door, the crack, the corn.

April 30

Spring Rhapsody

Peonies perfume the breeze; out on the lea
wild arms of forsythia flame into bloom
and trees fingerpaint on a blue velvet sky
in shades of lime, pink and white. Early azaleas
unsheathe their first plum-pink buds
and stretch rice paper petals smooth
after winter’s lengthy, torpid crimp.

Here on the porch, windchimes and windflowers
waffle in the easy breeze, carry scent and song
inside to where we sit, listen to and watch
songbirds barter for nests and the right
to raise their young in birdhouses
hung along the edge of the eaves.

Drawn outside by Dame Spring, I hike up the hill
past flowering trees: weeping cherry, magnolia, dogwood
and beech tossing pink and white confetti at the parade
of jonquils, tulips and buttercups; and note the first,
fisted buds of peach, pear and plum forming pregnant nubs.

The earth oozes must from an earlier sun shower
that cast millions of tiny diamonds into the turfgrass
where white pines filter the breeze. Fallen needles lie
in disarray and make a springy carpet concealing
pine nuts dislodged from dead cones. Someday
they will sink their white hairs deep into the loam
or feed chipmunks and squirrels foraging for food.

Spring’s fleeting orgy spreads, rampant as wild fire,
as her hands shape-shift the land each day
and overwhelm me with myriad pleasures, gasp after gasp.

2007-05-21T11:53:00.000-04:00

Ok, here are more poems from NAPO.

April 6

Tree Man

He rises from a misty bog cloaked
in sludge and peat, hair a nest of twigs
glimmered with dew, barren tree branch arms
flung out like wings.

He only appears in the fog. Some say
he roams the moors seeking food
and places to lie comatose and undisturbed,
invisible to the world of steel and machine.

Time matters not; his internal clock
is set to eternal night and he knows not
the warmth of light, nor the vision it affords

but seeks the ooze of bayou beds;
the forgotten places tossed aside
and serenaded by water song, loon call,
frog grunt; and relishes the process
of organic decay, the cool slime of it.

He shuns human eyes, directs his towards
the infinite spin of constellations
bright above the lifting fog.

April 7

The Sad Tale of Annie Handy

All year she festered in that flower papered
room; pink and heavy-headed peony blooms
had rotted there, their lurking stink profuse.

Daily she lingered in the half-lit gloom,
bed tied and helpless, while catbirds and jays
sang gay tunes just beyond the window.

Different maids came and went, delicately
swept and fluffed, and sometimes wept
at her coarse click of tongue and subsequent
toss of china. One by one they’d fled.

Then one hot day when the room was rank
with the sourness of her sweat she rose up,
gathered herself and went downstairs
then out to the green beyond.

The sunlight dizzied her as she groped
around the ground in search of stones.
Damn you birds! she cried out loud,
I’ll rid you of your idle chitter-chat
and endless saccharin songs!
then tossed the stones and shook her fist
until they all had fled.

April 8

Late March

The land pauses now in that moment just before
waking, its repose almost at end. Already,
birds call for mates and tight-fisted buds
relax in the kindling warmth of lengthening days.

I’ve come again to the furthest point of this pinetum
to sit awhile on my favorite silvered bench
and lavish myself with the sight and scent of forsythia,
splendid in her showy lemon blast.

So I sit and ponder life for awhile and give my knees
a small respite. I watch a handsome pair of Canadian geese
preen their brown and downy fleece, then drowse a bit
in this clement sun and dream of you gone far beyond.

April 11

Executioner’s Song

I.

Shhhink-a-thunk
Shhhink-a-thunk

hear my guillotine
halving scrawny necks

shhhink-a-thunk

the catch-basket blooming
with crimsoned heads

shhhink-a-thunk

long tongues lolling
slack in repose

II.

Whump-a-snap
whump-a-snap

hear my hangman’s rope
estranging necks from bodies

whump-a-snap

faces dimple-puffling
in its tight-wrung noose

whump-a-snap

bulging lightbulb eyes
permanently burned out

III.

hum-a-crackle, hiss
hum-a-crackle, hiss

hear my electric chair
kiss-sizzling skin

hum-a-crackle, hiss

bodies jolt to attention
face-hoods steam

hum-a-crackle, hiss

body still moving
aftershock twitch

IV.

click-a-BANG
click-a-BANG

hear my firing squad
metal peppering flesh

click-a-BANG

bodies crumpling, oozing
like opened sacks of grain

click-a-BANG

red tide blooming
gutter-run red

April 12a

Covered Roaster
-for Mom, wherever you are...

Many times I watched her lift its
large bulk from where it simmered
on the lowest rack of the oven.

She respected its scorch
ready to bite an errant fingertip
if misplaced, its vent of steam
when she lifted its lid to check
the turkey simmering within.

Tinny clink of enamel on steel as she
stood back, reached out and removed
its cover, careful of its hissing belch;
she was good at dodging danger.

She’d test the bird then, stab the meat
thermometer into it’s colossal leg,
sigh and say Not yet then clank
the lid back on and heft it back down
into the oven, arms quivering, back
straining as if giving birth.

April 12b

Mission - The “Un” Poem (an experiment and a bit of wordplay)

Listen, question; vision undone;
unction woken.

Option given; beckon fortune,
certain heaven.

Reason seven, sudden notion;
doctrine chosen.

Thicken diction, straighten section;
version written.

Hot Java

Grand elixir; drip fuel; cinnamon dream
stirred into a steaming mug. I breathe
your flavored air and my engines rev.

Caffeine heart-kick hard as a mule’s; rough
edges polished with cane and heat-foamed cream;
cappucino sloshing down my lemon scone.

Vanilla latte, you smooth lothario
so slick and silky down my throat,
teach my engines how to hum. Sweet music,
wet slurp, sprinkle of nutmeg.

Boogey-woogey bugle of mocha jazz
razz-matazzing on my tongue,
you gotta gimme dat zing
or it don mean a thing.
Do wah, do wah, do wah.

April 14

Marsh Pond

There by the marsh pond, its surface limed
by algae scum, three paperback turtles
crawled out of the oozy muck onto a bank
covered thick with moss to sun.

The scent of waterweed and fungus hung
ripe in my nose; skunk cabbage and lungwort
grew profuse; sunlight dappled down
through bud-laden beech and maple.

Now and then a bird would warble
and add some sweetness to the day,
but mostly the silence hung softly
like an ethereal wreath, disturbed only
by the snap of treebone beneath my feet.

Then it started, a foreign sound
I’d never heard before - a guttural chorus
of clicks that grated in my ear; and then more
answering from the opposite shore.
Before long there sounded an obscene
symphony that quickly rose
to a crescendo that did not recede.

The turtles startled, quick-sloshed back
to their morass of decayed leaves and mud;
away from the seeming thousand croakers
belching for mates; those horny toads
spurred on by the urgings of spring.

It was a frightening, otherworldly thing
so I hurried away, changed somehow;
disgusted by their bloated excess of need,
soured by the damaged day.

April 15

Bird Talk

I’m absorbed by my computer screen, my focus
so intent I don’t feel Baby flap over until he flops down
on my shoulder. Pretty soon he’s jibbering away
in conure-speak, words that only I can understand.

Baby demands I stop what I’m doing and converse.
We mimic each other’s tongue clucks, clicks, high-pitched
rolling brrrrrrrr’s, followed by sweet little helooo, babeeee’s
and wanna take a bath?’s, end with a couple
of soft spoken haaaaa?’s all mixed in between
assorted tempos and flavors of raspberries.

Pretty soon he’s rubbing his lime green head on my cheek
and muttering what-what-what’s - always in sets of three
and in rapid succession - his signal to me that it’s time to go to sleep,
so I ask wanna go to bed? and he does his little bead-bobbing
voodoo dance back and forth across my shoulders
and lets loose a few loud jungle squawks, which means yes.

After he’s been put to bed, just before I cover him, we both say
goodnight, Baby. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, I’ll get
a love you when the light goes out, a tiny taste
of what it must feel like to be a mother.

2007-05-18T12:21:00.000-04:00

So, here are some of my NaPo poems. Will be back to enter more asap. Enjoy!

April 1

Late Snow

A snow quilted field;
drops of sunshine pushing through;
a cold welcoming.

April 2

Masks

We rabbits hollow out our homes
beneath hardscrabble, tuck our tails
and hide from that persistent fox
named Ethos, and his mate Memory.

We hope our hunters will lose our scent
in the fog and shifting wind;
yet we scowl when woken
by the birdsong dawn,
loathe to leave the warm den
of our sequestered conscience.

We face the facade of another day;
another existence where masks are donned
and we pretend;
our only goal to blend
into the dried up grass.

April 3

Drunk on Psychedelic Junk

Paint me a masterpiece;
a deep purple eclectic mess
smoldering with raw harmony
yet cool as green latex
here in my nude, blue metaphor.

Come smoke wild passion with me
and feel the color of paint. Investigate
its balance and slick slide over stretched rag.
Create surreal rhythms and imagine all
that is absurd; take a leap off the edge.

Dream-see; stroke your canvas
drug-empty but brain-wired;
turn what’s inside out;
get drunk on psychedelic junk,
roll naked in its funk.

April 4

Night Music

Listen to the rain
as it spits and splats
and slowly drips down the drain.

The wind chimes in
with its whistle and hiss
soon after the shower ends;

and after the wind
has tucked itself in,
the crickets begin to croon.

They chatter and chirp
as they search for a mate
by the light of a lolly pop moon.

April 5

Guinevere Had Green Eyes

Did Guinevere fret
as she contemplated that doomed liaison,
distracted by the cool, seductive simmer of silk
against her porcelain skin, fanning it to a pink flush,
the thought of his touch an ached for taboo;
or swoon when she imagined his errant hands
poaching the king’s eggs from the royal coop?

Did her actions true, dead-on
and carried out swift as an arrow’s flight,
knowing full well how the apple would fall;
or did she sway through long days
and longer nights of banished thoughts
only to find resistance futile?

She envied Arthur his conquests, his freedom
to come as he wished, his bedded brides.
Didn’t she deserve to have her own indulgence,
just this once?

She must have thought it a small price to exact
for all those nights spent naked with the moon
her only admirer.

Just this one, small indiscretion and her quickening
lust would be quickly quenched
like a small flame between thumb and forefinger.

Just once, she thought, for the memory
to warm her thighs when December winds
seeped through the castle walls
and rattled the stained glass panes.

2007-05-15T12:02:00.000-04:00

Been having issues with my home pc since mid-April in the form of dns name resolution problems with my carrier - so I've been unable to comment or login to my blog to add new posts - right now I'm at work and making an entry from my work pc - which is really a no-no but it's my lunch 1/2 hour so I figure I can get away with it. I lurk from home, but that's about all I can do with all my blogs on blogger. Also having the same problem with google and an ATC card site I trade at ATCards. This really is a royal pain in the ass. I've already contacted my web provider twice about it. *sigh* So I don't know how long it's going to take to get this fixed.

On a much happier note, I have good news! One of the NaPo poems I wrote during April placed second in a poetry contest at Artella.com - woohoo! It's going to be published in their magazine. I owe some thanks to Gabriel, who kindly offered me some suggestions for a revision, which I really liked and took advantage of - so thank you very much, Gabriel! As soon as I can, I'll be posting all 30+ poems I wrote, but it may take awhile due to my access problem. So, here's the revised, winning poem.

Abandoned

The rusted pump sits idle in its watch
over the splintered trough it once filled
for man and beast. Nothing comes now
to suckle or ladle or bathe, but the wind
coats it with a fine patina of Kansas clay
and rabbits graze beneath, in its shade.

Behind it a dilapidated barn leans out
to the left exposing its silvered roof, half gone,
and a honeycomb, still inhabited, disgorges slow,
thrumming bodies from its mouth
like large flecks of soot from a fire.

Beyond the brambles and tumbleweed
a house hunkers over the landscape. Massive,
it looms above a dilapidated shade porch
with a gap-toothed rail, front door flung open
and half hanging off its hinges.

The windows black eyes have no reflection;
their shutters snap and startle on the boards.
On the porch a twig-backed rocking chair
rocks the resident ghost back and forth.

copyright 2007 by Cookala

2007-04-29T11:53:00.000-04:00

oooh, ooooh, another interview featuring my artwork will be coming soon - this time with Artella (www.artellawordsandart.com), and will appear in the Artella Daily Muse. I'll post the date the interview will appear as soon as I find out.

I've also enetered three of my NaPo poems in their Poetic Idol Contest, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Soon now, in May, I'll be posting all the poems I wrote at PFFA for the NaPo 2007 Challenge - everyone who participated wrote at least one poem a day for the entire month of April which is National Poetry Month. Napo brought my muse out of a ten month coma, so I'm very grateful for that because I'm writing again - YAY! And I think I wrote some decent poems this year. My goal was to concentrate on sonics and imagery, and to do some experimenting. I think I succeeded. So, stay tuned.

2007-04-04T20:28:00.001-04:00

Well, seeing as NaPoWriMo has been keeping me way beyond busy (so many poems, so little time!!) I thought I'd post a link to my thread until I get a chance to post all the new poems I've been writing. just cut and paste it into your browser address.

http://www.everypoet.org/pffa/showthread.php?t=53441

and as a followup to the e-chapbook thing - I've put it on hold until May - so little poems, so many time!

heh, see what NaPo does to me?

yep...I'm a loony, certifiable napowhacko.

2007-04-04T20:28:00.000-04:00

Well, seeing as NaPoWriMo has been keeping me way beyond busy (so many poems, so little time!!) I thought I'd post a link to my thread until I get a chance to post all the new poems I've been writing. just cut and paste it into your browser address.

and as a followup to the e-chapbook thing - I've put it on hold until May - so little poems, so many time!

heh, see what NaPo does to me?

yep...I'm a loony, certifiable napowhacko.

2007-03-27T17:04:00.000-04:00

an e-chapbook, you say?

Once upon a time, about 3 years ago, on a whim I entered a quarterly "Poetic Idol" contest at a site named Artella and to my total amazement won 1st prize - and a nice prize it was - $150 cold cash and an e-chapbook and publishing the winning poem (A Redress of Clouds in their paper magazine.

But then, nothing happened. Time passed. I finally contacted the publisher only to find out she'd suffered the loss of her father and hadn't been able to get to the e-chapbook. And then there had been a reorganization of staff. whatever. Ok, fine, no problem. It'd get done eventually....

Well, eventually led to 3 years and I'd pretty much written it off for ever getting done, when today I had an email from them telling me they had finally gottten around to finishing the e-chapbook. Well, I just about damn near fell off my chair.

The name of the e-chapbook is Origami and it contains 20 of my better, very early poems (some copyright dates go back to 2001), most of which were workshopped here at PFFA. I've just re-read them all and see some that really need sprucing, but some still stand up ok. The chapbook also has over 20 of my own photographs prettying it up.

So, I don't have all the details yet about how to get a copy or what it will cost, though I suppose it can't be more than $10. I have to set up a "shop" at their site that will enable you to download the chapbook directly to your printer. I don't know if you'll be able to purchase a printed copy. I don't know yet what setting up a "shop" entails, but I'll post the particulars for those of you who'd like to have a copy.

Imagine that....and what perfect timing for NaPo!!! I am so stoked!

2007-03-25T19:04:00.000-04:00

And so it begins.

After fighting the urge to join the April madness over at PFFA for over a month now, I have instead succumbed. Against all better sense, I've started a thread at PFFA for NaPoWriMo. God help me. I expect to be writing a lot of crappy haiku's, seeing that I have been unable to rouse my comatose muse since last June, when I ran out of steam from NaPoWriMo 2006.

I don't expect to be able to write something every day. I don't expect to be able to keep up with all the other threads. I don't expect to be able to write anything even close to halfway decent. But, wtf, maybe this will break the block. It's worth a try. And besides, I hate being left out - which is, in all honesty, the real reason why I succumbed in the first place. Not a great reason for joining in, I know, but I've partaken of April madness since it's inception in 2005 and I don't have the heart to drop out now, even if the poems I do write turn me a blend of scarlet and lime.

As in prior years, and if I do come up with anything of substance, I will post it here.

Like I've said, God help me.

2007-03-19T23:05:00.000-04:00

hmmmm...the results of this were very interesting!

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

2007-03-18T22:44:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of Scotty, I took the test. Supposedly my personality type is very rare. No wonder I often feel alone and misunderstood...

Your Personality is Very Rare (INFP)

Your personality type is dreamy, romantic, elegant, and expressive.

Only about 5% of all people have your personality, including 6% of all women and 4% of all men
You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

2007-03-18T05:05:00.000-04:00

So, I finally got around to creating my Etsy Store. It's named Cookalas House Of Cards and the url is http://cookalashouseofcards.etsy.com

There's an Etsy link in the right column.

I'm selling some of my ACEOs,canvas panels in assorted sizes and other altered art items (assemblages, altered books and journals, accordian books, etc). I decided to try selling some of my artwork as a way to make some extra money to buy art supplies, which are expensive!

I'm hoping this will be a lucrative venture!

2007-03-12T04:01:00.000-04:00

ATC - The Road To Adventure
(by me)

Sometimes really amazing, good things happen when you least expect it.

A little over a week ago I was contacted by Deb Elzie from CircleBack Studio, asking me if I'd be interested in doing an interview for CircleBack about the artwork I'm doing for National Crafts Month in March. CircleBack is the brainchild of Deb and her sister Wendy Todd, and it's a website/blog/wiki. Their vision and goal is to give voice to the local creative - whether it is scrapbooking, stamping, or painting. with video and journal in hand they hope to capture the hearts and minds of the creative industry, and by doing this they want to bring the industry together as a whole.

Of course,I agreed. I can't tell you how honored I am, and surprised, and excited! This is an amazing event for me. I've been very busy making ATCs, and some larger pieces on canvas panels in sizes ranging from 4x6 to 9x12 - that's a big part of the reason you don't see me posting here as much as I used to. I've become very active on several yahoo ATC groups with swapping ATCs, and also doing alot of private trading from the cards I post at my Flickr site.

I've always loved art, but strayed away from it when I started going to college. I just didn't have the time or energy for it. Then the career in IT came along, and it was more of the same. But after my mom passed away in November 2005, I turned back to art as a means of coping with the grief of losing her so suddenly. I made my first set of ATCs for a swap in January 2006, and since then I've made over 1,000 cards and swapped all of them except for 120 which I've kept for my private collection. You could say there are pieces of me floating all over the world now. Heh. It's quite an amazing feeling.

But anyway, it struck me suddenly that people really like my art, and I can't even begin to tell you how rewarding that is. And now, this interview comes along out of the blue. I've got my fingers crossed that maybe this will be the start of some really good things for me, so say a prayer that it is. But imagine that, someone wanted to interview me. Me. How cool is that?

If you'd like to read the interview, CircleBack Studio's url is below. Each day this week you'll see some of my art and read parts of the interview. Somebody - quick - cyber pinch me, please! I need to know this isn't just a dream!

http://circlebackstudio.com/blog/

2007-03-07T21:49:00.000-05:00

Well, this is pretty much the last of the Jersey pictures. After looking at them again, I'm reminded how awesome the aftermath of that ice storm was. Check out the ice bridge - first time I've ever seen anything like that. It was about 16 inches long, and even had a slight arch. It probably formed from the steam rising from the stream below it. Pretty amazing.

2007-03-02T20:26:00.000-05:00

More pics from Jersey - it was really cold out, as you can see. The beach was arctic and blowing, the lake area was balmy in comparison, as the wind was minimal. It was good, though, to get out with the camera and take a nice walk in the woods!

2007-02-22T14:07:00.000-05:00

And so on the way down to Jersey to visit with friends, we were given a visual gift of the previous days ice storm, and what a gift. The pictures work hard to capture the awesome beauty of the ice coated landscape but fall very short. It was like looking at something in a National Geographic Magazine. Here is the paradox of nature at her best and worst. Serendipity in action. I doubt if I'll be lucky enough to ever witness this type of indescribable magnificence again.

Awestruck

Noonday we sailed on an arctic sea
shimmering with diamond dust,
frozen as far as our eyes could see.
Thoughts came in visual fragments-
cold, crystaline, slivers of silver
icicles pirouetting in rays of light
spearing through broken clouds-
and held us stunned; breathless;
witnesses to the whimsy of God.

---------------------------------------------------

And here's my response to Poetry Thursday's optional challenge (a bit of a downer, I know, but still a poem. yay, I'm writing again!!)

The Body Knows

The body knows the invisible ink
of our betrayals, each abuse indelible,
and still it serves for long years
until, one day, it breaks.

The body knows the braille
of our excess - the fast food dinners
that pad our waists; the after work
cocktail rituals; the cigarettes;
and still it serves for long years
until, one day, it breaks.

The body knows the written legacy
of our ancestors, their DNA
thumbprints recorded in our genes,
and still it serves for long years
until, one day, it breaks.

Why do we rewrite our body
until, one day, it breaks?

2007-02-12T21:34:00.000-05:00

Here are more pictures from the arboretum I shot last Sunday (2/11/07). Going out of town for a few days for a much needed change of scenery, so will be away from the pc for awhile. Will post more pics when I come back. Until then, enjoy!

2007-02-12T12:20:00.000-05:00

Well, seeing as the weather was still nippy and windy out this weekend and seeing as I was up to my eyeballs with cabin fever, I got myself dressed and out anyway and took a ride to one of my favorite haunts, a local arboretum. I stuck mainly inside - they have two large greenhouses and a residence they open for tours (think very posh, circa 1920's, museum-like home). I did venture out for about a half hours walk, then had to go back in because the cold was so penetrating that my knees began to sing an aria. But it was good to get out for awhile. I always find it amazing how doing that restores my inner balance, and puts a smile back on my face. And now I have lots of new, pretty pictures to look at for you. Here's a few to get you started. Enjoy.

2007-02-03T22:32:00.000-05:00

So, it's been a while since I made an entry here. I've been busy making art and making myself get up and go to work (that curse of curses). It's been so cold and windy and generally snarky weather-wise that I haven't been able to get out with the camera, so I have no new pictures for you. I thought I'd go through my gallery and pick out some older pics so you at least will have something new to look at.

As far as my poetry goes, well, it isn't at the moment. I feel like I've been forcing it, and as a result I've taken some backward steps. I've been trying to get my muse to come out of her coma since last July when she died on me due to burnout by Napowrimo at PFFA. She has revived for short spurts now and then, but she's relapsed every time I think she's finally come back for good. I find this extremely frustrating, but I guess eventually this writing block will come to an end. In the meantime I'll just have to satisfy my creative urges with my art.

2007-01-24T22:10:00.000-05:00

Well, I've always thought Alice and I were connected at the seams somehow anyway...I guess this confirms my suspicions!

What Alice in Wonderland Character Are You?

You are Alice

The heroine of the Wonderland tales, you are filled with curiosity and random inquiry.
Take this quiz!

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