Sometimes one goes looking for inspiration.

For me, whether that search is out the window, through my lens, in the stroke of a brush, or into my interior it is almost always fruitful. From my perspective, we are surrounded by an infinity that is constantly evolving. A place where everything is always imbued with renewal.

No two moments in the universe are ever the same, and in this reality lies magic beyond that which any incantation might evoke.

This kind of creative searching has its place; is essential even, but it isn’t the topic of this post.

Today I want to write a bit about that other kind of inspiration. The kind of inspiration that comes calling of its own accord.

Like a first snowflake settling on the still green grass, it can herald an oncoming wave, or simply one fleeting drop. Regardless its form or duration, it is unfailingly a delightful rush.

I absolutely love getting caught up in the flow of something new.

Recently I was accosted by a poem written by a friend and it sparked the immediate need for me to draw.

I was stunned to find that what I was drawing was a mandala.

I haven’t created a mandala of any kind in more than a decade. And if I had thought about why not, I might have said that my work had evolved—had moved in new directions.

Which just goes to show how wrong a person can be.

Below you’ll find my first new visual piece of 2010. It was inspired by this wonderful poem by Marianna Paulson:

Living. Breathing.

Breathing. Living.

Inspiritus -
inspiration -
spirit.

Awaken. Breathe. Live.

Now.

-
You can find Marianna at her website, blog, and on twitter.

-

Here is the image inspired by Marianna’s wise, beautiful, mantra-like poem.

I hope you will enjoy the viewing as much as I enjoyed the creating.

-

title - breathe life - by Kayt Hoch

I suspect mandalas may be making a new visitation to my creative life, time will tell on that.

Truth is, I still feeling like drawing. And the energy buzzing my fingers feels a lot more like a wave beginning to roll, than one lonely drop from an otherwise pale blue sky.

~~~

tech stuff - in case you care

The drawing was created from blank screen using Photoshop CS3 software. All elements of the piece were hand-drawn, (using a Wacom Intuos3 tablet) combined with two gradients (created by me), and integrated using various blending modes and transparency levels.

~~~

tags: art, image, inspiration, mandala, spiritual, visual art

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I had some best laid plans for a blog post tonight, and you know how that goes.

I’ve done a new image inspired by a friend’s poem and I was going to post both. But, of course, my WP file uploader is having a lie down and won’t upload my image file.

So, I thought I’d share this instead - in some inexplicable way, it fits my mood tonight.  I hope to be back soon with the fore mentioned post.

’till then -

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I need to tell you in all sincerity that picking two favorites out of your tweets was difficult beyond description. I truly enjoyed all of the writing that came out of the poetwist200 list. Applause to all

Fave pick #1

gather the cracked and brittle shards /…

therer2doors - aka - Angie Werren

I really liked how this poem juxtaposed opening sharpness with the softness of a new day dawning, and how beautifully it balances an underlying hope against the realism and angst of doubt. Poetically, I really like the spareness of the piece and that each and every word is critical to the poem. Overall I get the sense of trying to recover something that has broken, which is powerfully impacting and effective (for me).

Thanks for the wonderful contribution Angie.

Fave pick #2

frothing stacked goblets/…

Kate_TW - aka Kate Temple-West

This poem really got me with its vivid visual imagery that is paired perfectly (for me) with the innuendo I read in the poem.

The whole piece calls to my mind the image of a wedding, guests attired to the nines about to toast the happy couple. But, there is something dark and edgy lurking around that the speaker in the poem knows about. Perhaps one of the happy couple was spied 20 minutes ago in the back seat of the limo with the others best friend? I of course don’t know what the poet had in mind, but there are myriad possibilities, and the poem ignites my imagination to try and conjure up what underlies the rich imagery of this scene. I find that very compelling and enjoyable indeed.

Thank you Kate, for your wonderful contribution.

———-

Rules?

Now, being that I am awfully fond of discarding most rules as I see fit, I have to tip my hat to our leading resident rule breaker Carlton Halpert for the stunning use of all 91 poetwist200 words. Sigh…I can only say, I wish I’d have thought of trying it myself.

Not that I could have rivaled in anyway, the ballad of baxter which is comprised of 12 haiku interlacing potentially autobiographical facets of the mysterious Baxter. The sense of the sureal in this is as profound, as it is enchanting.

My personal fave chapters are 3 & 12, but I find the whole greater even than the sum of its wonderful haiku-vignette components. The incomplete mosaic of the character writing is beyond intriguing. Perhaps there will be more messages home from Baxter? We can only hope…

Thanks Carlton for the inspiring, wonderful contribution - I really do hope we hear more from Baxter.

———-

Most Words Used

Well, wouldn’t you know - we have three-way tie for most words used.

So here they are, all tweeting in at 14 of the poetwist200 words in a single tweet. And they all achieved this feat while still saving space to include the poetwist hash tag. Very impressive.

Back just in time for the 200th prompt - jeremylewit - with:  blind as limbo/…

And a very new writter in the poetwist crowd - Kate_TW  - with:  again in limbo/…

Finally, one of our long standing poetwist regulars - tumblewords - with:  novice faith in limbo/…

Hmm, limbo limbo limbo - wonder what’s up with that…

Thanks and congratulations to everyone for making this such a wonderful celebration of the 200th poetwist prompt. Here’s hoping we’ll all be writing and reading together for another 200 at least

Cheers & ta!

tags: 140, 200th prompt, micropoetry, poem, poetry, poetwist, twitter

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Today marks the 200th writing prompt for poetwist on Twitter.  Congrats & thanks to all of you!!  To celebrate this little milestone, we’re doing something a bit different than the usual.

All the info you need is in a short PDF here:  poetwist200.pdf

For my blog buddies who don’t do the Twitter gig, I’d really love for you to participate too, so if you’re into this please go for it and leave your ‘tweet’ in the comments here. Remember, a tweet is a maximum of 140 characters long.

Wishing everyone a wonderful time with today’s write - I’m already looking forward to reading everything

tags: 140, 200th prompt, poetwist, twitter

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We’re having a little tw’elabration for the 100th poetwist writing prompt on twitter, and everyone’s invited whether you tweet or not.

You can either join in here at The Pedestrian Crossing or over on twitter - whatever gig you’re into. I really hope to see you, one place or the other.

The First 95 is a link to a pdf containing the first 95 word prompts I posted on twitter.

So, here’s the deal. Write a micropoem, or piece of microprose using as many of the first 95 words as you can within the 140 character limit.

If you’re tweeting, you’re used to the 140 character gig, and for those of you blogging you can count characters (140 max including spaces & punctuation), or you can write up to 20 words - which won’t be exactly the same, but close enough.

Tweeple, I’ll see you on twitter.

Bloggers, if you would post your microwrites in the comments here I’ll check back in a few days so I can reply to everyone who writes

I’m looking forward to reading everyone’s wonderful creations!!

tags: 100th prompt, 140, micropoetry, poetry, poetwist, twitter

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Funny, the things you miss.

Things that don’t even seem to be in one’s recall, but somewhere in the archives of our feelings they sit there—waiting for us to notice.

I was cleaning out a storage space in my studio last week and happened upon a couple of framed prints. They were two of my first fully digital creations, and the first two pieces I had tried my hand at framing. In the years since, different prints of both pieces have been framed more professionally (again by me, after getting some framing education), in a style suitable for gallery showing.

The show pieces were well received and those that didn’t sell came home and adorned my walls. They looked fine and I didn’t think much more about it. In the ensuing years, some more of the pieces were sold, one was loaned and the walls developed bare spaces that I noticed now and again. But I was busy.

So, when I found those aging, less than perfect, dusty examples of my work I was delighted. I sure wasn’t too busy to dust them off and go park them on the naked picture hooks still punctuating my balding walls.

It was nice to see them out in the light again, but that wasn’t what really stuck me. It was the sound that pulled me up short and resonated a warm chord in my heart. I had completely forgotten how they sound.

The ‘gallery’ style framings I had done were glazed with standard window glass. But in my first framings, I had used a type of acrylic glazing.

And acrylic glazing flexes a lot more than glass as the environment around it changes. And when it flexes, it can make a wonderful light percussive sound, a bit similar to the sound a clock pendulum makes.

The sound is not metered of course, but it is not really random either. As the day warms and cools, sunlight filters in and moves on, or the rain falls saturating the air the acrylic glazing responds with a tick here and a tock there.

The sounds of these two images are soothing, reassuring, and delightful to me. The sounds remind me of the earliest days of my career move to full time art & writing, they remind me of furniture and pets that used to be, and they make me smile as I recall trying to figure out where those sounds were coming from when I first hung the pieces.

Mostly though, the sound of each print reminds to pay attention.

Reminds me that surprising things can come from very unexpected sources, and the sounds remind me of my history—which somehow fills me with a sense of wonder and joy about my today. I can’t explain that last bit, but I am endlessly grateful for the gift.

Today is the only today that I get and anything that helps me pay attention to it is nothing short of manna from heaven.

~

May you have a wonderful today - each and every day.

~

tags: living in the moment, memoir, nostalgia, perspective

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