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.

~~~

10 Comments »       (what is this?)

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!

4 Comments »       (what is this?)

Greetings all - some highlights from poetwist / twitter me this.

Some of these tweets are in response to my ‘twitter me this’ prompts, and some are not.

And remember, no judgmenty stuff from me. I’m not saying anything is good - or that it isn’t good.

I’m just saying the tweets I link to are particularly resonant for me.
I hope you like them too.

Enjoy!

fireland	ms_karen	lissawrites
twitter_poet	CitySelma	jadefrog
janiasea	Crenel	Quaskimodo
whypaisley	Quaskimodo	poetwist

…

Previous:  highlights post#1  –

If you would like to join the fun please do. You can read about how it works in this post and this post. Or just check out poetwist and join right in

2 Comments »       (what is this?)

~

Wayfaring feet stumbling scared. quick over-the-shoulder glance
Indicts humanity. their failures obvious. innumerable.
Never clairvoyant. always microscope focused down
Deep in the wrong memories. twisted. why-me? looping endless

~

…

Note - The Pedestrian Crossing is undergoing some maintenance on Friday Feb. 6, 2009 (GMT). If you leave comments on Friday or after and don’t see them, or notice anything that seems broken - just let me know via the contact page and we’ll get it sorted out post haste. If all goes as planned you won’t even notice - let’s keep the faith on that

…

inspired in part by the SES prompt ‘wild is the wind’

8 Comments »       (what is this?)

I’m going to be doing something new I think you may enjoy.

Starting today, I’m going to periodically do a post with links to some twitter posts (called ‘tweets’) that I fancy for one reason or another.

Some of these tweets will be in response to my ‘twitter me this’ prompts, and some will not. And I may well link to some of my own tweets now and then - once in a while I do actually like what I write

And you’ll get no judgmenty stuff from me. I’m not saying anything is good - or that it isn’t good. Frankly, I couldn’t define ‘good’ if you put a gun to my head.

I’m just saying the tweets I link to are particularly resonant for me. Maybe you’ll like some of them too.

<> a tweet from janaisea

<> a tweet from Quaskimodo

<> a tweet from CitySelma

<> a tweet from lissawrites

<> a tweet from poetwitter

<> a tweet from Ms_Karen

<> a tweet from midnightstories

I’m not going to do a consistent quantity of links, nor will I do these posts on any set schedule. But I’m finding a lot of writing on twitter very interesting, so it won’t be too long between treats.

If you liked what you saw in these links, check out more by the writers, and check out the other folks doing this kind of micro-writing on twitter.

140 definitely rocks…

5 Comments »       (what is this?)

Several folks asked me about being able to read the poems I talked about in an earlier post highlighting my three anthology appearances in 2008. Here are links to each of those poems on my selected publications list on Gyroscope Rebel Arts.

Thanks very much for asking - enjoy

sunset (winner - Late Blooms Contest)

waiting (Pontoon 10)

a comment on migraines and subtitles (most recently- Migraine Expressions)

All of these publishers / projects are very worth supporting. They are all independent and/or non-profit, royalties are not a part of the picture, they do excellent work, and contribute a great deal to promoting poetry & poets. As I mentioned in the earlier post, I do have sets of the Late Blooms cards for sale - if you are interested in buying them from me, shoot me an email. I’m pretty low tech with the sales stuff (sorry no PayPal, etc.). But as I said, I encourage you to support these folks directly if you’re in the market for this kind of stuff.

3 Comments »       (what is this?)