Thursday, July 17, 2025

Dotty Wassily Kandinsky, #2: Something Old, Something New / July 1, 2025

Dotty Wassily Kandinsky, #2: Something Old, Something New

Milky Way

The whisper

of my milk

in the night

is the shout

of wintermelt

spraying,

splashing

down a mountain.

Meg’s fine bone-china

jaw compresses, 

tiny tongue

tugs my breast.

Sweet and sure.

I feed her.

She fills me.

Her satin foot

dances upside down

on my cheek,

static sparking.

By this night light

I read

magazines

mothers’ journals

child development research

best-sellers.

We travel connected, 

swollen lips

to swollen breast,

on our milky way.

Page becomes chapter

night leapfrogs night

month gives way to year.

I see no end.

Then, 

she lifts 

a two-handled 

bone-china cup 

to her lips.

My breasts weep.

But Meg,

Meg marches on sturdy feet

climbs on my lap

offers me

chubby-board books

with her pudgy fingers.

“Read!” she says,

and I feed her 

on demand.

Chubby-board becomes picture story

easy-reader leads to chapter book

months give way to years.

Now, school papers

quilt Meg’s bed. 

Her legs are

three

and a half

miles

long,

end with painted

toenails.

Young breasts

swell.

She pushes aside

hairbrush

and homework,

finds a plastic-covered

library book,

gum wrapper holding our place.

“Read the next chapter?”

I give voice to

the unfolding story.

Meg massages

my day-heavy feet

with oils

and powders.

We drink

one from the other

still.

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Her Satin Foot Dances Upside Down on My Cheek, Static Sparking
8 x 8″; gouache, acrylic, pencil, and paint marker on paper
concentric circles and [implied] squares after Wassily Kandinsky
2025

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Notes About Poem and Painting:
• I wrote “Milky Way” when Meg was about eleven years old, 35-36 years ago. The story continues to unfold; we drink one from the other still.
• Her Satin Foot is the second of my Kandinsky-inspired art journal escapades created while at SisterFest25 just two weeks ago, mid-June.


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12 responses to “Dotty Wassily Kandinsky, #2: Something Old, Something New”

  1. What beautiful memories! Moments that fleet by without our watching painted with beautiful words. Read several times to really feel the effect. Have you given thought of publishing and illustrating your poems?

    Love your intricate circles, so much to learn from these color mixes!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Carol, thank you for your thoughtful reflective comments/feedback here. I appreciate and delight in your reading “Milky Way” several times “to really feel the effect.”

      Thanks for your vote of confidence in asking if I’ve given thought to publishing and illustrating my poems. The answer: beyond publishing my poems here at my blog with accompanying art, no, not thus far!

      The Kandinsky concentric circles explorations have been captivating. I continue to play with them.

      Liked by 2 people

  2. What a marvelous aubade to motherhood, and how wonderful you still have this poem with you.

    1. p.s. thank you also for your use of the word aubade, which was unfamiliar to me and gave me new insights : )

      Like

  3. Simone, thank you for your feedback! I forget what specifically prompted me to write that poem when I did, and I don’t remember what might have led me to tie the whole piece together the way I did, but I am SO glad i put this core piece of being a mother-daughter dyad with Meg into writing.

    Just last week, before I posted the poem in my blog, Meg asked if I could have my signature pasta sauce recipe prepped for her lunches for this week while they are visiting and I told her I was sure I already had some in the freezer. I texted her a couple days later to tell her that I’d rustled up a huge vat of the sauce (in the middle of a heat wave!) for her when I discovered that in fact I did NOT have any in the freezer. I laughed at her return text: “Thank you so much for the sauce!!!!!! This is how you nurse your 46-year-old daughter!!!!!!”

    Liked by 1 person

  4. What a beautiful poem Dotty! Such a special relationship between mother and daughter…then and now! Lucky you!

    And Kandinsky #2 is just a delight! They look like summer!

    Like

  5. I sat still after reading your words. The imagery, the emotions. Joy beyond measure. Boundless love. I didn’t want to say goodbye to … all the feels.

    Your art is such a delightful treat! Easing me back into my day. Dancing colors. Joyful spinning. Makes me think of stunning Flamenco dancers circling in unison. ¡Olé!

    Love the idea of a Dotty Seiter book! xoxo

    Like

    1. Sheila, I’m sitting still myself now, savoring your tender feedback in response to “Milky Way.” Thank you. Revisiting this poem and posting it have brought up such sweet memories for me.

      And I love seeing my painting—those stunning Flamenco dancers circling in unison—through your eyes. ¡Si! ¡Olé!

      Like

  6. Dotty!! What a lovely place to rest my spirit on this day…your tender words, your cheery Kandinsky-inspired art…thank you!

    Like

    1. I’m finding this particular 4th of July to be a day that requires a place to rest my spirit. I’m glad my ‘tender words’ and ‘cheery Kandinsky-inspired art’ offered up rest for you, Lola ❤️

      Like

  7. Dotty ~ how much do I love this poem. (Not a question really.) Again, so evocative and tender. I’m sure sons have a special place in their mother’s heart (I can’t know this) but it seems to me, mothers and daughters have unique bonds. If we’re lucky – and blessed. This I do know.
    And might I just say Kandinsky would be impressed and proud. These are beautiful. Might you frame them side by side for hanging? They’d be lovely.
    ♥️

    Like

    1. Roseanne, thank you for your thought-ful comments. I read them last night just before bed, on the eve of the departure of my family after a week of being together sharing the fullness of life. So many deep bonds, so much laughter, so much tenderness, so much so much : )

      I know you and Elena share a wonderful unique bond as a mother-daughter dyad, and I appreciate your letting me know my poem was “so evocative and tender” for you.

      And thank you for your fun suggestion that I might frame my Kandinsky-inspired pieces and hang them side by side. Hadn’t even considered that!

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Dotty Wassily Kandinsky, #1: Two Nine-Patches / June 27, 2025

 June 27, 2025

Dotty Wassily Kandinsky, #1: Two Nine-Patches

Signifiers

hansel and gretel
trail bread crumbs behind them to
mark their way back home

i drive to qigong
class, no one there, wrong time, no!
so irritating

still, a crumb pointing
Home, this wee chance to practice
breathing with what is

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All Day Suckers
8 x 8″; watercolor and paint markers on paper
concentric circles and squares after Wassily Kandinsky
2025

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Notes About Poem and Painting:
• Haiku! I thrive on the challenge of the tight little constraints that force me to find the sweet spot of staying true to what I want to say within a prescribed format without compromising my message. I wrote a triple haiku today, three haiku of three lines each—a little verbal 9-patch quilt, if you will—each haiku with 17 syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern.
• I was away last week with my four sisters and our spouses for what we call “SisterFest.” Art journal and a few supplies packed, I decided to play with concentric circles and squares after Wassily Kandinsky’s such exercises. Very grounding and a lovely accompaniment to the nearly nonstop talk and laughter of SisterFest25. Not only that, but also—look—another 9-patch!


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11 responses to “Dotty Wassily Kandinsky, #1: Two Nine-Patches”

  1. A nine patch haiku and a nine patch art piece! Stumbles on timing…and bread crumbs leading to the comforts of home. Home is my happy place.

    Oh how I love this rendition of Kandinsky circles Dotty! I was just thinking about them not that long ago thinking it was time for circles. Your colors and patterns are right up my alley.

    And here’s to sister gatherings! SisterFest is such an awesome name. I was just thinking about my sisters…it’s time for a Facetime chat!

    Like

    1. The fact of ending up with two nine-patches at the same time was pleasingly serendipitous, gotta say. So, too, stumbles offering practice to open my little self to my Higher Self and Home. Thanks for your shared delight with the circles, colors, and patterns in my Kandinsky kapers. SisterFest25 was magnificent! Tomorrow begins eight days of FamFest25 with all its many magnificent moving pieces: our three children, their spouses, our grandchildren, and a nephew his wife—family all and fabulous all!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Enjoy FamFest25!!! Lucky you!

        Liked by you

  2. You are so blessed! Sisterfest!

    Just love Kandinsky, your rendition, similar size shapes and limited palette create powerful impact!

    As usual your poetry is so inviting.

    Just goes to show, limitations increases creativity!

    Like

    1. Yes! Totally blessed by SisterFest!

      I’m especiallly appreciative of your celebrating the gift of limitations within creativity and to hear that you find my poetry inviting. Thank you, Carol.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. how is it that limitations are so freeing? Be it syllables, color palettes, canvas size, time – all contributing to more creativity instead of less! Love your stacked haiku, love your Kandinsky circles and your sisterfest! Huzzah!!!!

    Like

  4. I have long understood limitations to be multifaceted—sometimes feeling claustrophobic, often provided what feels like counterintuitive expansiveness.

    I like your referring to my poem today as ‘stacked haiku.’ I laughed as myself as I stacked up the pieces, recognizing the irony of haiku’s limitations, my inability to state my insight in the prescribed 17 syllables, and my choosing to ‘cheat’ by stacking three haiku together!

    Kandinsky circles and SisterFest made a great pairing : )

    Like

  5. Way to take a bummer, and turn it into a bit of fun!

    Sounds like fun is going to be on the menu for awhile!

    Enjoy, Dotty! :o)

    Like

  6. Sheila, always grateful when my heart opens instead of closing to a bummer. And fun on the menu works for me! Thank you.

    Like

  7. I have always loved Kandinsky’s circles, and it’s so much fun to see YOUR circles now. I hope you had a marvelous Sister Fest!

    >

    Like

    1. Simone, fun to know it’s so much fun to now see my circles after having always loved Kandinsky’s! I thoroughly enjoyed playing aroudn with this exercise. SisterFest25 was quite wonderful!