Monday, July 7, 2025

Keeping Myself Open / June 2, 2025

Keeping Myself Open

Reception

first light’s
one step ahead of me
as i step
into the gentle
outdoors
at 430a
in early june
my predawn footfalls
a backbeat
for sparrows and starlings
already
rockin’ ‘n’ rollin’ the day
open-beaked
full-throated

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Meeting This Grief
4 x 5.5″; acrylic, ink, and oil pastels on canvas paper
abstract design on notecard (opened flat here)
2025

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Notes about poem and art: Again, poem and art not directly connected, but I think both sit under the umbrella of keeping myself open; hence this post’s title. The art here is an excerpt from a larger exploration entitled Undercurrents created 10 years ago in the days following my mom’s death. I’d cut into the larger piece some time ago and this remainder caught my eye today when I went to make a condolence card and poked around my studio for inspiration. I trimmed, fine-tuned, created a fine-line black border, found card stock, assembled, and wrote my note, open en route to feeling my feelings.


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12 responses to “Keeping Myself Open”

  1. I love you. ❤️

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  2. I have an image in my head about you out walking at dawn. Early mornings are magical and you captured it beautifully in your poem.

    The fact that you made a condolence card from art you made after your mom’s death 10 years is meaningful on every level. What comfort that will be to the recipient. The piece is just lovely!

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    1. MaryAnn, I take great pleasure in hearing you say my poem captures beautifully the magical quality of earlybird morning walks. Making the condolence card from art I made after my mom’s death all those years ago offered up a wellspring of both solace and joy in the making—thank you for seeing it through that lens.

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  3. Love how you assemble, dissemble and create new works of art! beautiful poem and card! Wish I could get outside at 4:30 AM!

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  4. Thanks, Carol. Such pleasure I took in the assembling, disassembling, and creating! Such pleasure in finding words for my predawn walks. Such pleasure in those walks—especially at this time of year : )

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  5. ooooh lawdy lawd lawd lawd – this grabs me right in my tender insides and makes me smile and cry all at once. Beautiful.

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    1. Lola, first, thank you for popping up in my inbox this afternoon just when I was hankering for a treat : )

      Second, thank you for just exactly what you said with just exactly the words you used, words/sentiments that have a finger on the pulse of how I’m feeling just exactly right now.

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  6. This is so special, Dotty. Heart to heart. Such a treasure.

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    1. Sheila, thanks for picking up on the heart to heart : )

      Liked by 1 person

  7. It’s incredible the output your new direction in poetry is giving you!


    1. Simone, it feels incredible to me, too! And grateful.

 

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