May 26, 2025
No Matter What
Impromptu Perambulation
i get a text
from loss
asking if i want
to go for a walk.
yes, what time?
we walk
side by side
step tenderly
into pain
side by side.
we step also
into friendship
synchronized
simpatico
side by side
step by step
together in presence
peeling off
our outer layers,
heart rates
elevating
step by step
warming us
side by side
4 x 6″; acrylic, ink, and watercolor pencil on watercolor paper
seascape
2025
=====
Note: Today’s post comes courtesy of my commitment to 30 minutes of focused creative activity NO MATTER WHAT. I played with poetry with a spirit of well, let’s see what happens, and I played with a very quick loose painting start from about a month ago (I think I followed an Instagram how-to reel), today finessing it with a bit of fine tuning, a bit of back-and-forth-back-and-forth enhancement/detriment, and, finally, a bit of intentional disruption. The poem and the painting are not related, other than that they shared my 30 (probably 75 when all is said) minutes of focused creative energy and are therefore expressions of who I was during that time.
=====
14 responses to “No Matter What”
“i get a textfrom lossasking if i wantto go for a walk.” I ask who/what is the loss? A memory lost? A lost friend? Does it matter? I don’t think so. Dealing through the “walk” is soothing and healing.
Painting! Echoes of splatter in the sky and water pull the painting together. Love the dark linework. Lots of movement and a feel of optimism which connects with your poem.
Liked by 1 person
ooo! Thanks for the feedback via your question(s) about the poem. As the poet, I have a specific person in mind, very much alive, who has experienced a deep loss, but I chose personification of loss rather than identification of loss as a way to explore/express my thoughts. My hope would be that the reader will receive/interpret the poem in their own frame of reference.
ooo! Thanks also for all the juicy feedback on visual language in the painting. Very helpful to this painter : )
Liked by 1 person
What a beautiful side by side…step by step poem. Taking a walk with our loss and grief seems like a wonderful way to make is less daunting. Thank you for that!
And your No Matter What painting is simply wonderful. It sounds like your poem and your painting did a bit of parallel play. Sometimes that’s enough connection.
Lola! You’ve got me laughing with your observation re my packing a lot into a short time frame!!! I’m happy to say I got into a flow state with both the writing and the finessing of the painting start, so my time estimates may be wildly off in their reported compactness! But I love having your eye taking note of what has been packed in here, and that, once again, this is a tiny painting. I lose sight of that. Thanks for the input on words and art speaking to each other. So grateful for all the words and art that go back and forth between US, too : )
Oh, Dotty…. I think I’ve read and reread this poem probably 5 or 6 times, maybe more. It’s so beautifully evocative of loss (and heartache and sadness) as a companion. That’s the secret, right? The only way for us is to befriend it.
I’m grateful you shared it. ♥️
No Matter What might be my most favorite of your pieces.Recent conversations about when we met in 2015 and were making time daily for creative adventures led me to some serious self-reflection and a current committal to creating again daily no matter what. It’s a gift to have you notice and cheer me on—thank you!
Best, Wendy
No comments:
Post a Comment