Flashes of Red / August 29, 2025

 August 29, 2025

Flashes of Red

On the Way to Qigong Class

crimson cardinal
streaks across bridge street.  sign says
thirty m.p.h.

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A Single Point of Entry
3 x 3″; watercolor and colored pencil on paper
card #8 to Caroline at camp
2025

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Notes about poem and art:
• “On the Way” reminds me that the haiku form is like a palate cleanser to me—clean, refreshing, concise. To my surprise and delight, I’d elected to feature this poem today along with a photo of my next watercolor card to Caroline without realizing, until I went to put them both on the page together, the ways in which they would link to each other!
• A Single Point gave me the opportunity to take unexpected pleasure in the colors and shapes of a cardinal flower; in its natural outdoor setting the spiky form of this plant has not historically been one of my favorites. Now it holds a place of fondness in my internal catalog of flowers!

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1. 

   carol lee

   August 29, 2025 at 3:26 am

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   Beautiful flower and great matches of color swatches!

   Also great match to you Haiku poem, so in the moment! Here and then gone!

   Do you perhaps write the poem on the back side of the card!

   What a collection for Caroline!

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   1. 

      Dotty Seiter

      August 29, 2025 at 5:50 am

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      Carol, thanks for affirming my match of color swatches—that process has animated me this summer again and again. I’m addicted to cataloguing the flowers from our garden in this way. The mixing of colors to match engages me each and every time.

      I elected to write nothing on the back of the cards when sending them to Caroline. What you see above is the totality of the card—color swatches, date, my signature.

      : )

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2. 

   Joyful Puttering

   August 29, 2025 at 8:23 am

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   When in doubt….wear red!

   I always pause when I see a bright red cardinal….and my sister always has cardinal flower in her garden for the hummingbirds. I was not always drawn to them either…but having desirable flowers for the hummingbirds has been an absolute joy for me. So maybe it’s time to give them a try!

   Another delightful haiku and color swatch garden painting for Caroline! Well done Dotty!

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   1. 

      Dotty Seiter

      August 29, 2025 at 9:40 am

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      LOL at when in doubt wear red!

      Hummingbirds come to our cardinal flowers also. Enjoyed hearing your “conversion” story : )

      Thanks, MaryAnn

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3. 

   roseanne333

   August 30, 2025 at 10:25 am

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   Lovely, both.

   I’m curious to know if you’ve gotten any feedback from Caroline.

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   1. 

      Dotty Seiter

      August 30, 2025 at 11:02 am

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      Caroline is actually already two weeks home from camp but, while there, she awarded them the best of camp honors by perching them one by one as they came in, near her bunk on a 2×4 stud on the rustic unfinished interior wall of the built-decades-ago cabin in which she was a leader, and I’ll be posting a photo of that soon! Thanks for asking : )

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4. 

   lolajovan

   August 30, 2025 at 1:58 pm

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   haiku as palate cleanser!

   my tongue pauses now

   where is the next favor burst?

   anticipation

   love the color swatch exercises!! Xo

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   1. 

      Dotty Seiter

      August 31, 2025 at 5:32 am

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      Way fun back-at-me haiku, Lola! I am dazzled by anticipation’s 5 syllables!

      I do like haiku and its companion précis poetry pals—for many reasons, one of which is that they do act as palate cleansers in my blog here between longer poems : )

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5. 

   Sheila Marie Delgado

   August 30, 2025 at 4:44 pm

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   Red WOW! Red POW!

   Why do I feel like singing Christmas songs right now. LOL 

   Another great post, Dotty! xoxo

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   1. 

      Dotty Seiter

      August 31, 2025 at 5:34 am

      Edit

      Thanks, Sheila! Today’s swatches and flower really do have a Christmasy feel, don’t they, especially with the creamy white background.

Concrete and Abstract / August 25, 2025

August 25, 2025

Concrete and Abstract

The Marble-Covered College-Ruled Composition Book of Prayer

I’m just minding my own business
boiling white rice for two days of low residue low fiber eating
in prep for a colonoscopy on Wednesday
when the the marble-covered college-ruled composition book of prayer
hands me a sharpened No. 2 pencil
and says, Go ahead.

So I open the black-and-white cardboard cover,
with its water-stain in the upper right hand corner
and black-tape binding roughed up and
slightly pulled away at the bottom,
to begin flipping through the pages.
And oh my gosh, the pages! So soft with having
been handled repeatedly. You know that softness of paper?
The college-ruled lines are straight, sharp, and precise,
but that paper?—so silky, so smooth, so soothing.

On the first page, the earliest prayer I remember,
a knees-on-the-floor elbows-on-my-bed
hands-in-prayer-position repeat-after-daddy prayer,
my voice in chorus with my sisters,
Father in Heaven, hear our earnest plea.
I ask Daddy who Ernest is.

Farther along in the book, a prayer from my 5th-grade self,
uncertain of what I can ask of God,
certain there is a right way, certain there are wrong ways,
afraid of getting it wrong.
Please let me be happy no matter if
Mommy’s baby is a boy or a girl. Amen.

I locate a fresh blank page,
hold my pencil at the ready
with the tips of my thumb and first two fingers
in a perfect dynamic tripod grip.
Then

I place the pencil back on the table,

bring my hands together at heart center,
sit motionless,
to settle,
settle,
settle,

to listen
with the ears of my inner holy.

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Wonder of Wonders
3 x 3″; watercolor on paper
card #7 to Caroline at camp
2025

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Notes about poem and art:
• “Marble-Covered” was another response to a prompt provided as part of the online Coursera poetry course I took in late June:
Title as Poem Catalyst: Think up a poem title structured as such: The [Concrete Noun] of [Abstract Noun]. So, like: “The Cheese of Time” or like “The Monkey of Holiness” or maybe “The Steak Knife of Despair.” Then, write a poem based on that title. I created a list of random concrete nouns and a list of random abstract nouns and randomly paired two to see what would evolve.

• Wonder, featuring a Black Sea Gladiolus, had me in its thrall. I have to say again: these watercolor studies are so much fun as I play with the challenges of watercolor paints themselves and of mixing them to match colors in nature, not to mention the challenges of the photography involved and my wish to get the camera to replicate what my eye sees. It’s an altogether addictive undertaking! 

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1. 

   Sheila Marie Delgado

   August 25, 2025 at 3:51 am

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   Wonderful post, Dotty! Your vivid imagery leads me on a journey. Your journey. A delightful glimpse. The gladiolus is so regal. Serves the themes of faith, and prayer. Awe and reverence. And your painting is perfect. So much depth, and promise in the fresh spring green. :o)

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   1. 

      Dotty Seiter

      August 25, 2025 at 6:13 am

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      Sheila! Thank you! Your words of affirmation and feedback make for such an upbeat shoulders-relaxed way to start my week : )

      I appreciate your reflecting back to me that my imagery is vivid, and my heart is warmed to have you join me for a bit of my journey.

      Isn’t that gladiolus magnificent??! I agree, so regal, and thanks for adding that you see its serving the themes of faith and prayer, awe and reverence.

      I also appreciate, from you as a watercolorist whose wonderful work and experimentation I’ve enjoyed for years, your seeing the depth in my painting—I think I’m making strides as I expand my watercolor experience with this series.

      xo

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2. 

   Simone

   August 25, 2025 at 8:31 am

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   I love your poem, and indeed, Ernest makes me curious too!

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   1. 

      Dotty Seiter

      August 25, 2025 at 9:19 am

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      Simone, LOL at your shared curiosity about Ernest! Isn’t that just the sweetest child’s response to that prayer? Who knows what I thought “plea” meant : )

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3. 

   carol lee

   August 25, 2025 at 8:38 am

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   Yes , I remember that poem from the course! Aside being the answer to an assignment, it tells a lovely story from today, as a small child and again in the present again.

   Love your color studies, such deep colors with the accent of the yellow -green. Beautiful and regal gladiolus!

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   1. 

      Dotty Seiter

      August 25, 2025 at 9:24 am

      Edit

      Carol, that course prompted several poems that I might never otherwise have thought to write. Thanks for pointing out how its structure is bookended with present moments and holds childhood memories in between.

      Thanks for sharing my love of these color studies. What might appear at first glance to be a very simple straightforward repeat exercise is deeply engaging for me. The color matching presents a compelling puzzle to resolve. And that gladiolus gave me such regal colors to play with : )

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4. 

   Joyful Puttering

   August 25, 2025 at 8:45 am

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   These poetry challenges are just a delight. I love that way your mind plays with and meets the challenge!

   I have several of Margie’s prayer journals…most of them in various colors of marble-covered composition notebooks.

   And you nailed another nature study watercolors. Lucky Caroline!

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   1. 

      Dotty Seiter

      August 25, 2025 at 9:30 am

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      MaryAnn, OMG I just love knowing that several of Margie’s prayer journals are in various colors of marble-covered composition notebooks! There’s a wonderful “little corner” in my day already!

      Thank you for your delight in my responses to the poetry challenges that I invited into my life this summer. So many surprises and explorations.

      The part of sending these color studies to Caroline that “entertains” me is that what she receives in the mail is just the 3 x 3″ cards—with no indicator nor photo of each card’s garden reference; yet we are both lifted up by the cards-to-camp experience : )

      I LOVED mixing the colors for this one, gotta say.

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5. 

   lolajovan

   August 25, 2025 at 2:54 pm

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   oh Dotty! You have captured the color of “inner holy” with this watercolor study! And that poem….you toss words with the same effortless adeptness as you create beauty from scraps and scribbles – I am SWOONING! xoxo

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   1. 

      Dotty Seiter

      August 25, 2025 at 3:42 pm

      Edit

      oh Lola! You have captured the happy energy of the happy place in which I find myself tossing words and creating beauty from scraps and scribbles this summer. THANK YOU!

      I am swooning in the joy of it all!

      xoxo

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6. 

   roseanne333

   August 26, 2025 at 6:52 am

   Edit

   You seem to have found your voice through the proddings of the poetry class, Dotty. Lucky you for the gift of that, right? And lucky us, too, that you share it with us. 

   Your sweet composition book became embodied, handing you a pencil the way it did. Your words evoked memories for me of my parents praying with us every night, and going to church as a young family, where unfailingly my Dad would doze a bit. Couldn’t blame him. He worked 2 jobs to keep our family afloat.♥️ 

   And, that deep and rich colored gladiolus! Oh my….your colors were beautiful. 

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   1. 

      Dotty Seiter

      August 26, 2025 at 9:25 am

      Edit

      Roseanne, thank you thank you!

      • For your kind words about my adventures with poetry—SUCH a gift to me to have expanded my creative practice in this way, and I’m grateful to have it graciously received (one of RWT’s writing rules for herself is: share).

      • For your reflection of my sweet composition book’s becoming embodied and your reminiscences of your parents’ praying with you each night and your going to church as a young family.

      • For your taking joy in response to that gladiolus along with me!