Slick Tricks
Stick With Him
This isn’t picnic
Isn’t thrill
Still, sit tight with him
Sit nigh
I insist
Sit thigh thigh
Sit in night
Sit in light
Sit with his wish
Sit with his spirit
Sit still
Sit chill
Nix limits
Fit in with him
Fit him within
Find his mind
With instinct
With insight
Lift him high with wing, bill
Swim him swift with fin, gill
Kiss his lips
His lids
His wrists
His skin
This is gift
Win win
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3 x 3″; watercolor, colored pencil, and acrylic
card #5 to Caroline at camp
2025
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Notes about poem and art:
• “Stick” is my response to another prompt and lesson from the poetry class I took through Coursera earlier this summer. In a lesson that touched on complex nuances of rhyme, we were given the following prompt:
Give That Key a Workout: Write Your Own Lipogram … now it’s time to write your own lipogram. Choose one vowel and write a poem in which you can’t use words with any other vowels! I can’t tell you if or how this exercise might inform my writing and poetic aesthetic, but I was game to give the concept a try and I found the constraints engaging.
• Unfold also plays into constraints! Limiting challenges are many and stimulating with these watercolor exercises—keeping my common hibiscus blossom alive long enough to complete both my painting and the accompanying photography; color-mixing to match my reference; getting an image with shadows that enhance without creating unwanted shadows from my camera; and keeping my flower moisture-free so as to avoid reactivating and distorting the watercolors!
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11 responses to “Slick Tricks”
Glad I read your description of the poem, I was reading to much in the content. WOW, for taking on that prompt. Aa far as writing goes I’ve been a bit lax but hope to get back. Somehow I think I can express myself better.
Beautiful color study, I have a red hibiscus tree, never saw a purple one. Beautiful! Sometimes I see small honeybirds on the branches.
Carol, that prompt! Still not sure what value it holds, but in the interim I had fun with the puzzle aspect of it and was surprised and pleased to generate something that felt cohesive and held meaning. I’m hoping to return to that poetry course to do the final assignment; my plan is to take a stab at that today.
Thanks for appreciating my color study as well, a puzzle of a different sort but nonetheless a puzzle: how to match color as best I could given limited resources : ) It’s fun to get up close and personal with our garden. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of honeybirds before—fun to look them up and learn a bit just now.
Once I read your description I had to read the poem again. I knew some strategy was at play…but didn’t catch on until you pointed it out. What an interesting challenge that must have been….a clear and focused lesson on constraint. As is your lovely Unfold Into the Moment painting. Blooms, words, color! (all Os!)
Lola, isn’t it funny how limits can be like rocket fuel (well put!)? I think I (unthinkingly) carry the word ‘limit’ as more of a negative than positive word but in fact I’ve long recognized the many gifts that limits can provide.
Thank you once again for fierce and feisty ability to cheer and celebrate! You are part of my rocket fuel : )
And what a gift that I’m able to provide you enchantment and delight, as you do me as well!
Roseanne, thanks! Writing the lipogram was entertaining. Can’t tell you how many times I’d generate a line or phrase, go to write it down, and realize an “of” or “the” or “my” had snuck in.
I am having SO MUCH fun with these garden-inspired color swatches : )
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