3:15 Experiment Poetry: time passes
It’s near the end of 2010. I’m a bit choked up. It’s been a really really challenging year full of losses–Marshall’s loss of mobility (and fortunate full recovery from a broken neck), the loss of Paul Squires and my mom, the loss of my natural blonde hair and my confidence during the bizarre drama of the Women’s Conference, the loss of another friend last week when he took his life. I’m grateful to my friends who have helped me along; I’m looking forward to putting 2010 behind me and moving forward in 2011.
Because it is that time of year for reflection about the passage of time, here are two 3:15 Experiment poems from my new poetry collection, middle of the night poems from daughter to mother :: mother to son (now available from en theos press). Please mark your calendar to join me on 3/15 for a reading in Ventura!
Monday August 3, 2009
3:15 am, home
where does it start &
where does it end?
the baby sighs, snores
the fountain purrs
a car on the freeway
over ocean tide
no blare of fog horn
tells me sky is clear
the moon waxing near full
would cast enough light
to write this night if
I trusted I’d stay awake
(For more poetry, check out the Monday Poetry Train …)
via art predator
I’m dreaming of a GREEN Christmas…
Collage Tree by Danika Dinsmore
Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!
If you like me dream of a green Christmas, you want to think about ways you can:
REDUCE
REUSE/RECREATE
RECYCLE
Here are some ideas about how to get your “green”on this holiday season including trees, cards, wrap, electronics, yourself, and your home!
TREE
Years ago we bought a tree. We planned to plant it then cut it down later but it’s still in its pot. We keep it outside and watered and bring it in when it’s that time of year. We actually bring it by the front door after Thanksgiving and sometimes decorate it there and bring it in closer to Christmas since the tree does better outside than inside.
But if you have a live CUT tree, there’s a number of ways you can dispose of it more “greenly” including taking it outside for the birds to roost on and composting the needles. Many communities have green or brown waste or special tree pick up days. Just don’t throw it in the trash! They take up a lot of room in the landfill and they can be of use.
CARDS
I love receiving mail; e-cards just aren’t the same as receiving something in an envelope delivered to my door! While cards can be reused, you can also make something new and wonderful out of something “old” like Danika Dinsmore who took old photographs and collaged them to make this wonderful festive ” tree.” See another one of her creations and learn more about Danika’s card making process in this blog post. Read more…
All Aboard! 2010 is leaving the station!
“The thing about trains… it doesn’t matter where they are going. What matters is deciding to get on.” from The Polar Express
Last year after Christmas, we headed to Flagstaff Arizona where we braved a snowstorm and lots of fresh snow to take a ride on the Polar Express Train which leaves Williams Arizona and heads toward the Grand Canyon. Some magic is involved and the Train arrives at the North Pole where Santa turns up. Most of the time, he even boards the train to distribute bells to all the good girls and boys. Carols are sung and hot chocolate served (we brought flasks to make ours into adult beverages) and a good time was had by all!
It’s now 2010 and we’re certainly on board for a train heading fast for 2011! Thank you for getting on board with me as a subscriber! !
“There is no greater gift than Friendship,” says Santa Claus in The Polar Express.
Thank you for yours!
To a Thoughtful Holiday Season & Compassionate New Year: A Guest Post by Grant Marcus
I received the following as an email from my friend Grant Marcus, a peace activist and a poet. He agreed to let me publish it here with a few small changes. Look for more of Grant’s guest posts in 2011!
A FEW THOUGHTS FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON from Guest Blogger Grant Marcus (written Dec. 23; edited Dec. 27)
During the holiday’s Congressional session, President Obama worked out a “compromise:” Billions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthiest people and a year’s extension of unemployment for those who can’t find work in a crisis economy. Hundreds of billions in giveaways for those who don’t need it, while congress doles out a few crumbs to those who do. So, our so-called democracy proves to be an aristocracy of inequality that would make our founding fathers ashamed.
The greatest slap in the face was not the selfish actions of the Senate, but the fraudulent faith behind it. You see, nearly every last senator claims to be a devoted Christian, which, by the way, means to be “Christ-like.”
So many senator millionaires (over half of them are) catering to the rich and making hostages of the poor–It sets my mind to wondering, what does it mean to be a “Christian,” or Christ-like? Read more…
In her review of middle of the night poems from daughter to mother :: mother to son (en theos press), Frankie Drayus writes:
In these poems there is a deep connection to all five senses and how they figure into daily life; what we eat, see, touch, hear, and smell while going about our daily tasks are overlooked by most and captured as significant pleasures by Gwen, who lives with her body open to the sensual.
These are humble poems, in that the writer is humbled by the stars sparkling overhead or by the little things her son learns which inspire awe. Happily she is able to close her hand around a pen, even at 3:15 am, and share it with her readers.
This voice is completely unguarded, unprotected, yet strong. Grounded. This voice loves life. Some people, especially when faced with difficult circumstances, long to run away, to start over, or even to be someone else, whereas these poems are all about staying, putting down roots, and growing. They are present. They are about being here, now.
These tender, honest poems embrace life in all of its simple, unpretentious beauty – its elemental beauty – earth, sea, moon, stars, mother, son. Even when there is loss and grieving, what I notice most is how much life there is, all that is blooming and thriving. The abundance of her life. What I notice is joy. Read more…
Watch the Solstice Lunar Eclipse Online NOW as it happens!
You can watch the lunar eclipse that’s going on RIGHT NOW by clicking this link!
It’s very very cool!
But please come back to Art Predator and visit again! Subscribe by email!
www.slooh.com
It’s also on ustream: http://www.ustream.tv/spacevidcast
Enjoy!
I know, it’s not the same AT ALL as watching it live in person because it’s in black and white –I think?– so you don’t see any of the oranges and reds but it’s pouring down rain here in southern California and it looked like I’d have to drive for hours to go see it…Know that I was SERIOUSLY tempted!
Update–I was wrong! As the eclipse progresses, the color is starting to show! Very exciting! Photo above taken at 11:40pm Pacific Time!
Update–midnight: photo #2
winter solstice activities & rituals
Happy New Year!
Winter solstice 2011–a lunar eclipse and a time to celebrate the return of light, both in day–sunlight–and at night–moonlight.
The following post offers a solstice ritual. If you don’t want to keep reading, simply light a candle or three, set your intentions, your resolutions for what’s coming next, and welcome the sun’s return.
If you are local, at 430pm Tuesday please join us at the end of the Ventura Pier to say hello and good bye followed by a walk to Candelight (Santa Clara and Figueroa) for a gathering of planet conscious people organized by VCCool.
via art predator
winter solstice lunar eclipse: rites of passage
…[existential] changes of condition do not occur without disturbing the life of society and the individual, and it is the function of rites of passage to reduce their harmful effects. That such are regarded as real and important is demonstrated by the occurrence of rites, in important ceremonies among widely differing peoples, enacting death in one condition and resurrection in another. — Arnold Van Gennep, The Rites of Passage (from this year’s Theme at Burning Man)
By now, most people know that this winter solstice is unusual: there’s a full moon AND a lunar eclipse all happening at the same time depending on where in the world you happen to be around midnight Monday Dec. 20 and Tuesday Dec. 21.
This combination of celestial events is so rare that the last time there was a full moon and a lunar eclipse on the winter solstice was nearly 400 years ago, in 1638. The next time it will happen will be in less than 100 years. If we can see it here on the Northern Hemisphere will make it even more special; in 2094, it will be seen on the other side of the globe. In the Americas, our next total eclipse will be April 15, 2014.
There’s a lot of power in all this, starting with the change of seasons from nights getting longer to getting shorter (or vice versa depending on where on earth you live). People mark this with rituals like the ones I’ve done and written about in this blog post.
The monthly full moon has energy as well–most of us have felt it at least once. Maybe we don’t turn into werewolves, but certainly our hearts grow fuller, grander, a little more wild and risky.
Eclipses too are forces of change and transformation. During a lunar eclipse, time is conflated–a whole lunar cycle of 29 and a half days occurs in a few hours. Many believe that the time of an eclipse is when Lord Ganesh leaves Mount Kailash to walk among us here on earth.
Just the fact that we are able to have an eclipse at all, that our moon is just the right size and we are just the right distance to observe this phenomena, is almost fantastic.
The Astronomy Chart from Mr Eclipse
An eclipse of the Moon can only take place at a Full Moon, and only if the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth’s shadow. The closer the Moon is to the center of the shadow, the more total the eclipse. A lunar eclipse is visible wherever the Moon is above the horizon.
If the Earth had no atmosphere, then the Moon would be completely black during a total eclipse. Instead, the Moon can take on a range of colors from dark brown and red to bright orange and yellow. The exact appearance depends on how much dust and clouds are present in Earth’s atmosphere. The expectation with this eclipse is that the moon will be quite red.
All three together–the solstice, the full moon, the sun positioned to create a period of eclipse, should make you think, consider, reflect, to possibly engage in rituals, to set your intent for the time to come.
Believe me, it can be quite powerful. Read more…
a poem for a lunar eclipse
Tues Aug 28 2007 315am
The moon is burnt orange
the sun took a bite & then another
covering the moon with its shadow
only lit now by light
reflected by earth, by us
It’s spooky & a bit crazy
yet I want to wake my son up
show him our moon
its light should be spilling
across my bed across my face
instead it is eerily dark
when only a few hours ago
it was light
It looks sad alone quiet
up there in the dark
with only a few trees to
hug it lost w/o its light
Post with details about the lunar eclipse (astronomy, astrology, rituals and more) to follows.
For the Monday Poetry Train this week, I offer this 3:15 experiment poem from August 2007 which fits in with the upcoming lunar eclipse tonight at midnight Pacific Coast time. In the 3:15 Experiment, participants from around the globe wake up and write at 3:15 in the morning every night in the month of August in order to stay in a that half awake, half asleep semi conscious dream state…raw unedited 3:15 poems are posted on the website, the 3:15 experiment
And while I do have a new poetry collection out of poems Middle of the Night Poems From Daughter to Mother :: Mother to Son which you can order from en theos press in print or ebook form, this poem isn’t in that book.
Dear Santa,
All this talk about SantaCon is putting me in the mood for Burning Man 2011, the year of Ritual, with a theme of Rites of Passage.
(See photo at left of the Man burning in 2005 by Wade Scribner.)
You see, 2010 was a really difficult year and I miss my peeps. You know, the ones who see a parade and want to join in–and already have a costume ready? Burners. Those are my people. They’re givers, just like you.
And Santa, even though I am doing my best to bring a little bit of that Burning Man spirit home from the desert by doing these ArtRides and being myself, I need a little rejuvenation.
Santa, I need to go Home again, I need to be someplace where there’s more people like me, my tribe, where I can relax the most and be myself and not feel judged. You know what I mean by “Home”–Black Rock City out there in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. Way out west, about the same distance from LA as Seattle as Boulder.
So Santa, I’d just like one thing in my stocking, and I bet you can guess what it is.
That’s right Santa, I’d like a pair of Burning Man tickets–one for me and one for my wonderful husband. We went to Burning Man together ten years ago in 2001 as friends; now we’re married and sharing this life together and adventures with our son who’s 7 and been to Burning Man three times. We’d like to go this year and renew our vows to each other.
I realize, Santa, that these tickets you’d buy for us are Read more…
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