Sometimes When the Light by Lisel Mueller

My fence steaming after a rain... Louisiana light is magic.

SOMETIMES, WHEN THE LIGHT

Sometimes, when the light strikes at odd angles
and pulls you back into childhood

and you are passing a crumbling mansion
completely hidden behind old willows

or an empty convent guarded by hemlocks
and giant firs standing hip to hip,

you know again that behind that wall,
under the uncut hair of the willows

something secret is going on,
so marvelous and dangerous

that if you crawled through and saw,
you would die, or be happy forever.

By Lisel Mueller

From:  "Alive Together:  New and Selected Poems" by Lisel Mueller

March

The Dollmaker

Sunny, my new hippie wild child customized Blythe.

Sunny's sister, Joy, who loves dressing up. 

Joy, Sunny & Blue Dog.

Why invest in the boring stock market when you can buy art?  Customized Blythe dolls are a true art form.  Each doll customized is one of a kind from around the world.  I have dolls from Greece, Spain, Japan and China.  The outfits are also amazing, tiny art.  My favorite outfit maker lives in northern Canada and she's also a gifted artist.  

One of my all-time favorite books is "The Dollmaker" by Harriette Arnow.  It's a brilliant, beautiful, timeless, classic novel.  I highly recommend it.  

Color by Christina Rossetti

By March, the bleakness of Winter has usually driven me to pull out my coloring books, gel pens, watercolors & Prismacolor Pencils because I'm all crocheted out.  (I finished a 7 foot long/4 foot wide blanket I custom made extra long for me last month.  It took two Winters to complete, but I persevered!)  I'm not much of a sketcher, but I've been coloring since the age of 3.  Ha! Ha!  Never grow up!

 This coloring art I did last weekend from the fabulous Hanna Karlzon's "Summer Nights" adult coloring book.  She's an amazing artist & I have all 3 of her books.  (Actually, I have an entire book shelf packed full of coloring books).  This page I did mostly in gel pen & Prismacolor Coloring Pencils.  I got those vividly colored pens (blues/purples) from Dollar General.  (I love a bargain!)

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Same girl, but I colored her a year ago, mostly in colored pencil.  I think I like the wild, red hair better.  I'm still learning Prismacolor skin tones...not easy!

Moon & sun from "Magical Dawn" by Hanna Karlzon, all gel pens.  All cool colors for the Moonlady & warm colors for old Sol.

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My Garfield kitty on back of my reading chair with a hippie-styled throw on it.  Got the "imagine" pillow cover for $5 at Amazon.  Love those inexpensive zippered covers because I can wash them & change them out often.

~×~×~×~

Color

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

What is pink? a rose is pink 

By a fountain's brink. 

What is red? a poppy's red 

In its barley bed. 

What is blue? the sky is blue 

Where the clouds float thro'. 

What is white? a swan is white 

Sailing in the light. 

What is yellow? pears are yellow, 

Rich and ripe and mellow. 

What is green? the grass is green, 

With small flowers between. 

What is violet? clouds are violet 

In the summer twilight. 

What is orange? Why, an orange, 

Just an orange!

Source: The Golden Book of Poetry (1947)

The Sick Rose by William Blake

This Rose outlasted the one who gave it to me.

~×~×~

The Sick Rose
By William Blake

O rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

Goodbye, February

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I Felt a Funeral in my Brain

How I miss my precious, beloved kitty--- :-(

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, (340)

BY EMILY DICKINSON

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and fro

Kept treading - treading - till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through -

And when they all were seated,

A Service, like a Drum -

Kept beating - beating - till I thought

My mind was going numb -

And then I heard them lift a Box

And creak across my Soul

With those same Boots of Lead, again,

Then Space - began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,

And Being, but an Ear,

And I, and Silence, some strange Race,

Wrecked, solitary, here -

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And I dropped down, and down -

And hit a World, at every plunge,

And Finished knowing - then -

You Can't Take the Sky From Me

Candy Rose & the Cheshire Cat.

~•~•~•~•~

"She was wearing an old summer dress as a nightgown, but in the mornings it could work as a dress again, if you just tossed a cardigan over it and put on shoes.  In this risky manner, she knew, insanity could encroach."  ~Lorrie Moore, from "Wings" in the Paris Review #200, page 137.

~×~×~×~

"Time rushes towards us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation." ~Tennessee Williams, "The Rose Tattoo"

~∆~∆~∆~

Ballad of Serenity
(Firefly theme song)

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me.

Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me.

Leave the men where they lay
They'll never see another day
Lost my soul, lost my dream
You can't take the sky from me.

I feel the black reaching out
I hear its song without a doubt
I still hear and I still see
That you can't take the sky from me.

Lost my love, lost my land
Lost the last place I could stand
There's no place I can be
Since I've found Serenity

And you can't take the sky from me.

C. D. Wright, Approximately Forever

A notebook I collaged.

"Lead me, guide me to the light of your paper.  Keep me in the arc of your acuity.  And when the ream is spent, write a poem on my back.  I'll never wash it off."  ~C. D. Wright, from "Deepstep Comes Shining".

 ~×~×~×~

Approximately Forever
By C. D. Wright

She was changing on the inside

it was true what had been written

The new syntax of love

both sucked and burned

The secret clung around them

She took in the smell

Walking down a road to nowhere

every sound was relevant

The sun fell behind them now

he seemed strangely moved

She would take her clothes off

for the camera

she said in plain english

but she wasn’t holding that snake

C. D. Wright, “Approximately Forever” from Steal Away: New and Selected Poems.

Candy Rose

Those eyelashes!

See?

Snoozing.

~*~*~*~