Photo/Tanka Art…

2020.01.11 Opportunities

Before the Rain

Day Eleven – 2020 Creativity Project

This birdcage is at least fifty years old, I had a dusty blue parakeet in it when I was very young. We had birds until Mom decided they were nasty. The mess did not fit her fastidious ways.

These short poems are all individuals. None of them is directly connected. Some were written at different times today. Some in my journal, some at the keyboard as I stood here in front of the screen. They are tanka, and of course, a lone haiku.

Some days hold torrents
In a loose embrace, then let
The sky-bound tears fall;
Sympathy for hearts broken
By losses too great to bear.

I could cage myself
Hide all the feelings away,
But emotions tend
To lead me often in life,
I am tender, edge of knife.

Secret reasons why
I keep trying to catch you
With a picture, line,
But you fast escape the ties
I might employ to bind you.

My heart breaks again
With an ache shot through and through;
The long loss of you.

I almost began
To hope for the future again,
But then I recalled
How the fires seared my skin
And things became ashes then.

Pieces together
Fit the pattern of quiet
Built on peaceful days
When all we needed, we found,
Within one another bound.

The rain came, bucketfuls at once, and walking the dogs was a waste of time. We only got soaked. I did walk awhile before alone with the Sony camera. It is nice to photograph whatever I decide.

I hope, as a prompt, you will create something lovely, and with love. All of us need more kindness, comfort, care.

This scene draws me in, and I am uncertain why. I think the stark lines may have something to do with it. Mysterious allure.

God Bless and Keep You and Yours.

Day 10 – 2020 Creativity Project

Post Three for Today

It always seems days like the tenth are incredibly productive for me. I never understand why the muse, inspiration, whatever you may call the force that pours creativity forth has days when it is like an uncorked fire hydrant spewing everywhere. Actually, if I allow, it is present a lot.

I took the cameras out for a few minutes. I meant to use the Sony, but the battery blacked, and the extra battery was also dead. I took the Nikon out with a telephoto lens on it, and I had been away a while, so I was thrown by it, not taking pictures. The light was poor, my distance was too near. I finally got a few shots. It is terrible that I have been relying on my cellphone’s camera so much.

The above shot is with the Sony, unedited. It is not quite as I would like, but the device went dark, so there I had it.

By Design

I went in search of
Happiness, but came to find
It is not a thing
Hidden beyond me, oh no,
I contain it in my mind.
I choose attitudes
Every moment, every day,
If I am down-hearted
I must make it otherwise
And exuberance I can try.
The clouds and thunder,
Rain – does not determine how
I come to think, feel,
I make a designation to
Positive or negative,
So just now, I pick my joy with love.

This is not to discount depression, because that struggle is real, but we do have some power over our feelings, at least at times. I have Schizo-Affective Disorder, so depression is a home place too. It takes a lot to fight, but fight we must because if we let loose our control, we can be driven deep in areas hard with dark to escape.

I wonder why I am doing this, cause it has been bad days for the site, but I have words, so…

I think maybe learning one of my favorite musicians died of brain cancer made me trot something out. RUSH is a top band in my estimation. I saw them twice in that magical 1979 to 1981 period when I was at a concert or the movies every week. Neil Peart, Rest In Peace. See ya.

Find something, create. Build something beyond yourself, because you are real.

Do well, be active, keep going, you are loved.

Prose Poetry

Sitting in bed after midnight in those black hours where the lamp goldens the air, sometimes I find inspiration there. I turn to a pen and a journal because my mind I want to bare. A hand moving across paper laying down ink seems more connected to me than an electronic device manipulating ions.

However, when I bring it here, you freely see those mistakes I make. It is a bit scary, but I have never wanted much other than to be real. It is as I have almost always been before.

A discussion today involved imperfection being an element of our ideas of value in arts. Another was how freedom undiluted by opinion, especially in arts, allows us to be true to our ideals. So, I hope you like what I do, but I have to let my attachment to your opinion go. I know that is not popular, but it is how I must roll.

I used the scanner today, the clarity seems much better than my phone. I am actually better with the more fundamental forms of technology.

If you only use devices now, as a prompt, try writing by hand. You do not have to share the handwriting, but see if your mental connection is different. You may find your production increases in freshness. Not being able to back up, erase, and edit can hold you to a standard that may be unfamiliar.

I edit better on-screen, but sometimes words line up in more musical ways when I write by hand.

I practiced handwriting extensively throughout my life. My writing hand, the right, is giving me some problems, I have arthritis, but I am keeping it active. Working very hard to retain my legibility so I can keep doing things like the above is essential.

I believe as we age, staying creatively active is a gift to help remain mentally agile. The small motor motions also help brains maintain robust neuronal, axonal, and dendrite activity.

I am thankful for the many blessings given to me. I am amazed at the gifts of which I partake in existing. I hope everyone can find beauty in their lives.

Be well, be you, chase your joy, create!

Tanka

There is a silence
Speaking a symphony, loud,
So many voices
Unheard within the clamor
Of a cold unheeding world.

Knowing, unknowable,
A puzzling undefined, left,
To find a pathway
Where the signposts are missing
And the emptinesses full.

A Tanka is a syllabic form with counts 5-7-5-7-7. Often they provide an opportunity to paint with words. As a prompt, you may wish to write a few. Or you might take time to take photos of these lean Winter times.

Best to all.