Inspired by Candy

I have become enamored with candy. Funny, because I am not a candy-eater. But the colors, the colors have really taken me.

So of course now I am looking at everything through candy-colored glasses. And today, when I needed to buy new notebooks, I settled on these...

candies.

On, In, and Around Mondays: Collecting Words

I open the Eighth Day Books blog to find this...

"An instinctual poet, Barkat revels in the physical reality of words."

Eighth Day is an amazing bookstore in the Midwest. It supplies the Calvin Festival and The Glen Workshop. How sweet to be mentioned (and stocked on their virtual shelves).

What strikes me now is the odd tension of the phrase 'physical reality of words.'

So suggestive.

This week, someone asked me what makes anyone want to return to a poem, read it twice. The same question could suffice for any piece of writing. What makes us return?

I thought seriously about this and developed many answers. But perhaps the central answer is... we return to writing that has the quality of physicality.

And where do we find grist for our own physical reality of words?

We must go collecting. In the back yard, in the kitchen, on a walk in the woods. We must find words on city streets, in the bakery, at the train station.

This week, my schedule constricted, I sat in the green wing-backed chair and collected words from someone else's words.

We can do that too. In an older book by Henry Miller I found Big Sur, men on horseback coming from the Valley of the Moon, a convict's shack on the edge of a cliff. A good writer like Miller can bring us to places we've never been, and we, in turn, can bring others.

We must simply remember. That words are everywhere for the taking. And we can collect them into a beautiful reality.

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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

<a href="http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5217906589_c7120874ca.jpg" width="308" height="69" alt="On In Around button" />

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Blue Pearls and Surprises

Today I loved blue beads, in this post.

Later, I opened my mailbox and received a most precious gift from Karen Eck. She illustrated my poetry book InsideOut and surprise-gifted it to me, filled with her beautiful art.

On one of the pages... blue pearls...

On, In, and Around Mondays: Writing the Come-Again

It's just another day on the trail. Me, biding my time, while my girl rides the auburn stallion around the ring.

I go off, pick my way around horse droppings, to get some time in the open. I've been here so many times now, and I wonder why I bother to bring my camera yet again. The season is the same. The same grey twigs raise their dryness towards the sky. There are the wineberry canes, still red and leaning. Same indigo berries, a little more shriveled by winter's moisture-absent air.

My fingers around the camera, I'm fiddling with the dark body, figuring it will stay in my pocket, wondering why I weighed myself down with it (I feel every little weight I carry). "Nothing today," I mumble, even thinking back to my red cardinal of a few weeks ago; he's made no appearance today.

"Change the angle and proximity, Laura," I suddenly think. "Do you really think you've seen it all?"

I move to the side of the trail and choose a dry twig that's hanging down from an empty tree. I fool with the settings on my camera, wish Claire or Kelly were here. They'd know what to do. They're the ones who've been teaching me.

I am on my own. Or maybe I'm not.

Their advice guides my vision now, and my fingers. I move in close, blur the background. This twig is no longer the same. Like my writing need not be the same. Though I come again, to the me I am, and the same-old places I live.

Come again. Come again. I feel I have found a secret to play with, to quietly sing.


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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

<a href="http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5217906589_c7120874ca.jpg" width="308" height="69" alt="On In Around button" />

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On, In, and Around Mondays: Nothing-Doing Writing

Phone calls (a lot of them!). Projects. Schedules. Business. And two weeks of laundry piled up because of the Christmas vacation.

My head, spinning. (I know where that metaphor came from now, as I sit in the olive-green wingback chair.)

A footstep in the hallway, and my husband comes into the room, wants to know, "Are you okay?"

I am just sitting. I've taken my glasses off, and I'm holding my head in my hands (it feels good). I am doing nothing at all. Books piled at my feet. The round wooden table to my left, lights off except for the Christmas tree (we keep ours until it can't be kept anymore).

I know the way nothing-sitting can fill me up. But I've been reminded by this article, to sit and let the world go quiet.

My writing notebook is in the pile of books, and I consider opening it. But then, I don't even want that.

It is a clear mind that eventually becomes creative. I've written about this process of emptying and filling before. It never changes. The red dress is still waiting. Today, it's under the Christmas tree. And soon I'm hoping the rain will turn to the white-nothing of January snow.

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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

<a href="http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5217906589_c7120874ca.jpg" width="308" height="69" alt="On In Around button" />

This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...

On, In, and Around Mondays: Writing the In-Between

It is an empty trail, black-sand, too-noisy near the highway. Just a passing-through. A means to get from one beautiful place to another. I walk it because it's a place to walk while I wait.

Nothing but nothing here, until a red bird flushes from dead weeds. And I stand still and say out loud, "Oh, you." I'm talking to the bird now, somehow thanking it for catching my eye.

Look. I am talking to myself. Listen. What is the air saying? What hides in the in-between?

I have a camera in my pocket, and I am thinking differently, so I go in search. Find a trinity of red berries. A cloister of the beautiful. I see naked backs of wineberries, bent shivering cranberry spines, sharp in the earth-fragrant air.

No more birds, but it is enough that the red one winged his way into my awareness. Raised my eyes to the in-between places. Beckoned me to measure the distances between me and the clusters of late berries.

I don't know it yet, but I will come home and write it down.


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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

<a href="http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5217906589_c7120874ca.jpg" width="308" height="69" alt="On In Around button" />

This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...

Named

Thanks to Englewood Review of Books for naming Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing one of the Best Books of 2011.

On, In, and Around Mondays: Writing in the Barn

I do not have a barn.

I wish I had a barn.

Of course a barn is work, and I don't need the work of a barn.

But I need the silence.

Mostly I am good at blocking out the blur of sounds that accost me at every turn.

Not so much this week. This week I have been craving solitude. This morning I even sat outside, the metal chair beneath me burning its cold right through my jeans. I sat and worked on an article until my fingers were so stiff I had to come inside.

And that was when I wished for a barn.

My Littlest rides horses once a week, and sometimes I sneak into the barn while she is out in the ring. I slip in for the warmth of the captured sun, for the warmth of the horse's bodies all kept in their little homes, for the warmth of what I see. Fetlocks, manes, tails, hay, bits of dust turning on air.

Today when I finally had to come in from the cold, back to the commotion of kids, I brought with me a vision of the barn. And somehow it made me feel free.
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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

<a href="http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5217906589_c7120874ca.jpg" width="308" height="69" alt="On In Around button" />

This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...

On, In, and Around Mondays: Hug to Creativity

She wanted to go away. Asked me to come and watch her children.

I said yes. I rarely see my nieces and nephews.

It is good that she went away, because that meant I went too— away, to a life so different from mine.

My favorite moments were the ones with the baby. I haven't had babies for a long time. I don't particularly want the work of babies anymore.

But this.

A baby in the lap, blue eyes searching mine. A baby in the lap, playing with my mauve shawl.

"Shawl," I say to her. She pulls it open. Pushes it shut. Manages a sound something close to "sh," but not quite.

I touch her shirt. "Shirt," I say. She touches her shirt. I touch my shirt. "Shirt," I say again. She ventures another "sh."

She lifts her shirt and a white belly sticks out, baby fat. "Belly," I say. She touches her belly, then leans her head against my chest in a sweet baby hug.

We do this again and again. The eyes searching, the shawl opening and closing, the shirts and the belly. The tries at "sh." The hugs.

I kiss her face over and again, and I feel something inside me pulling apart, opening. A creative space. A loving space. Something like a shawl opening and closing around another person. And I feel full. So, so full.

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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

<a href="http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5217906589_c7120874ca.jpg" width="308" height="69" alt="On In Around button" />

This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...

On, In, and Around Mondays: Write What You See

The edge of that white blouse, crisp and pointed. That's what she saw. The silk peach skirt. She saw that too. And, put together, it was the *me* she chose chose to photograph, chose to see.

Sometimes writers ask me if they should protect their work. They are nervous about sharing their work freely. They worry that someone might steal their ideas.

No one can steal the way you see.

Write it down. Write it down now...

No one sees like I see... no one can take that from me...

I am thankful for the way Kelly sees. I am thankful that she chose to see a side of me I am hesitant to share. I am so thankful, in fact, that I decided to redo my old website, all with Kelly's photographs. Because I like what Kelly saw, and I am finally ready to come along with that view of me.

Heck, I will even have my name "Laura" right there on the site. Named. Seen. Oh, I'll still be L.L. for the fun of it, the way it rolls off the tongue and tickles the eye. But I will be outright *me* too.

Thank you, Kelly. You teach us this: when an artist sees, it invites us to turn and see too.

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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

<a href="http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5217906589_c7120874ca.jpg" width="308" height="69" alt="On In Around button" />

This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...

For Your Inner Writer (or Theirs)

Christmas gets me thinking creatively, probably more than any other holiday, from the creativity of the story itself, to the strange combination of jolly Santas, snowmen (and women), purple candles, pinecones, and pies... my mind awakens.

It only makes sense to me to give "creativity" gifts, then, for Christmas. Here are my Top 10 for 2011. For the inner Creative (or Writer) in you (or in someone you love).

The Artist's Way is a book that literally changed my life. Skirt around the new-age stuff if it bothers you. But don't miss the chance to find parts of your creative self you didn't even know existed.

Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing. Okay, you know I had to recommend this. But trust someone else's words. Amazing bookseller Byron Borger says, "one of the finest books on being a writer I've yet seen," in his post 12 Books You Should Know.

The Anthologist is one of the funniest books I've read. Part fictional memoir of character 'Paul Chowder,' part terrific insight into the inner workings of poetry. Some off-color jokes, but they are contextually tasteful (if that makes any sense :).

Moleskin notebook. Sounds a little odd, feels great in your hands and under your pen. A nice treat to bring along on your artist's dates (see The Artist's Way for explanation of the artist's date.)

Bose Speakers. For a long time, music was absent from my life. Not sure how that happened. But these speakers have been a wonderful gift to me, bringing sound to my creative soul.

Powerspeak. Learning a language is a terrific boost for creativity and business and even your aging mind (is yours aging? mine is :) My daughter is using Powerspeak to learn Spanish and it's working *really* well.

Knit One, Purl a Prayer. Creative guide to prayer, includes knitting patterns! (I used to knit. Grandma taught me. :)

Leave Your Sleep, music by Natalie Merchant. This music has a fascinating story of creativity behind it. You can learn more at TED talks, or just get the CD set, which I highly recommend.

Every Day Poems. Seriously, one of the best things I ever did for my creativity and writing was to start reading a poem a day.

Tea Infuser for mugs. Because most creativity thrives on a little ritual. I've made mine tea. And loose tea can open you to beauty and the slow life.

On, In, and Around Mondays: The Enchanted Writer

I have been thinking about enchantment.

My big girl has been carting Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment around. And this is part of it for me. I had meant to read the book, but as of yet it's been coming to me through her, this sense that the child in us (and sometimes the big person too), needs some kind of mystery and beauty and whimsy to inspire us.

Let's bring it down to me though. I have been thinking about what I do best. Or maybe just what I want to do best— and that is, be an enchanting writer, speaking directly to readers who want what I have to offer. There are readers who want what someone else has to offer; those aren't the readers I want to try to relate to.

This is important, because it means embracing who I am and trusting that there are readers out there who, in a sense, are similar, and want to obtain an experience of their voice, dreams, visions, and longings being expressed through words.



These readers probably have musicians and artists they prefer too. And maybe the musicians and artists give them something similar to what I give. I have been thinking about this a lot recently. I have love to give. Crazy, tangly, image-rich love. This might not enchant you. That's okay. But if it does, I might just be the enchanting writer you've been searching for in the woods, at the edge of twilight.




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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

<a href="http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/5217906589_c7120874ca.jpg" width="308" height="69" alt="On In Around button" />

This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...