with a million stars you try to pin it to the sky

days & nights in a swirl

happy october! my favorite month: it is so golden. And so here are bits and pieces from recent daily life, lately, scattered right here and swirled::::::::::::::::::


I go down to the iowa river occasionally, to walk and be with the river--sometimes i write there too; i did this day::::::::;;
it was just some mama and q-dog bonding time, yes:;;;;



and i've been dreaming of sewing soon, soon, piling up piles and dreaming::::

the above is my favorite bedtime poem, i just really love it:::::;;and bedtimes are so nice in the autumn aren't they--just the best::::::::;
this is a dino train; a dino line-up; officially, the dinos will all get in the bathtub now:::::::;;(and those dinos are a crowded closet score!)


this is bedtime; finn's good old blue bed that was his crib too (rarely);;this week i did get a big mattress but he said he missed his old bed after one night, so we returned to it::::;;;;

work on one poem (worshipping, presenting, offering, protecting, rejoicing, praising,mourning)

El Greco--"View of Toledo"


I've been working on the poem assignment from Aleta: she asked me to include "El Greco's icy blues, Egyptian profiles and repetitions, and a watercolor you sent me for my birthday"


Ilooked up Egyptian repetitions and I found the text that follows at this link: http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/publications/pdfs/egypt/egypt.pdf:
FORM IN EGYPTIAN ART
Clarity, Balance, and Stability

Egyptian artists developed ideal forms that became the standard, or conventional,
way of expressing desired meanings. The major figure of a composition,
for instance, was usually larger than the more subsidiary ones, and its poses(standing, walking, sitting, or kneeling) were the most stylized. Even for subsidiary
figures a limited number of arm and hand gestures were used to explain
what the figure was doing.

The following are commonly used poses and gestures:
worshipping: both arms extended forward with hands upraised

presenting: offering both arms extended forward with an object held in one or both palms ready to receive offerings seated with one or both arms resting on one's
lap, palms down

summoning: one arm extended forward with the palm open

protecting: both arms extended out to the sides with the palms facing forward

rejoicing: both arms extended out to the sides with palms turned away from the body

praising: crouched on one knee, one arm raised and the other held against the chest with clenched fist

mourning: arms raised with palms turned toward the face

Balanced forms and compositions, clear outlines, simplified shapes, and flat
areas of color were used to create order and clarity, and figures and scenes
were arranged in horizontal rows (called registers). Momentary, fleeting images
such as expressions of emotion or strenuous physical activity were not often
treated because they were transitory, not permanent features.


here is a small poem culled from all that! (i think i will make several poems from this assignment; i love the idea of putting poses ((like still dances))in poems.):::::


Poem (Emotions are not permanent)


Space and breath, the opening seeming to go on and on.
My root hangs down listening and is not yet emptiness.
It is intimate nutrition, the kind folded into the book of birth, the kind

One morning when I find myself in my body. There it is: the space
I’m not in, the low creating cry. Love birth emptiness.
The certain brown canoe making its way up a shallow muddy river.
Red oars. Up there is a town we love, with celebrations.

I stand, raise my arms up, and turn my palms toward my face.

kids in the apple orchard (f. & e.)

"But every day a beautiful morning
Falls like an egg into the hand
Of someone passing along the road"

from poem "June 10, 1936" by Robert Desnos
(trans. Wm. Kulik)

weekend essay (what we did)

big bowl of popcorn + friday night movie night pizza night (the secret of nimh!)= happiness

also painting with paints in the morning, good and fun:::::::::::

then the animal cookie backyard tent picnic teaparty under the walnut trees' canopy (really we need helmets so as to not get bonked with walnuts right on our noggins)::::::::::::;;

hey devonian fossil gorge head (day story)

a good day.
on labor day, we went to the devonian fossil gorge, explored, had a picnic: a truly beautiful timeless day, a day that has swirled off now and is a moon made of windows; one of those smooth unripplable days; the tiny frog we saw hopping amongst the ancient iowa sea remains took our day off into the grass with him and let it become an atmosphere; because it was just so ineluctable and that good. cheetos, apples, water, 375 million year old imprints, skipping stones, the moving clouds and solid blue sky, the kayakers we saw with red oars on the iowa river, the marigolds noam brought his mama as she gave birth to his little brother, a curve in the road where i dreamt of my iowa farm, hilly & different shades of green, in the morning we ate fresh homemade waffles, i don't even know what one million is.

story of our walk plus what you would've seen, walking around my house, a few days ago

finnegan and the walk.
today, going for our after dinner walk around the block--but the dusk caught up with us--days are shorter! we were in the dark and could see the beautiful half moon very well, after the trees got out of the way. we walked through the alley and peeked in people's yards; kid yards were by far the most interesting. this is the walk on which we established that we live on the earth, not the moon. also finn has houses all over the neighborhood. "that's my house, my own house" he'll say, pointing at a nondescript house. i tell him he has to live with me for a little while longer. i say that also someday we may get our very own house, with goats. who knows!