Bus blues

Here's my effort for the big tent poetry, it didn't come so easy this week!

An antidote for the blues

On Monday
someone will flip the switch
the bus driver will be smiling,
passengers will embrace
like long lost friends
the security guy and the office worker
the chef and the shoplady
will clasp hands
and meet the other's eye.

Serene as a cruise ship
we will glide in and out
of bus stops
no one will have to run
no one will be left behind
and at the terminus
a round of applause
for the driver
a brass band playing and fireworks
for a safe trip on schedule.



I'll be back in the next day or two with more sketchbook pages.

A Few Things Poetical...

On my wanderings around the internet I came across Big Tent Poetry, a poetry site that posts a prompt on Monday, then you can post your poem inspired by the prompt on Friday and over the weekend.
This week's prompt was a wordle (I'd never heard of this - it's a group of words) you could include one or as many of the words as you like in your poem - I think I managed to use about half:-

Skatepark

Not exactly fearless
but determined,
gripping the handle bars
poised at the lip of the ramp
alert to other riders
timing his launch
into the flow.

His scooter is
an aluminium blade
slicing the air, down the ramp
across the flat, left foot pumping hard
to make it up the slope
get air, rotate 180
maybe.

And repeat
until his shirt
is drenched with sweat
and the sky is darkening
storm clouds banking up
and we run
at the first drops.


For xmas I treated myself to a book of poetry by Adrienne Rich with essays and criticism. I think I'll be dipping into it all year, there's so much to get my teeth into! I was attracted to some of her poems I read in anthologies. I've been trying to work out what it is that hooked me, and I think it's the imagery, the way she describes things is striking and beautiful, also the feeling that there's a lot more going on in her poems, they're full of emotion which made me curious about the underlying themes or meanings - the essays are really helping with unravelling these. About being a woman, and a woman in relation to a man/men, and being a creative woman. I'll point you to - Storm Warnings, The Roof Walker, Diving Into the Wreck and Integrity, as a taster!! I think I'll be back to talk about these more another time!!...


The paintings in this post are the ones I did a week ago. Yesterday I did some monoprints which you can see on my flickr page, I also finished carving a wood-cut that's been on the go since September...hopefully I'll print that next week.

I hope you've had a productive week.
Best wishes xx

Sketchbook again

Just a quick hello, and to share a few more of the sketchbook drawings I've been doing over the xmas break. I don't do much drawing from real life - I have a friend who will sit down anywhere and find something in the scene to draw, she's a fabulous sketcher and I'm so jealous of her sketchbooks, it's something I'll try to spend a little time on this year. My drawings are usually from the imagination, but based on things I've seen or done, that stick in my brain!



In early December I wrote this in my notebook-
For some reason I just don't want to draw at the moment, I can't force myself to do it even. I don't seem to have any ideas that I'm desperate to express - it's a really strange place to be.

Thank goodness, slow days hanging out with the kids has relaxed me and let me see moments to draw, like the bird reflected in the puddle! Now the kids are back at school and I'm back at work I hope I'll beable to hang onto some of that slowness and openness. I've done a bit of painting this morning and hope to share photos of those soon.

Finches

Do you have a subject that won't go away? Mine seems to be birds, in particular double-barred finches at the moment. Tiny little birds that I see in other people's gardens when I'm out walking. Recently I did see a pair very briefly in my garden and it felt like a gift or a blessing! I did a painting of them a couple of months ago.

By co-incidence I picked up a back copy of the journal Meanjin at a 2nd hand book shop and there's a poem about double-barred finches in it, by Martin Langford. (unfortunately I can't find a link to the poem) I've been working on my own poem in response and some sketchbook pages that I'm using as the design for a lino-cut.


This is my poem in progress so far - I'll be taking it away for reworking in a couple of weeks.

Finches

You might only see them as a movement
from the corner of your eye
you have to look in the right way, focus
on something small, like a thimble.

Pale faced with a dark bonnet
common, from the Kimberley's
to Groote Eylandt, from Darwin's suburbs
to Sydney's, an ornithologist might not
look twice.

I've seen them on neglected nature strips
taking off in a wave at my approach.
Today at the backdoor, I looked to
where the palm tree was cut down, now
perfectly overgrown.

There a pair of finches flit and perch
make the long grass bow, peck a seed
and flit again to the chain link fence
and go.

Sketchbook

Lucky me I'm still off work for another week. I've been doing some sketchbook drawing, trying to be playful and open-ended!!I've had time to be exploring other blogs, which is a treat, and via the lovely blog Stitchworks, I discovered the sketchbook challenge, the challenge of one themed sketchbook page per month sounds like something I can manage...we'll see...

I've done some not very successful monoprints - the paint was too thick I think - but I cut up and collaged this journal page.


Here's the story behind it.
Last Sunday we went to the local markets to grab some lunch, the day after New Year's Day, there were not many stalls and not much food left by the time we got there. The kids really wanted a fruit milkshake so I joined the queue. The milkshake lady was on her own, maybe her helpers were on holiday or didn't turn up. It was hot and the queue was slow moving, she was determined, dogged.
By the time we got to the front of the queue there was no ice-cream or milk left, she made a banana mango drink with water and ice and honey, I said 'that will be beautiful' and it was. The kids were as happy with it as they would have been with a shake, it was cool and fruity and refreshing. She could have packed up her stall and gone home, I guess that's why I wanted to make a piece of work about her.

Haiku New Year

At midnight fireworks explode
dogs bark then settle
geese pass honking overhead.


Around the dinner table
kids ride their scooters
outside rain is still falling.


Happy coincidence!! a few days ago I rediscovered Watermark a poetry blog by Sharon Brogan. It used to be on my favourites list, but got lost in one of the computer crashes of 2010! She is welcoming in the new year with haiku and anyone can contribute via comments at watermark blog.

As promised here's a random snapshot from one of my walks. Where rapid creek meets the sea, storm clouds are brewing.

Season's greetings - going slow

December is not a good month for me artwise, my Friday mornings are given over to xmas shopping and going along to end of term assemblies and the like at school. I chaffe against it for a while and eventually get in the mood just in time - I wrote my xmas cards 3 days before xmas this year!

The main drawback for me is that I don't enjoy shopping, and that's what christmas seems to be all about these days. Luckily I squeezed in time for a bit of sewing and made these presents for two of my workmates.

Now I'm off work for a couple of weeks, I'm busy with the kids of course, lots of trips down to the skate-park for the twins to ride their scooters - which is the latest thing! I'm going for walks inbetween rainstorms and taking some truly awful photos!! (maybe I'll share some of them through January) I'm getting back to my sketchbook which has been growing dusty on the shelf!

It's exciting to think of the new year just around the corner and what it might bring. I hope you're enjoying some relaxing times over the holidays and that the creative ideas are brewing...