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Along the shore
In the car
At the table
Across a continent
We are separate, distinct.
The space between mountains, ages, grains of sand.
We are friends, collaborators, mentors
Laughing, sharing, creating.
We are tethered to this meeting place,
Flowing fine filaments, delicate and strong.
We are drifting, surging
Toward our dreams and the sky beyond.
Colleen Sohn
Happy October, gentle readers. It is with much anticipation and excitement that I welcome you to the very first edition of Art and Letters with Colleen Sohn and Maren Jensen! What is it, you ask? A wholly artistic collaboration where each week Maren (her most excellent blog: Maren Jensen) and I will take turns inspiring each other to create, she via the visual arts and me letters, words, and phrases.
I’m trying to keep it cool here, so as not to embarrass my friend (though she knows my brand of cheese very well), but holy smokes! I am thrilled, not just to be working with Maren (the cat’s pajamas!), who is amazingly talented (the Art and Letters banner is her lovely work, too), but to have the opportunity to learn and grow as a writer.
For this first edition, I sent the poem to Maren, and she produced the watercolor. I hope you like them both!
A Little Help from Thom
Forty circles,
Forty lines,
Forty people I wasn’t before.
Eyes, mouth, hands, knees:
It’s not me.
This isn’t happening.
Penning a new story.
Focus in before fading out,
Float down the Liffey and begin again.
Tags: Art & Letters, Poetry
Transported
Over wrought
Built square
Keeping in, keeping out
Shaded
Medicated
Well read
Wet
Stone
And a new season
Of chutes and ladders
Big butts and bridges
Cold feet and smiles.
The Fork in the road
Fork the man
Fork the condiments.
Are we just rats
With no escape
Conned into luxury
Dreaming of beauty
Dreaming of what might be
Or just looking, playing, spinning silly yarns?
Tags: Poetry
Dark as winter, yet bright.
Lit from within.
Dancing on a feather, floating.
Soft, without edges.
No concern for space, nor sun, nor rain.
Warm,
Green grass beckons,
Eager and inviting.
Become wet with dew,
and stay.
Colleen Sohn
Tags: My Poetry
Have you ever received a very fine gift, one that you really like and appreciate, yet aren’t quite sure what to do with it? This describes the fancy paper the hubster bought for me some six (!) years ago. It’s so beautiful that I felt it required a special occasion to write on it. And I did, a time or two, but, in the back of my mind, I thought it had an even higher purpose, so it stayed in a drawer.
This makes me laugh! You, Madame Paper, are so special that you get to stay in a dark drawer for six years. How about them apples? I am such a purger, if you didn’t know already. I like to give things away. If I’m not using it, I don’t want it in the house. Yet some items get a pass, and then, often times, years later, are used, and quite well, I might add. We made a stand for our second mason bee house with a metal pole that languished in the basement for who knows how long. It’s now buzzing with life and testament that it can be okay to not let go.
Back to that fancy paper. I have always liked telling people that I like (or love) them, their work, think they are smart, funny, have good skin, cute toes, great style, awesome glasses, whatever quality I happen to admire or appreciate. Sometimes people seem frightened by this (wondering if I have an ulterior motive?), as the recipients are often strangers, and I’m this smiling crazy person bearing down on them at the supermarket (slightly hyperbolic), but mostly they like it, or at least smile and say, “Thank you.”
Then I heard about a man (John Kralik) who was going through a very difficult time in his life and decided to write a Thank You note to someone every day for a year to better appreciate what he had. It changed his life in the most extraordinary way (365 Thank Yous). Then I stumbled upon the Pema Chodron book at the library (that’s it in the photo, too) and the words, “Give away what you most want,” struck the deepest chord.
What do I want? How about love, kindness, validation, sincere compliments, and being appreciated? Pretty awesome, right? Why not give it away? So I’m starting my own Lettre Royale Campaign (after the paper). I’ll write one letter a week until the pretty paper runs out. There are about fifty sheets. I’ll write to friends and strangers, near and far, and see what happens. Besides, it will give me yet another reason to buy cool stamps. I like those, too.
