Week Three: Photos and the Unexpected

Unexpected happenings have occurred over the last few days, some funny, some embarrassing, some inconvenient, some a delight. All unexpected. But what if the unexpected is perfect? If it is what was meant to happen all along?

How can we better dance with the unexpected and flow with changes? How might we more openly accept reality as it is, not as we want it to be. How do we let go, release and surrender our attachments and control? Do we actually need to ‘do’ anything for that to happen?

Hmm.

Let’s see what the rest of the week brings, in word and image.

Have fun with the unexpected!

Week Two: Lists!

Week Two: Lists!


I walked into week two of November’s creative challenges without having consciously decided the theme for the week. I seemed to spend Monday racing around, trying and failing to meet the day’s micro-challenges I’d set myself on my internal  LIST OF THINGS TO DO.


And so a theme was born: Lists!


Please feel free to browse this week’s creative offerings and send in some of your own too!


With a note to the last entry: Something’s Cooking. I made a tasty word-meal for you, it was written about a relative who is no longer here. Having consulted a family member, we agreed that the poem could be misinterpreted and so was not so appropriate for posting on the w to the w to the w.


Some meals are the kind of food you should only serve at home.


Onto Lists!




November 15th


She Gets Things Done


The Squirm

begins.

Racing ahead to the future,

stomach left behind

looploop

ride

grasping for the safety bars

strategy and frame

if she could just sit down for one minute and write a list of all she’s done this morning –

she catches herself.

Smiles at the absurdity

of Projected Reality

as it sprints neck and neck with Urgency

to a future where she is so productive.


Where did she get this notion?

This finish-line marker

chalked ahead of herself?

She grabs the chalk and draws faces on the pavement.

Balances on one foot.

Throws questions up in the air and sits down smiling

as warm rain falls gently.


She’d like to stay here a while.



….



Fat Freddy’s Drop have written a beautiful lyric which I had posted up on a noticeboard for a long while:


‘The race is on and I’m quickly standing still,

’cos I have faith in something more than my will: soul’


Just thought I'd share that.

….



 

Listen


As a word,

not particularly inspiring

cold

and clammy to the touch

a little bit dry

a little bit damp

Lists.

Listening to the radio on Sunday

I heard the words of a Jewish prisoner of war.

He was murdered,

Exterminated.

A number in a long line

List.

He,

a composer,

had once said

all you can take with you in death,

is that which you have given away

to others in life.



 ....



Weds 16th November


Lists


The list I heard today was someone else’s

Intellectual property

So I can’t tell you what was listed.

That’s classified information.

Class-ified

well-presented degree

like a CV


Who on earth are we pitching to?

Really?

Why do we play puppet games and take it all so seriously

this ‘ME’ we

present to the world.

Wonky measures and milestones

sights set so keenly on other people’s goals

that we miss seeing our dreams.

So attached to the thought of the

Gilded prize

We lose

connection inside.


Tell me a story.

Make it up if you will,

but make it yours!



....


Thurs 17th November


Listless


Standing in aisle 9

weathered scrap

hanging from his hand

jacket, once puffed up,

now out of puff

smothering his solid

tired frame.


For half an hour

indecision has

held him here

the bright lights of

variety at such a price,

the stuffing and filling

of baskets and trolleys

plastics sacks.

The motion

of many,

many

announcements call for action

but something

has him

hover.


So much seems

suspended

on the finger of choice

pointing to something

beyond the

metronome wag

of eeny meeny miny

more.

What was it

he had forgotten?



 ....



Friday 18th November


Registration 1


Hands up

who is

present.

Hands up

who is

away.



Registration 2


Yes Miss

No Sir

Yep

They’re away

-

-

-

Daily roll call

Clock on

Sign in

Tick the list.



Registration 3



Mrs. Preston

decided to

test her psychic skills.

She would lead registration

with eyes shut and students silent.


“On the count of three I will begin.

I will call your name – please do not respond.

I will intuit

whether you are here

or not”


inky wand resting on desk

purple twinset

the Mystick’s

cloak

Mrs. Preston closed her eyes

and went onto a higher plane.


Twenty-four magic words later

she returned to

class 4B


still silent


who had performed

their very own

disappearing

trick .


          




Saturday 19th November


Tick

Tick

Tick

Tick the

list

Tick

Tick

Tock

Against the

clock

Tick

Missed

Tick

Missed

Tick

Tick

Twitch

Tick

Tick

New

List

Tick

Tick

Stick.

Stop!


General Notes: Lists, from what I've written this week, seem to have a negative feel or at least a sense of drive (things to be ticked off) and structure, that can be helpful or can be a hindrance.  I thought I’d focus on writing some more positive lists and the more playful exploration of the above Registration series.


I started with a list of things that I love about my partner, but then felt that actually I didn’t want to share those things publicly here and now in this context. So, I decided to aim for something more universal, less personal – which is something I want to build into this project more and more.



World to Humans. A love letter:


I love


that you try so hard


your unquestioning acceptance of my support

under your feet


when you tickle me

as you swim in my waters


I love


when you stop to notice me

see me

feel me


the funny stories you make up about

how I came to be


when you all get along




I really feel your love for me then.



....

End of Week One: Something's Cooking!

On reflection

  
This latest project, daily creating and dancing with words, has been one of the most joyful life-enhancing things I have done in 2010. And so simple!

In 2009, I purchased a pack of crayons and let rip on the page. Doodling and adding rainbow colours to anything I could. Again a simple creative pleasure. A bit like moving for the fun of it, for the elbow-speaking-to-wrist of it, dancing to a tune in one's room, stretching in a Yoga pose. All these easy-if-you-let-them-beesy actions that, for me, add a massive amount of happiness and peace to my days. And I feel so much more self-expressed for it. Which again affirms for me something that I've thought and felt for a long time: creativity gives us greater self-expression, a re-discovery of fullness that brings with it an increased sense of wellbeing. 


I look forward to exploring this link in future projects and workshops. 

Have fun taking a moment to bring more creative expression into your day - or perhaps simply more awareness of the creativity already there - whether through baking, making, tying your shoe-laces up strangely or doing any silly thing that makes your heart sing. Please post your discoveries to inspire one another!


I've been cooking up a poem over the last couple of days; it's not quite tasting right yet, so I'll play with flavours and spices and share it with you soon. I'll also announce the next challenge shortly, should you choose to join in!

Tales from a Travelodge/Dinosaurs Walk the Streets

Here are my creative gatherings from the last couple of days...plus a little help from small children somewhere, being creative in their inimitable ways.

8th November:

9 plus pm

Tomorrow I have to get up

VERY EARLY

hence I am avoiding all

eye contact

with clock faces

eye

know

eye

should be asleep by

now

but I want to first

write words

stretch bend breathe

sit

still

then I hope to sleep.

Under gaze of the clock's watchful eye

....

9th November

Photo below: Filthy Woman (travelodge bathroom)

Travelodge

Soaking up silence

There's a bible next to the bed

placed by The Gideons

so it says.

I've always liked that name

Gideon.

Ernest, Celestine and Gideon

in the snow.

Winter.

Doesn't he get replaced?

Gideon 1 by

Gideon 2

similar but different

the same but different

I say (in my head)

Lord, what would you like me to see today?

Isaiah appears

(not quite in the same way as God appeared to Isaiah if I remember rightly.

Not in a Travelodge)

The Lord that is there on the pages

is not the same Lord

I recognise and love 

in all his male female beyond binary forms.

This Lord

so I am told

will

"wash away the filth of the women of Zion"

now I am reading out of context, but -

a roll of inner eye and resigned sigh -

why filth?

why filth of women?

I wonder what they did

or didn't do.

Then that section ends with talk of a canopy over

all the glory

of Mount Zion, and

"It will be a shelter and a shade from the heat of the day, and a 

refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain".

Which is a bit like a Travelodge.

Except I'm not filthy

I've just had a shower.

.....

9th November

Thank you to the boy who entertained us from the car in front on the journey home. Amazing faces, great gurning and the bag-on-the-head-zombie-arms were a joy to behold. You gave lots of adults a reminder to make silly faces too.

And thank you to the children who drew dinosaurs and dropped their drawings as gifts on the street. They stomp on:

November Week One: The Challenge!

November Week One: The challenge!

I'll be posting poetry each day inspired by events, non-happenings, ponderings and passing thoughts. Sometimes it might be snippets, sometimes fully-formed word-scarves. Sometimes I might explain or make changes, sometimes not. After all, this is an experiment.

5th November:

Here's a little something that may turn into something more. My father said a sentence and I finished it off. 

Collaborative creating:

Pa:

Strike up a friendwich.

all these wires

and all these visions

Me:

All this static

and decisions.

......

6th November:

Awoke

        

          Slow

                   Poke

(sh)

Drag feet through

morning

to brighter

new-beginning     boxes

beget   bits   bobs

things to clear

Take your boxes

I carry mine

and will one day

share it

when the anticipated

                                    recipient

                                                 arrives.

.....

Luncheon.

Mushrooms like members.

Unexpected.

As was icecream not

clotted with the

fruit crumble.

Sometimes servings serve

in other ways

not prayers unheard

but needs and wants 

met in well balanced

nutritional dishes.

Unexpected.

And besides

we were really there for the company.

....

Welcome Evening!

Well fed

well friended

[                                     ]

now in need of space

[                                     ]

I hold my hand

companionably

as I

move into evening.

Enjoying cleaning

ironing

orange-clove experiments

(sore thumbs)

home-made christmas decorations

home-made contentment

Home - home holds me 

as I

slip into the night.

Home is held.

....

7th November:

Sunday

Dreams of angry altercations of

condiments and 

recommendations

imagined issues

reminding me to eat more than baked beans

as I remind you

to eat more than cheese.

                              A surprising subject I never knew

we never spoke of.

Am happy to let that one fall away and

I'll drink tea to toast

the fact that dreams are not real

today. 

Flights of Fancy (thoughts in the bath) 

Perhaps

the difference between

thoughts that are real and true

or of desires and disconnection

is that some fly up

gain gravity and manifest in reality

and some

just

fly up 

and 

fall to the floor exhausted

spent

for all they had

and never were.

.....

Notes: Initially this read 'or of desires and ego', which seemed too vague. I contemplated using 'lower mind' or 'lower mind kind' but this phrasing felt like a judgement was being made of higher/lower mind. Disconnection seems to fit well (a suitable sock) and, I feel, captures the notion of inner workings not quite connected to a source in truth, as well as the sense of the inner workings of a bird malfunctioning, inside, unseen.

And so we begin...

 

It's November! And there's no better time to start a project than November, as the old adage goes!

Rather than writing in the sand I have decided to write words on the web. 

Why?

Well, because it is more fun to share than not. 

And there's so much to share and I've kept it to myself for too long! Creativity is a process not the end product, so here I am mid-flight and here you are too!

My aim in this section is to not only explore and document my own arts practice, but to also offer a sharing that is thoughtful, feelful, playful, experimental, at times clumsy and awkward, and maybe sometimes even a bit eloquent and insightful. Maybe. I'll strive to be honest and come unpolished. I'll watch out for my ego trying to pitch to you with an ulterior motive and you can check in with yours. Please hold me to that. Maybe we can be mirrors, reflecting.

I will keep you posted on events and projects that I'm currently involved in or classes I'm offering should you live in the area and fancy coming along. I will also be engaging in a monthly/weekly arts adventure! See the next post for more details!

And thank you for stopping by. May you find creative connection and play in your day x