Alternatives

We have freedom -
alternatives
to how we live now -

for other ways
of being

Crocheting or
collecting eggs
from your back
yard flock isn't
enough to take back
territory

What must
go missing
to keep elegance
from vanishing?

Maureen's earlier post about writer Ursula K. Le Guin read like a plea. Mathew E. May wrote In Pursuit of Elegance - elegance is defined by what is missing.

Defy Gravity How?

December's end
segueing into January
makes me feel like
a mariner marooned
in a drained
bathtub where my
flesh
fat
bones
blood
muscles
hair
nails
skin
sinew
brains
and organs
rest heavy on
cold porcelain
blanching the pink
right out of me.

New Christmas Music 2014

Blood Oranges In The Snow by Over the Rhine. Buy it. Listen to it. Smile. Cry. Feel the warmth. Be refreshed. Get a lift. Shiver. Shake it off. Breathe. Let It Fall and The Very First Snowfall. No words…but we are heading to find snow at the end of January. Until then, I'm breathing…

If you're reading this. Feel like the beloved. You are. Blessings upon this new year.

Have you been trying too hard

Have you been holding too tight 

Have you been worrying too much lately 

All night 

Whatever we've lost 

I think we're gonna let it go 

Let it fall 

Like snow 

'Cause rain and leaves 

And snow and tears and stars 

And that's not all my friend 

They all fall with confidence and grace 

So let it fall, let it fall 

Have you been carin' too much 

How this one ends 

Y'know it's not the kind of fight 

That you lose or win 

When you're down so low 

You feel the imprint of the ground 

On skin 

Look around breathe in 

'Cause rain and leaves 

And snow and tears and stars 

And that's not all my friend 

They all fall with confidence and grace 

So let it fall, let it fall 

Coloring for Grown Ups - Therapy

Grown ups color
with sophisticated mediums
costing more than
a jumbo box of crayons

Familiar sparks of metallic
enchantment still occur
when tip points make contact
with ephemeral
paper bliss






Johanna Basford's Secret Garden Coloring book for grown ups. Free therapy to cure anything. Splurge on good quality colored pencils or markers. Or better yet, Sakura gel pens. The metallics are magical. 

Buhl Idaho Metal Sculpture Artist-Scot Horton

The man's hands tell 

a story forged hot from

 fired steel yielding to

rhythmic hammer returns

ringing and bouncing

off a hundred year old 

five hundred pound

 anvil from Leeds

The man's hands tell 

a story gouged bloody

and calloused from 

pounding steel flat

cutting and curling its

 tapered ends resisting

 his iron will 

and vision working 

backward from seeing

it entire and whole

  without blueprints

or worded plans 

The man's hands tell 

a story about bringing

his grandmother's double 

drainboard porcelain sink home

to embellish an outdoor kitchen 

where tables heavy

with flavors grace gatherings 

 of laughter and love

ending with communion

around dishrags 

and suds and towels

buffing the day's end 

to a sacred shine 

The man's hands tell 

a story about making a 

rack to hold crusted hamón -

a fifteen pound shank- cured

 for a year in salt - the Basque

 equivalent of Italian prosciutto -

a gift from a friend more 

treasured than gold 

holding state regally

 on the kitchen counter 

sliced thin for holiday 

celebrations lasting long 

from Thanksgiving 

till after Christmas

The man's hands tell 

a story about reproducing

a Basque sheepherder's wagon - 

every working part buttery 

smooth functioning

with minimal fuss -

a home compacted

bright with colors 

luring overnighters

to sleep under stars 

The man's hands tell 

a story about an old copper 

distiller brought from 

the Motherland and an apple

press made for cider harvest

and a BBQ barrel grill

embossed with homage

to homes with heart

The man's hands tell 

a story about making a 

pizza oven made ornate

with hinges and slides and legs - 

and doors weighted to swing open 

and shut without effort 

The man's hands tell 

a story about beloved

 sons and grandchildren -

 legacy furniture

 heritage knives

 twisted rockers 

and eagle sculptures 

silhouetting canyon sunsets

inside open gates where a cougar

keeps watch and antlers lift praise

detailed against the sky

This man gave me a generous afternoon. Rarely does one have the opportunity to see art made for art's sake, as a way of life. I think the Star Breather is pleased with a man using his hands - surrounding the ones he loves with the work of his hands. 

Below are more pictures of his work and the textures he surrounds himself with. Patina matters. I was taken with the details that probably would be overlooked or camouflaged - details he couldn't leave out.   It made for whimsical surprises. My eyes felt like they had been to a banquet and been utterly satiated and delighted with beauty.