the in-between, Monotype of the Day #739

Day 8 of Year 3

There's been a lot of chaos in my house the last few months. Between a family member moving home, a puppy, planting season, and having to vacate part of my studio to make room for online dance classes my head has been spinning. But the puppy has calmed, I've gotten my studio back and I feel like I'm catching my breath again for the first time in a long time. I'm so grateful to have this daily practice to anchor me no matter what winds are scattering my life.

Waking Up
By David Allan Evans
for Jan

We wake up again to the sound
of those same birds just

outside our window. I can’t
name them, wouldn’t need to

if I could, but only guess
what they seem to be

saying over and over.
Listen: We are here,

we are here,
we are here.

Published on A Year of Being Here http://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/2014/04/david-allan-evans-waking-up.html 

angel, Monotype of the Day #721

Day 351 of Year 2 (Actually Day 356)

Just to clarify last night's post, I am not stopping my daily posts when I hit day 730 (2 years). I'm reexamining the project as a whole to see what it has meant to me, my process, and my growth as an artist and person. I'm considering if I want to continue it as is or if I want to change the scope or restructure. Yesterday someone suggested taking one day a week to focus on a different type of art, could be interesting. It's brainstorming time right now and I may or may not change a thing. I'm open to suggestions and in the end I will see what inner nudges I get on year 3, day 1 and proceed from there.
xo

Your Boat, Your Words
by Pat Schneider

Your boat, they will tell you,
cannot leave the harbor
without discipline.

But they will neglect to mention
that discipline has a vanishing point,
an invisible horizon where belief takes over.

They will not whisper to you the secret
that they themselves have not fully understood: that
belief is the only wind with breath enough

to take you past the deadly calms, the stopped motion
toward that place you have imagined,
the existence of which you cannot prove

except by going there.

From Writing Alone and With Others https://amzn.to/2BBli3V
Found on Poetry Chaikhana http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/S/SchneiderPat/YourBoatYour/index.html

knowledge tree (Monotype of the Day #670)

Day 300 of Year 2 (Actually Day 305)

I remember when I hit day 300 a year ago, it felt like such a milestone. Now in my second year of this project I've hit day 300 again and it feels good but like just like any other day. I've begun to look at these monotype as footprints. I make one each day, like one footprint following the other, and move forward. That's been my motto since I've been dealing with long-term illness, focus on the small steps, the rest is beyond our control. My love to all those suffering or dealing with illness.

"I" ["No, no, there is no going back"]
By Wendell Berry

No, no, there is no going back.
Less and less you are
that possibility you were.
More and more you have become
those lives and deaths
that have belonged to you.
You have become a sort of grave
containing much that was
and is no more in time, beloved
then, now, and always.
And so you have become a sort of tree
standing over the grave.
Now more than ever you can be
generous toward each day
that comes, young, to disappear
forever, and yet remain
unaging in the mind.
Every day you have less reason
not to give yourself away.

From A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems, 1979-1997 https://amzn.to/2YYJXsz. Such a wonderful book of poems!

dusk, Monotype of the Day #666

Day 296 of Year 2 (Actually Day 301)

The Moor
by R. S. Thomas

It was like a church to me.
I entered it on soft foot,
Breath held like a cap in the hand.
It was quiet.
What God was there made himself felt,
Not listened to, in clean colours
That brought a moistening of the eye,
In movement of the wind over grass.

There were no prayers said. But stillness
Of the heart’s passions — that was praise
Enough; and the mind’s cession
Of its kingdom. I walked on,
Simple and poor, while the air crumbled
And broke on me generously as bread.

Found on https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/2018/03/16/r-s-thomas-the-moor-3/
If you are interested in sacred poetry, Poetry Chaikhana is a wonderful resource!
I am ordering this book right away: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1401923879

what lies behind?, Monotype of the Day #584

Day 214 of Year 2 (Actually Day 219)

No words have been coming the past few days though new project are beginning to hatch and grow. I am in that uncertain space where marks have been made but the road map remains unclear. I am off on a new adventure and I am grateful to be at the beginning again.

Sonnets to Orpheus Book 2. 12
Rilke, Trans. Stephen Mitchell

Will transformation. Oh be inspired for the flame
in which a Thing disappears and bursts into something else;
the spirit of re-creation which masters this earthly form
loves most the pivoting point where you are no longer yourself.

What tightens into survival is already inert;
how safe is it really in its inconspicuous gray?
From far off a far greater hardness warns what is hard,
and the absent hammer is lifted high!

He who pours himself out like a stream is acknowledged at last by Knowledge;
and she leads him enchanted through the harmonious country
that finishes often with starting, and with ending begins.

Every fortunate space that the two of them pass through, astonished,
is a child or grandchild of parting. And the transfigured Daphne,
as she feels herself become laurel, wants you to change into wind.

From Duino Elegies & Sonnets to Orpheus https://amzn.to/31ZbYQd

the forest at night: reaching, Monotype of the Day #533

Day 163 of Year 2 (Actually Day 168)

The forest is such a mysterious place, so much happens there we are unaware of. Like the creative process, we can catch a peak but not really experience it deeply unless we enter in. The veiled nature of the creative process has been the centering theme of my life. Often it's felt like an ascent, like climbing a ladder. But recently this has changed to feel more like a journey deep into a forest to find a mystical place, a true home. Before I strove to heal myself to be a better vessel for creativity. Now I accept we are all imperfect vessels and it's through our cracks that that the Light comes in as Leonard Cohen so beautifully puts it. This change is huge because it removes another control from the process. Even a good goal like healing acts to limit possibilities. I am longer trying to make anything happen, I am just here to welcome and partner with the unceasing flow of creative energy as it enters into the world to transform everything it meets.

boats at dawn, Monotype of the Day #505

505.jpg

Day 139 of Year 2 (Actually Day 140)

I realized today that I make these boat scenes when I need a sense of inner peace and calm. Making them quiets my mind although today, it only partially worked. It's been a busy few days with the holidays and I'm calling my scattered energies in. The print reflects this, it's not as tranquil as my other boat prints. Still, it calmed and grounded me.
This is a little strange- I find it much more rewarding to post on days with symmetrical numbers like today- day 505. It's oddly satisfying! Numbers do have poetry. 😊

Just Now
By W. S. Merwin

In the morning as the storm begins to blow away
the clear sky appears for a moment and it seems to me
that there has been something simpler than I could ever believe
simpler than I could have begun to find words for
not patient not even waiting no more hidden
than the air itself that became part of me for a while
with every breath and remained with me unnoticed
something that was here unnamed unknown in the days
and the nights not separate from them
not separate from them as they came and were gone
it must have been here neither early nor late then
by what name can I address it now holding out my thanks

From : The Pupil: Poems https://amzn.to/37ViSsn
https://merwinconservancy.org/2017/09/just-now-by-ws-merwin/