AND SO IT GOES

Encaustic wax collage by S. Auberle

AND SO IT GOES

Yesterday the first hummingbird

buzzed by the window at dawn.

This morning there is new snow

and wind blasting down the mountain.

We lie here, tangled in warm

and I am thinking of chocolate rabbits

what I need to get for Easter dinner

that mammogram today and why

no poems are coming

but there was a bright moon rising

through the pines last night

and the Chianti tasted fine.

Will the wind ever stop

my brakes are squeaking

Bush is looking toward Iran

bike tires flat

need to meditate

have a garage sale

see the dentist--again

but there was that moon last night

haloing your face

in the most amazing way--so bright.

Sometimes I forget the light

how it enfolds this life

this heart, fragile as

that first hummingbird of spring.

- mimi

SPRING SNOW

Photo/collage by S. Auberle

spring snow at twilight

parched trees holding out their arms

small birds snuggle in

- mimi

BRAVERY

Photo by S. Auberle

rise up my fair ones

daffodils lifting again

shaking off spring snow

-mimi

JUST WONDERING

Photo by S. Auberle

If humans can invent such a thing as computers and step out onto the moon and now this latest tidbit described in an article Panda Poop Turned into Paper:

"Beijing (AP) There's a new Chinese saying: when life hands you panda poop, make paper.

Researchers at a giant panda reserve in southern China are looking for paper mills to process their surplus of fiber-rich panda excrement into high quality paper. Liao Jun, a researcher at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base in Sichuan provice, said the idea came to them after a visit to Thailand last year where they found paper made from elephant dung. They thought panda poop would produce an even finer quality paper, he said."

If humans can be so clever and inventive, then why in the world can't we invent PEACE?

FRACTALS

Fractal image by Marrianna Daugherty

Another member of my artist's group, Marrianna is, in her own words: "mixed media enthusiast, photographer, creative purse designer and a wise crone." To see more of her artwork check out her blog: http://reddancerdesigns.blogspot.com

Fractals are her latest passion and she's done a beautiful selection of them. I love the other-worldly look of them. Marrianna is nothing, if not eclectic. She can go from the world of Frida Kahlo (another passion of hers) to outer space in the blink of an eye. Contact her at satena@yahoo.com

FEELINGS

Photo by S. Auberle

"I won't transform my feelings

into words or a poem

but pour them from heart to heart

this day, this moment."

- Yosano Akiko

Tangled Hair

THE MOUNTAIN

Photo by Susan Altman

This is the mountain that stands guard over our town. Home to kachinas, diverse and beautiful wildlife and one disgruntled ski resort owner who has divided the town with his plan to make snow with reclaimed wastewater. Native tribes in the area consider the mountain sacred and an important part of their cultural and spiritual heritage and do not support his proposal, along with many locals who feel it is not an environmentally sound or safe thing to do. The owner, who bought a ski resort located in the desert (despite the abundance of pines, it IS a desert) now threatens to pump water from a nearby aquifer at the rate of one million gallons a day to make snow if he is not allowed to go forward with his original plan. There seems, at this point in time, no meeting place of the two sides.

Photo by my neighbor, Susan Altman, a poet/wizard with the camera. She has some incredible wildlife shots of elk, eagles, deer and flowers. To contact her: saltman@uneedspeed.net

Thanks, Susan!

BITS 'N PIECES

"Tiffany's Window" photo by S. Auberle

Just back from a quick trip to that fantasyland place--Las Vegas--where your mind can be blown in a hundred different ways. First of all, that they dared to build this environmental disaster in the desert, but never mind, I've been on that soapbox too long. Things that stuck with me:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the weary looking woman driving the ancient Plymouth Volare with the bumper falling off and the three skull and crossbones bumper sticker beside the one that read:

"Some days all I want

is to be a missing person."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The amazing, beautiful hotel/casino called simply Wynn (after the man, who owns half of Las Vegas). I can never look at it without wondering if they would dare put up one beside it called Lose. Would anyone go there?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The conversations I had with two taxi drivers, the first an Israeli man. How good it was to connect with him and know that our conversation enhanced each other's day. The second a Vietnamese man, who kept giving me the thumbs up for America--heaven on earth--he kept saying, and how lucky he was to live here now, though when I asked him about his family he said he was single: my wife, she come over to America, make some money, then she don't like me no more--but America (thumbs up again) she is heaven! I'm so happy to be here."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Indeed, we forget sometimes, don't we? In spite of all her faults and craziness...we are blessed...

HAPPY SPRING

Photo by S. Auberle

yellow gowned flower

harbinger of days to come

a tease of new light

- mimi

FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS

Sculpture by Suzanne Botello and Sondra Francis

Suzanne is a talented clay artist and a member of my artist's group. This piece will become the poster for the local community college fundraiser Palate to Palette, featuring art and appetizers from local restaurants. And what better combination than that? She does much more, including combining delicately beautiful faces on large platters, which I am saving to buy! For more info, contact suzbot@npgcable.com

AND A FINE ST. PADDY'S DAY TO ALL

Photo by W. Lowe

Faith and begorra, it's me, in Ireland, awaiting my
turn to kiss the Blarney stone.

OH IF I WASN'T A MARRIED LADY

I'd walk into O'Gorman's Matchmaker Pub

and order me a poet--one of those

black Irish kind with sooty blue eyes

and long hair a-tossin' down his back

with a voice that could charm the sun

back to Ireland and we'd find us

a place where we wouldn't hear

the cows and sheep needin' to be fed

or the teakettle on the hearth

or the priest a-knockin' at the door

wantin' to discuss the wages of sin.

We'd listen to only the rain

and sing a teary ballad or two,

write all over each other

poems the whole night through.

- mimi

Pionta Guiness, le do thoil...

(a pint of Guiness, please)

HUMAN TOUCH

Digitally altered photo by S. Auberle

"Fewer and fewer Americans

possess objects that have a patina,

old furniture, grandparents' pots and pans

the used things, warm

with generations of human touch

...essential to a human landscape."

- Susan Sontag

The above is an old cooking pot, from the Wagner Ware Foundry in Sidney, Ohio. It belonged to my grandmother, Rosa, may have been a wedding gift in 1912, when she married Ferdinand on an April day in St. Michael's church in Fort Loramie, Ohio.

I recall endless pots of soup simmering in this, on winter days in my childhood, and Grandma requesting my "assistance." The warm kitchen, the smells, the love--it all comes back each time I use it. It's stained and crooked and old but I swear I can feel Rosa around me when I use it. Wouldn't trade it for every piece of Calphalon I own. It's essential to my landscape, for sure...

- mimi

SUMMER STATE OF MIND

Photo by S. Auberle

SOME THINGS YOU MUST DO

find a dead end road, a small beach

at the end of it, lie on sun-warmed rocks

drink in the day, the lake

the fine wine of a summer afternoon

laugh, listen to the music

of beach and sky and wind

on the way home

pick berries from the roadside

crush them on your tongue

understand each taste is a prayer

paint your lips and hands with sticky red

nectar like blood, like wine, like roses

know the meaning of succulent

savor the moments of your life

for as deep and forever as you can

- mimi

PREVIEW OF UPCOMING ATTRACTI0N

Photo by S. Auberle

Took this photo in a dark and drab little restaurant bathroom on Whidbey Island. It was painted on the wall.

For all you out there who are getting tired of winter. ..

Soon!

- mimi

I THINK THAT I SHALL NEVER SEE

Photo collage by S. Auberle

TREES

I think that I shall never see

a poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

against the sweet earth' s flowing breast;

a tree that looks at God all day,

and lifts her leafy arms to pray;

a tree that may in summer wear

a nest of robins in her hair;

upon whose bosom snow has lain;

who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

but only God can make a tree.

- Joyce Kilmer

POETRY

Photo by S. Auberle

"I have nothing to say,

I am saying it,

and that is poetry."

- John Cage

"You say my poems are poetry?

They are not.

Yet if you understand they are not--

then you see the poetry of them."

- Ryokan

"Base Camp Coffee Bar is poetry..."

- mimi

SWAN

Photo by S. Auberle

"Bright morning--freezing, but less cold than before--and with a hint of the smell of spring-earth in the cold air. A beautiful sunrise, the woods all peaceful and silent, the dried old fruits on the yellow poplar shining like precious artifacts. I have a new level in my (elementary) star-consciousness. I can now tell where constellations may be in the daytime when they are invisible. Not many, of course! But for example: th sun is rising in Aquarius and so I know that in the blue sky overhead the beautiful swan, invisible, spreads its wide wings over me. A lovely thought, for some reason."

- A Year with Thomas Merton

RUNNING DRY

Photos by S. Auberle

Saw a film last night that will not leave me alone. It was a documentary entitled Running Dry, about the world-wide water crisis. It's a stunning film, meant to horrify. And it does. It is a horror film, but starkly true, and only a taste of what is to come if we don't somehow find the ways to come together and heal what we've done to the earth.

Perhaps it affected me so strongly because of my own particular situation. I am blessed to divide my time between two places I love--one in the arid, drought-stricken (10th year) Southwest, and the other on the shore of a great lake in the green Midwest. The contrast is enormous.

Running Dry leaves the viewer with a variety of emotions--guilt, despair, anger and, hopefully, an energized feeling to do something, no matter how small. It's the old story: if only each of us would do one thing to help, what a difference it would make--donating money or time; learning the numerous small things that, collectively, would make a huge difference; becoming more knowledgeable about the situation and our part in it; and cultivating a deeper reverence and compassion for this beautiful global village we share.

http://www.runningdry.org

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Photo by S. Auberle

To all my Aquarius and Pisces friends: Grace, Susan, Carole, Dan,

Ralph, Dora, Sharon and Linda:

I WISH FOR YOU THIS YEAR

one perfect peace rose

a giant orange harvest moon

firelight hand-holding

the sound of owls in the night

the Milky Way in a crisp winter sky

candlelight reflections of love

a loon's cry on a clear green lake

raspberries & cream

in Sunday morning sunlight

and

365 days of peace, love & laughter...

Happy Birthday

- mimi

ENOUGH WINTER

Photo by S. Auberle

These days, as my birthday approaches, I've been thinking more and more about numbers.

Of course, there's the old chestnut: if you didn't know how old you were, how old would you be? No, that doesn't quite cut it.

So then I'm thinking what if each day your outside appearance changed--to reflect the age you felt inside? Because, let's face it---how I feel inside most DEFINITELY does not match my outside. Would we be a world comprised solely of eighteen year olds? A trendy looking group in the thrall of raging hormones and insecurities? Come to think of it...

Or would we alternate--sixty one day, thirty-five the next, and occasionally twelve. That would be me.

I've been thinking a lot lately about seventeen--what a great age that was. You've passed the driving test, the sweet sixteen stuff. And yet, you're not quite forced to make grown-up decisions--job, school, taxes, etc. You've got your body and hormones fairly well under control--unless, of course, you happen to be falling in love.

I remember the night of the Jr. Prom. Of course the theme was Some Enchanted Evening. And of course the weather cooperated perfectly--sweet May night, trees just in that tender bud stage that made you want to cry, full moon sailing over the little town.

I remember my dress. Strapless gold net, shoes to match, the perfect tan to offset it.

The newest love--he didn't last, but for that night Prince Charming couldn't have held a candle to him. And by then I'd kissed a few frogs.

I would never venture a guess as to my inside age on this birthday soon to come. And I won't have a gold dress to celebrate. Most likely, sweater and jeans--in the western town where I live, a denim skirt and boots is considered dressy. But there will be a prince, though he has been known to be froggy now and then. And maybe chocolate and wine and a bouquet of spring tulips.

Life is good.

- mimi

SETTING SUNS

Digital fooling around by S. Auberle

"To live in this world

you must be able

to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it

against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

and , when the time comes to let it go,

to let it go."

-Mary Oliver

"In Blackwater Woods."

Okay, I promise no more sunset/mortality things for awhile, but

when you're snowbound you think and do weird things and,

in my opinion, no one can read enough Mary Oliver...

- mimi

WHISTLING IN THE DARK

Photo by S. Auberle

WHISTLING IN THE DARK

Aren't we all?

News of a friend's death today,

so many plans we had

Anna said, in a letter last week,

thanking us for being in her life.

Oh god, another margarita please,

yes and salt, lots of it.

We look at each other,

you my good, good friend,

scared silly, but silly takes over

sometimes you have to

and snow beats on the window

lightning, rain, sleet, back to snow.

We devour chips and salsa

and you tell me of your funeral bash

you have the music, the food, the party planned

Andrea Bocelli--Time to Say Goodbye

do ya think that would be over the top?

And we burst into another round of giggles.

Wind shakes the old building and

I debate the merits of cremation vs. worms,

wonder just how many parts of myself

I can divide, to be in all my beloved places.

The bar fills up with winter freaks like us

stamping snow from their boots

beer and margaritas flowing

like the still hot blood in our veins.

We eat, we giggle, we watch

the storm fighting to get at us.

I think of Anna, throw salt over my shoulder

knock on wood, cross my fingers, pray.

Laugh tears.

- mimi

DAWN

Photo by S. Auberle

blue silence

of dawn

cheer, cheer

cardinal wakes me

can spring be near?

- mimi