Sunday, December 30, 2007

EDWARD ABBEY





















Breakfast on the San Juan - S. Auberle

The beginning of a new year seems a perfect time for a
no-nonsense dose of Edward Abbey:
"Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am--a reluctant enthusiast--a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there.
So get out there and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to your body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards."

Friday, December 28, 2007

SILENCE

























Collage by S. Auberle

so much left unsaid
only crows crack the silence
winter deepening
- mimi

Thursday, December 27, 2007

LIGHT

























"Emergence" - S. Auberle - 1999

"Language is the light
that comes out of us."
- Ivan Doig
"Ride With Me, Mariah Montana"

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

A SHORT (TRUE) LOVE STORY

























Photo by S. Auberle

They met in church
at a candlelight Christmas Eve service.
He passed her a note:
"will you come home with me?"
She drew a smiley face on it
and passed it back.
They've been together twelve years...

Monday, December 24, 2007

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

























Photo/collage by S. Auberle

"Happy Christmas to all
and to all a Good Night..."
- Clement Moore
'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Sunday, December 23, 2007

REMEMBER

























Photo by S. Auberle

Go placidly amid
the noise and haste,
and remember
what peace there may be
in silence...
- from the Desiderata
Max Ehrmann - 1927

Friday, December 21, 2007

SOLSTICE

























Photo/Collage by S. Auberle

May the light in our hearts
illuminate the darkness.
Peace & Warmest Blessings to all...
- mimi

Sunday, December 16, 2007

AIRPLANE POEM

No laptop with me, so no photos till I return.
Photography is music for the eyes...

AIRPLANE POEM

Never have I written
a poem on a plane
but now is the time
today
on this Boeing 767
bound for Maui
Captain Ryan and Rosalinda
and I (plus mate and 250 others)
under that beneficient luminosity
(a phrase I stole from poet Anne Waldman)
of the Los Angeles morning sun...

later, on island time:

must buy that T-shirt I saw
a man wearing, proudly
emblazoned across his chest:
I never finish anythi

- Aloha, mimi

Saturday, December 08, 2007

THIRTEEN DAYS


"Infinity" - Encaustic Monotype - S. Auberle 1999
Thirteen days to Winter Solstice
Sunrise today 7:21 a.m.
Sunset 5:14 p.m.
Sun-path still moving south
touching ancient stone circles
where shamans once danced
and ancestors gathered
to implore Light's return...
remembered now only in dreams
the dens of sleeping bears
this slow, deep turning of the Earth...
- mimi
Off the blogwaves to follow the sun. Back on the Solstice.

Friday, December 07, 2007

ONE WOMAN'S TRASH




My women's group--At the Well--who keep me sane, or go (in)sane with me have come up with a great idea for those of you who might be, at this point in time, Christmas Shopping Challenged. If you have a group of people to buy for, why not have a Trash/Treasure party as we did. Everyone simply brings a variety of jewelry, clothing, tchotchkes, books, CD's, etc. that you no longer need, like, or use, and shop! It's an excellent form of recycling, economical and you would be amazed how perfectly your things fit someone else.
Then, of course, you must be fortified for all this strenuous shopping, so everyone brings food, wine, sweets, etc. Does it get any better than this???
The wind is howling, rain coming down in sheets, fog, sleet, but Christmas cheer is definitely in the air. And I got some really cool stuff. (No, I did NOT get the cow slippers.) But remember:
one woman's trash is another woman's treasure!
- mimi

Thursday, December 06, 2007

AT A NAVAJO POETRY READING

























Photo by S. Auberle
Ice slivers the floor
where an old man sits
oblivious to stares
of wire-rimmed old hippie leftovers
and feral-eyed poet ladies
whose hair curls
down their steaming woolen backs,
listening to Navajo woman
who reminds him of the mother
who carried him,
swaying under her burden
as he sways now
back and forth
endlessly
grieving
that he will never be loved again,
his long deep sighs moaning
like desert winds
that might have warmed
his once-proud body
hunched now
into a shabby coat,
small and shamed and frightened
that someone will send him back
into that frozen
homeless night.
- Sharon Auberle - 1996

Sunday, December 02, 2007

VillageEarth

























Encaustic Wax Monotype - S. Auberle 1998
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives...a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."
- Carl Sagan
(upon looking at a photo of earth, a tiny, bluish speck from Voyager I spacecraft on Valentine's Day, 1990)

Saturday, December 01, 2007

MORE ON LOVE




















Encaustic Wax Monotype - 1997 - S. Auberle

"Love involves
a peculiar,
unfathomable combination
of understanding
and misunderstanding."
- Diane Arbus, photographer
1923-1971