even curbs in a storm can inspire Fine Art. Just being cheeky.

Coop Easter Break in

Raining all day and flooding and...weather

Winter's Spring break

2008~1981

Of fated party born

Right from the start
ole Bob gifted his heart
but Peg’s wealth gave him pause
er his pride be the cause
rather humble his birth
twas meager his girth

love's first glance he did tumble
oh but no gift was the stumble
verily her gaiety waited
every hour past was fated
simply broken he dreaded

Peg’s patience being shredded
ending my sonnet I disparage
given I was born of this marriage

~~~



(((This 14 line sonnet for a Valentines day contest reads first letter down:
Robert loves Peg)))

Robyn

River

today at the River

Dream Truck

so much to think about tonight

Chee

I am growing in my ability to put together photos and play on the computer- this begs for your feedback.

Guess what this is~

First snow 2007

been feeling moody

what do you think of this image?

photo

Tina and Bethany we are still looking for you

This is a poem after six years of searching for the bodies of Tina and Bethany Sinclair. Mother and daughter disappeared one night after a fight with the mother's boyfriend. Recently the boyfriend had been released from prison. He had been convicted for molestation of his daughter. These days he restlessly rides our roads again.
I have participated in searches for the last six years. The family would like to have closure.
We gathered this morning under a rain drenched gray tarp and ate donuts and pizza...waiting for something to unfold, maybe a miracle.

I rose at dawn
from red wrinkled sheets
unfolding my thoughts
from dreams
of cold streams


morning mountain search
heart sick from wondering
how to find
of their bodies


tobacco silky snake
slithered into my nostrils
chatter of eyebrow prices
hair highlighting accent
we waited

mourning mountain search
heart struck from wandering
looking for pieces
of their bodies

pandemonium over the perpetrator
riding his truck
too close to their memorial
an inward scream escapes
psychically thrashing

mourning mama sinks
her teeth into donuts
looking for places
to rest from their deaths

windy day
weeping seeping water
trees scratch the sky
till it’s bloodless
my eyes search the grass
a bit of bone or hair

mountain moving mama
sweet Tina
give us a tell, a hint
six years and still looking

mummy oh mummy

why pretend
to love me

I still hate you
wish it could change

ghosts scurry past
my angry energy

why pretend
to love you

yes you were sick
I know that so well

but why do I need
to excuse

you were so cruel
touch, word, look

I withered
power was yours

now you are dead
power is mine

wish I could be kind
to your memory

Elephant alas

1.
a strange tale I tell to thee
pray you pull up a chair and see
how in ancient times a fable came to pass
wild story of an elephant and a lass
marriage of man and beast
please come and join in the feast


2.
How did the elephant-god grow inside this one?
many noble men came and had their fun,
leaving slippery seeds tucked deep inside
to celebrate their human bride
but elephants in blue and gray
came stealthily into the fray


3.
elephants all night and day
with noses long that sure did sway
a quilt of wrinkled skin and toes
a path of peanut shells, god knows
elephants did duck and dart
while dancing into her heart


4.
when her babe was due be born
at four a.m. she was shorn
prayed Ganesh a solemn vow
help me to embrace this creature now
huge crowds gathered outside to see
the dazzling birth, at once, of thee


5.
dawn bled a crimson light
causing everyone a terrible fright
drunken men that had appeared quite tame
were wild and then became inhumane
elephants in blue and tan
were lurking close at hand



6.
bellowed through his long pink nose
burst her bedroom door with that hose
the crowd swelled and a few did jeer
many still toasting with a beer
elephants quite bold did dare
gallop upon the peopled square



7.
a hush descended over the air
baby rose from his birth chair
man and beast stood eye to ear
then came the stink of human fear
elephants in blue and red
where weeping tears of dread




8.
all were kneeling with their heads bowed low
two a breast in a neat long row
baby’s pink trunk wrapped round his mother’s waist
he suckled with a lusty haste
the evening star was drawing near
bawdy songs broke out for more beer


9.
my tale of course has a darker side
humans trampled when they tried to ride
the pink elephants that did appear
when finally consumed was all the beer
mourning elephants in black and gray
filed out of town in terribly quiet way

10.
by noon the troops had rallied
guns and bombs and fear were tallied
through the town the church bells rang
songs of beer no longer sang
“I knew they’d kill us!” they did chant
mother’s ears burned to hear such a rant

11.
drums began to beat
the sun turned up the heat
a thousand names elephants did call
“gods save us from this demonic fall
we had gathered to celebrate
human body with elephant pate”

12.
Elephants in meditations woke
as gods laughter loudly broke
thoughts of war all fell away
“We have lost the heart to kill today!”
elephants in yellow and white
led a parade of humane delight

13.
upon a lotus of mothers milk
songs of peace where the ilk
Ganesh’s father Shiva did appear
everyone ordered some near beer
Elephants adorned with flowers bright
ridden by humans all through the night

dreaming water: living air

~~~~
In the reflection I am well
sickness has no foothold
beneath water's skin of mirror
I am breathing with great ease
~~~~



~~~~
we paddled
over the icy skin
of river's dream,
you dying
me sick
from love
~~~~

mountain river me

August reflections

I lift myself to the sun
great fire overhead
I am lifting myself

my surface eats
rays laid on me
I am lifting higher

stretching over the water
I am reaching to you
my sol

One-Hundred Word Story

~Once upon a time there lived a man who had two wolves chained to a tree. A girl and her baby came to visit the man. As she turned to hug the man she lowered the child to the ground. Being a curious lad he crawled to the wolves. The wolves thinking they had just been given a gift, picked him up and trotted behind the tree.

As I listened to this story I was so shocked about the baby's fate that I forgot the rest of the story. So forever after the child is in the wolves grinning mouths.~

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

the night the wolf appeared
first as a musty smell
he roamed wearily
in my dim dreams
he inhabited my waking
by first light
his second tell
tracks in the mud
scat boldly deposited

following nights
I laid awake waiting
for the breath of noise
an unseen movement
the crack of a twig

I lost a week
then fainted
flashes of blue black shine
long canines
garnet red eye
I'm dream walking
spray can in hand
like automatic writing
I released him onto the
red clay brick wall

*******
danced around black fir
my feet flew faster
than you could run

sleek body blur
a red eye
lingered

I dreamed of you
nightly
rapacious spirit

Paint Orange and Blue

Blue Rust

Brattleboro, Vermont

Robyn with Lily scarf August 24, 2007

blossoms on the road

Lightning strikes tower of babel

This poem was ignited by a lightning strike I watched hit a church three blocks from my living-room window on Friday night during the art walk. This weather event prompted a walkabout, and my lovely stroll was filled with bohemian life eye candy. What a fabulous town!


Lightning strikes tower of babel


electrified
Giacometti stick men
walked into our town
friday night,
a skinny white leg
stood-
upon the church steeple’s
granite cross,
a modern day
Ziggurat;
soldiers of fire kept watch
and bid us townspeople
wait;
do we storm heaven
waving our swords at
god?
or shall we accept that
Zeus
has walked among us
and
party on?

Lightning

Lightning is fascinating in these photos:

http://www.lightningphotography.com/favourites.html

Information about different types of lightning:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning

how to survive lightning strikes

http://www.discoverychannel.com.au/survival_zone/worst_case/lightning/index.shtml

want to read a true story while waiting to use the land line or plumbing-

Gretel Ehrlich was born on a horse ranch near Santa Barbara, California and was educated at Bennington College and UCLA film school. She worked in film for ten years, then began writing fulltime in 1978 after the death of a loved one.

1991 was the year Ehrlich was hit by lightning while taking a walk on her ranch. She was hospitalized and severly debilitated for several years. She writes of the experience in her nationally bestselling memoir, A MATCH TO THE HEART, published by Pantheon in 1994.

or fiction:

A solitary New Jersey librarian whose favorite book is a guide to suicide methods is struck by lightning in Alice Hoffman's superb novel, The Ice Queen. Orphaned at the age of eight after angrily wishing she would never see her mother again, our heroine found herself frozen emotionally: "I was the child who stomped her feet and made a single wish and in so doing ended the whole world‹my world, at any rate." Her brother Ned solved the pain of their mother's death by becoming a meteorologist: applying reason and logic to bad weather. Eventually, he invites our heroine to move down to Florida, where he teaches at a university. Here, while trying to swat a fly, she is struck by lightning (the resulting neurological damage includes an inability to see the color red). Orlon County turns out to receive two thirds of all the lightning strikes in Florida each year, and our heroine soon becomes drawn into the mysteries of lightning: the withering of trees and landscape near a strike, the medical traumas and odd new abilities of victims, the myths of renewal. Although a recluse, she becomes fascinated by a legendary local farmer nicknamed Lazarus Jones, said to have beaten death after a lightning strike: to have seen the other side and come back. The burning match to her cool reserve--her personal unguided tour through Hades--Lazarus will prove to be the talisman that restores her to girlhood innocence and possibility.

2007 Illumination