Tag Archives: collage
Swinging Flower and Father
Bird and Hat
Nat’l Geo #7, A Map of Rumania
Nat’l Geo 5, The Piano Maker
Oh, Dad
Spider Lake, of course
4 Spider Lakes
Just arrived, fresh from Whitewash & Co . . . 4 sets of letters (spelling Spider Lake) creatively collaged, using my photos, poems and O’Keefe’s decorative papers & maps & whatnot. To be given as gifts. Can’t begin to describe my pleasure with this bunch of beauty! Every time I look at them I see something new – so, so lovely! You can find them at http://www.facebook.com/WhitewashAndCo?fref=ts
Is it still alive for you?
Isolation
The Bravery Test
More drownings. . .
Having just died — car crash —
I climbed, dead, back into bed.
Tried not to jiggle the mattress
but you woke up and asked
Are you okay? which made me cry.
Down I went, drowned this time.
It wasn’t so bad.
Here’s what I heard
as I sunk to the bottom:
You now that artist guy on TV?
Says the Bravery Test
is when you add a central object
to a painting when it’s almost done.
Like a sailboat on a perfectly
nice lake.
Plane crash, beheaded.
You said, Oh, you’ve lost your
body. You leaned over
and carried my head to a pillow
and rocked it with a lullaby
while waiting for the rest of me.
When I was stitched back together
you wrapped me in your mainsail
and kissed me goodnight.
Hard work, staying dead.
– poem and collage by mary macgowan
The Buried Seeds
All the buried seeds
crack open in the dark
the instant they surrender
to a process they can’t see.
This innate surrender
allows everything edible
and fragrant
to break ground
into a life of light
that we call Spring.
As a seed buried in the earth cannot imagine itself as an orchid or hyacinth,
neither can a heart packed with hurt imagine itself loved or at peace.
The courage of the seed is that once cracking, it cracks all the way.
– Mark Nepo
Hill
I always hated King of the Hill –
always felt tense in my gut when King,
sad when not,
and ostracized if I didn’t want to play.
That pattern has followed me through life.
But now, as a tired adult,
when I feel alone and powerless
atop whatever hill I’ve managed to climb,
I secretly long for anyone to join me.
Now, I’m ready to believe there’s more power
here
together.
– Mark Nepo, Book of Awakening
Please climb on up the hill to join Bailey and me. We can all be Kings and Queens of the Hill together. Okay? Don’t worry. We’ll all fit, we’ll make it work.
Invite A Bird To Sit Upon Your Forehead
A bird
with no name
picks at my face.
No sense wishing it away,
this bird likes
me.
I’ve other friends,
flowers too –
ladies, babies –
and armfuls of sweet color!
My pecker and I
(not the penis pecker)
have agreed
life is
honeysuckled blossoms
no matter what sits on your face
or what face you sit upon.
(Just for now, go
elsewhere, sexy thoughts!)
We are all one countenance
and the sooner we believe
the sooner we love.
(Not that
sex
isn’t important) (it is)
(but just for a moment
invite a bird
to sit upon your forehead)
(first despair)
(then)
(Love)
Collage on Monopoly playing card
65¢ THE COPY
EVER READY . . . EVER HELPFUL.
Day or night, rain or shine,
it stands
ready to help you –
in the everyday affairs of life
as well as
in emergencies.
This swift,
willing worker
will run your errands,
guard your home,
save countless steps
and valuable time
and keep you in touch
with relatives and friends.
In office
and in home,
these oft-repeated words
reveal its value –
“I don’t
know
where I’d be
without
the telephone.”
– (found poem) Nat’l Geographic, 1954
Collage on Monopoly playing cards
FAMILIAR SUPER CONSTELLATIONS
Blue Egg Tattoo Dog
Blue-egg tattoo Dog,
Girl and a Red Scarf
ran away from
your house crashing in.
You bite and they
know your Ow.
Beware, Rage Dog:
If you scare us
we’ll sing songs of love
maybe even Kumbayah
and then put you to sleep.
Gas, injection,
bullet to the head.
[Rage is there. Inside all of us. I wanted to put it on paper, look at it, wonder about it.]