CAMERA OBSCURA

Light bounces from the sun to the snow
through the oval window in my front door
through a magnification glass onto the wall
projecting the upside down and backward image
which I photograph with a digital camera
which through software it is sent into cyberspace
via the internet to be seen with your eyes on a screen.

This light has had quite a voyage.

I Shiver

I WANNA BE

When I was a wee little girl

My burning passion was to  get up at the crack of dawn

run ouside through the squeeky screen door

jump upon the upturned zink tub

to tap dance and sing as loudly as I might

"I wanna be a cowboy's sweetheart."

When I got a wee bit older I walked by myself four miles

upon the main boulevard

to the opening of a new bank

to

see

Roy Rogers!

Upon the wall of my very red bathroom

hangs a poster

of the beautiful women of the wild west

roping cattle

from the Gene Autrey Western Heritage Museum

My favorite place is Taos, New Mexico

and

Hans Christian Andersen's

homeland of Denmark

I also love to sing "On the Good Ship lollipop"

I played hit it you get it

with the boys on the playground and WON their marbles

Now, I will tell you for sure:

I have NO idea what all of this means.

And the best/worst of me is that I own a pair of red and green Ralph Lauren Cowboy boots

I wear these every Christmas with dresses to parties

and my very best friend fought me for these and lost.

One more thing

I got my most prized possession

my first library card when I was four years old. . . then

I learned how to use a computer in the early eighties

because our new library no longer had a card catalogue.

AND I own a Kindle

When I get home THIS waits for me

JOY

TO SEE THE STARS AT NIGHT,

THE VERY SAME STARS THAT SHINE,

OVER YOU,

AND YOU,

AND YOU,

AND ALSO, YOU.

Eggs and Water and Fire

You Can Never Hold Back Spring

I bought one of these for my front yard. It is spectacular. Little tiny buds that look like purple pansies and leaves that are shaped like dark purple hearts.

Listen to Tom Waits sing you a promise.

Watch Tom Waits - You Can Never Hold Back Spring on MTVMusic.com

Shadow of A Video to Come

Do you ever feel that you have hit the wall?

A jogging term for when you are stopped

in your tracks,
When nothing goes the way it is intended,
When circumstances are beyond control,
When you feel like no one on this earth,

Knows you are there?
Do you ever have a hole,
Inside that can not be filled?
My Dad used to tell me, at times like this,

Just sit on your hands.

Now, what the heck does that mean?
My mom says to just sit and spin.

No wonder I am dizzy.

My daughter moved far, far, away.

Hence, the hole.

So, I work, and work.

I doodle and dream.

Sometimes, I just scream.

But mostly, I focus on teaching.

We are going to do a puppet show.
A shadow puppet show. Banjo music.
Queen Anne's Lace, Red bud trees,

Signs that spring WILL come, again.

Watch Tom Waits - Hold On on MTVMusic.com

Watch Tom Waits - Hold On on MTVMusic.com

Shadow Puppet

Red Tuesday

20 Little Children Are a Big Responsibility

The Puppet Theater I built for my classroom is also a blackboard where they draw what I am teaching. The three sided structure
is a where we hang from clothes pins their paintings, etc. to dry.
There are pegs inside where they hang their smocks. I make puppets for them to use to tell their stories. I hang paper containers filled with colorful chalk.
We learn Origami. We marble paper. We paint. We sing. We dance. We draw. We look for the beauty in the world. Most of these children will not have an art experience, in public school. I have one chance to set their hearts on fire for creative expression. They teach me so very much.

Scan of The Child As Artist - Professor Cizek MCMXXI

The Sun Is Shining Inside My House On This Rainy Day

So, how do I do this?

Deep in concentration I try so hard

to focus while the sun shines into

the window blinding my vision.

Mirror shots are all I can do for now.

If I Could Whisper Into A Child's Ear

IF


If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master;
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you except the
Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run--
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!


By Rudyard Kipling

EARTH ANGEL

Loving You and Art Saves Lives

Fly away birdies to the sunshine where you will be more comfortable. I will miss you!