Small Stones

Hi Folks:

Friday November 1 was Mindful Writing Day according to the people at Writing Our Way Home and it was also our introduction to a form of writing known as small stones.  From the site,  “A small stone is a short piece of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment.”  As photographers, our photographs for the most part are momentary vignettes, small slices of time or experience captured in an image and this style of writing attempts the same only with words.  Some styles of poetry – micropoetry or haiku for example can use this approach, but they need not do so and small stones need not be written in poetic style.  Some excellent examples of small stones can be found on the blogzine a handful of stones.  As for us, we’re still learning this style and so it may be that some of our stones need some polishing, but we’re having fun with it so far.  Here are a few examples from us:

Marcia:

moon roof opens
plump fingers slide into view
as the son rises
blond haired toddler
the light of their lives.

last breath of scent
in blossom full
as leaves release their lives
to flash their own glory
one last time

Autumn leaves masked her path. Rain pelted down as peacocks preened under cover of the gazebo.

Mike:

The soft gentle curve
of her body
as it folds into mine…

Sweet scent of her hair
and the quiet even rhythm
of her breath in sleep…

The best place in the whole world.

Under the gazebo a woman in a bright red raincoat chats on the phone while three peacocks stand by, patiently waiting their turns.

The Great Blue Heron on the pier sits and watches the couple who stare past and do not see … while the harbour seal laughs a silent laugh.

If you’ve written some small stones or other prose/poetry we’d love to read them!  Leave us a note in the comments below.

Hugs,
M&M

A Year in the Life … revealed …

Hello Dear Ones!

Two years ago today, on the Sunday of Canada’s Victoria Day long weekend of 2009, I stepped onto the retreat grounds of Queenswood and an incredible journey began … leading me to write my first book:

A Year in the Life of a Bus-Traveling Poet

It has been – and is still – a magical journey, one in which you, Dear Reader, took an active role … as one of my dearest inspirations! That’s why I thought to stop by today to share this exciting news with you … my book has been published and is now available for sale!  You can check it out here: http://bit.ly/buspoet (paperback) or here: http://amzn.to/buspoet-k (Kindle version)

And, as a tantalizing little bonus for you, a glimpse of one of my very favourite sections: Continue Reading →

Poetry ‘n’ Pics III

Hello Dear Ones!

My book  – A Year in the Life of a Bus-Traveling Poet – went to the printers on June 29th. Blessings be, we beat the deadline! Since then I’ve been filling all my spare time writing poetry galore! Lots to include today … enjoy! Continue Reading →

Poetry Corner – Poetry ‘n’ Pics!

Hello Dear Ones!

Today’s Poetry Corner is being dedicated to a new category within M&M’s Musings: Poetry ‘n’ Pics.

Seems that two creative passions vie for my time and attention each day – poetry and fractal artwork. Many of you who know me through Twitter will be familiar with my micropoetry.  Individual tweets of my poems get sent out in that fashion on occasion. Yet there are days – like today – when I write six, nine, a dozen or more! I don’t like overloading inboxes with tweet after tweet of my verse.

The majority of you would be unaware that I also do art work through the computer. Many of my pieces have found their way to our Flickr site (click on Fractals: my work shows up under Marcia’s Apophysis Galaxies). Here are two of my favourite pieces – the Beribboned Buddha plus Mother and Child: Continue Reading →

Poetry Corner – Haiku Galore!

Hello Dear Ones!

If I submitted a tweet for every haiku I write, everyone who follows me would see my smiley-faced avatar umpteen times a day. It also means I’d not have time to do much other than write haiku and enter tweets in to Twitter! I tweet enough as it is without adding an additional load to my followers’ HootSuite or TweetDeck or other such options!

As a result, today’s Poetry Corner will offer a compilation of the haiku and related styles of micropoetry that I have recorded the past week. They are provided here in the order in which they came to me.  Haiku subjects vary moment by moment in topic for me – just the way my mind works and my heart connects to all that is in my life. You’ll notice there is seldom a common theme: with one exception – the Progressive Haiku poems (seen as #progressivehaiku in Twitter) that have an emotional series or chain of thought over several stanzas from sadness to joy.  Enjoy! Continue Reading →

Poetry Corner – One Breath Per Line

Hello Dear Ones!

An dear e-friend and great micropoet through Twitter: Tina Nguyen has recently inspired several of us to get into a more extended style of Haiku – known as Gogyohka:

Gogyohka is a new form of Japanese short poetry, founded and pioneered by Japanese poet Enta Kusakabe. Gogyohka is pronounced go-gee-yoh-kuh (the “g”s are hard as in “good”), and literally translated means “five line poem”. Gogyohka is five lines of free verse on any subject matter. There is no set syllable pattern, however the poem should be short and succinct. The goal is to compellingly capture an idea, observation, feeling, memory, or experience in just a few words.

Gogyohka is a fun and easy form, making poetry writing accessible to everyone, including children. Yet it is challenging as a method of practice for self-reflection, contemplation, and distilling one’s thoughts. Continue Reading →

Poetry Corner – Poems and Dragonflies

Hello Dear Ones!

Seems that micropoetry (#micropoetry in the Twitter world!) is happily becoming a new past time for me. Short poems, haiku and senryu are all the rage with the folks I follow and who follow me. I wrote about this topic two weeks ago. If you missed that post you might want to take a moment to read it: here.

Just today I discovered (thanks to a new twitter friend) a fabulous website/blog where archives of some of the best twitter poetry are pulled together in the most appealing fashion. Please check out The Dragonfly Collection ~ haiku from Twitter ~ http://dragonflyarchives.wordpress.com/ The site is restful, spiritually nourishing, educational and inspiring! A site definitely worth your time. I’ve now bookmarked them for a daily journey into relaxation and soulful pleasure. Continue Reading →

Poetry Corner – Micropoetry

Happy Spring Dear Ones!

At least it is newly Spring here in Canada – especially here on the southern tip of our beautiful Vancouver Island.

May I suggest that you read my post from Monday: Marcia’s Meanderings – Thank you, Twitter! It’s brief and gives you a bit of an introduction to this post today.

Micropoetry is a new term for me, even as versed (pun intended!) in poetic styles as I am. Being relatively new to Twitter, I recognized the standard hashtag (#) defined in Wikipedia as: “Short messages on services such as Twitter or identi.ca (that) may be tagged by including one or more hashtags: words or phrases prefixed with a hash symbol (#).” The use of this hashtag is to connect with people of like minds. If you want to share micropoetry with others you add the phrase #micropoetry into your tweet (your Twitter message) and others can see your poem. Similarly for #haiku or other short poetry styles. This works also for finding people interested in non-poetry subjects such as #hugs or #spring or #photography.

The following are some of the haiku and micropoems I have written recently:

The body slumbers ~ in moonlight spirit dances ~ sips on tears of joy. #haiku

Tulips bloom/ Two lips arch/ Smiles blossom. (in honour of Spring) #micropoetry

Welcoming smiles/ crack the landscape/ of a happy face. #micropoetry

Powdered sugar snow/Dusts the lawn/Sweetening the day. #micropoetry

On the bus a child/Knows her A B Cs song/ Sings to me sweetly. #haiku Continue Reading →