FERAL (A Poem) and New Journal Cover Collage, by Patricia Kelly

[try clicking on image for larger version]



FERAL

it explodes
a feral cat stepped
on in the dark

landing it radiates
terror in stunned
stillness

then turns tail
trailing churned dirt
and dust

some things gone wild
are better left
unouted

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Yeah, both poem -- written 7/07 -- and collage are very dark in mood. Pretty much how I've been feeling for some time now. It'll pass, if my previous decades of experience with moodiness are proof of anything in this life. And the dark has its place in our lives...e.g., where else can the feral things live safely for both themselves and us? I also think it is significant that I chose (without consciously thinking about it) a red covered journal this time. Under/mixed in with a lot of dark moods there is often anger. And, in a more positive vein, energy and passion.

I just finished this collage on the cover of my newest general daily journal book. I recently bought a batch of "single topic" spiral notebooks very cheaply, so I've had to start new journals much more quickly than usual. I usually buy notebooks with 4 or 5 topic capacity (i.e, lots more pages) but could not resist that sale on the singletons! Besides, it gives me an excuse to do collages more frequently. :-) And the words in that little white circle in the upper left? "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." That button in the middle bottom says "Panic." BTW, some of you may recognize many of the images in this collage. They're from the Lord of the Rings movies.

I've been meaning to address something about my style of collaging. Until fairly recently I tried to make my hand-cut and pasted collages appear mostly seamless. Cutting away anything that would distinguish images as having come from "elsewhere" and carefully arranging them with "seamlessness" in mind. But it occurred to me as I was trimming an image that leaving a border around it of its original background would make it "pop" a bit from the foreground of the collage I was working on. And I became aware that "seams" and obvious borders can be used artistically just like anything else. So I have now added leaving seams or using borders around an image to the ways I work with images in a collage. E.g., you can see borders at the bottom of the above collage around the horses and dragons. And most of the images in this collage are "seamed." This disjointedness seems to fit the mood. You can see the use of borders and seams clearly and I think more effectively on my previous journal collage cover.

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Resource: Bolts of Silk, ".... poetry with something to say."

‘til next time, keep dreaming,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****My other blogs ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL and ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT.

WATER LANGUAGE (A Poem by Patricia Kelly)

WATER LANGUAGE

The shapeless language
of water invades my life

Pots and watering cans splash
and slip from my grasp

Leaky faucets wear
at the ragged islands
of my sleep

Another pet fish dies,
tilted against the breast
of a mermaid

My rug soaks up the rain
as a bent gutter gushes
like a manic mouth
and old window frames weep

Today, they replace the bent
drain pipe.
My walls tremble.

They pound the window frames
out into sudden emptiness.
I flinch.

They heft new lenses
into each open frame:

Ah, the trees,
surely the trees
never offered their arms
like this before,

never danced, fey dancers
conjuring joy,

never felt so green

* * * *

This poem was written in 1987 and revised in 2002. I was reminded of it recently with all the rain we have been having this year in the states. New York City has been having it's own "water language" crisis, too. Such as a recent burst steam pipe under the street in midtown Manhattan, which was particularly unnerving. The early news footage of the steam filled with white and sometimes muddy debris erupting several stories into the air, was all too reminiscent of 9/11 images. Then this morning, we had a tornado in Brooklyn (southwest of where I live in Queens) and lots of flooding all around the city. They can't find any record of there having ever been a tornado in Brooklyn before, by the way.

Hope you all are staying dry and comfy.

[I've had the above photo on my computer for years and it's source site is long since defunct -- www.birds.fl.]

* * * *

Resource: trees, if you please, a blog dedicated to trees, one of my favorite entities on this still glorious planet.

‘til next time, keep dreaming,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****My other blogs ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL and ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT.

HAIGA: Reponse to One Deep Breath's Prompt of 8/6/07

sketched in//the evening of my life//a childhood love

This week's prompt at One Deep Breath is "evening." (The drawing is by me.) You can visit One Deep Breath throughout the rest of this week to see how others creatively respond to this prompt.

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‘til next time, keep dreaming,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****My other blogs ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL and ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT.