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Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water
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Legos in the Garden
September 10, 2015
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- Lego dragonfly
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- Lego dragonfly
Tucson Botanical Gardens has been a favorite place close to home where I enjoy nature. A recent building project has enhanced the garden’s entrance and gift shop space significantly. Tomorrow a special exhibit will open called Nature Connects, Art with Lego Bricks. Sculptural designs made completely with Legos are on display in the gardens. The pieces came assembled and will stay in Tucson until Jan. 3. They depict animals and a flower.
Lego spider
To pay for the exhibit the plan is to charge all members $5 every time we visit during the nearly 4 months that the Legos are installed. We have maintained a couple’s membership for many years. If I decide to renew when my membership comes due in February I will only buy a single. I have in the past felt generous toward the gardens, but now that they are throwing the members out for almost a third of the year that feeling has passed. I have started to think about where I will go to take a walk in nature without any membership fees. I can think of plenty. Nature without Legos works best for me, so perhaps our taste in botany has simply diverged. In my opinion the plastic animals are tacky and belong elsewhere. Poetry in the Gardens has moved to the U of A arboretum this year, yet another reason to drop my membership. The garden is an asset to the neighborhood that I will miss…at least for the next four months. I think they could have thought of a more respectful way to treat loyal members.
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- Lego deer
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- Lego deer eye
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- Lego deer
plastic pansy
Lego peacock
Lego turtle
Saraswati’s Gift
July 9, 2015
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Saraswati
The Hindu goddess Saraswati represents creativity and artful expression. Her role as an educator in the arts is combined with her inspirational qualities. She once was a river in India, so her fluidity is natural. Art turns emotional states into keen statements. She is a guide to bring artfulness to all aspects of living. Her inventive spirit sheds new light on the creative process. She is popular in India today. I enjoy seeing all the ways she is depicted. She rides a swan and plays music. Her influence is uplifting and encouraging, helping you to locate your muse. You can invite her into your dreams and meditation in subtle ways. I like to use a visualization which is a combination of some of my favorite techniques rolled into one:
- I imagine a hill with a stairway that I climb. The length of the climb varies each time I do the meditation. My stairs are always spiraling around the hill, and I am usually on an island where I can see the surf. Your own details will be different from mine.
- At the top of the stairs is a temple with pillars and special light. It feels like a sanctuary built just for me. I stand in the center of the round temple and observe the doorways through which I can exit. I ask Saraswati to join me in the center.
- When she has arrived she guides me to a door and leads me down a hallway to a room with a skylight made of stained glass. This room is even more personal and specific to my needs than the outer temple. I sit in here to meditate.
- Before leaving I ask Saraswati for a gift to take back to my regular life. This mysterious part of the visualization is the heart of the matter. She gifts me with symbolic items that are designed to spur my intuition, imagination, and creativity. Initially the items may seem to have no pertinence, but if you let the images soak in you will find meaning in them.
- I thank her and start walking back the way I came, back into my waking reality.
This exercise does not need to include Hindu deities if that disturbs your sensibilities. It may be too much for you to think of hanging out with a goddess riding a swan. This same sequence will work well if you go to the temple and choose any entity, alive or dead, to join you and give you a gift. In reality you are both yourself and the gift giver in this program. The insight comes when you grasp the meaning of the gift and are able to use it to be more inventive and artful.
Poet Hollow
April 30, 2015
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orchid
Woods dripping with Spanish moss and voodoo shrines
Down the hill from the oracle cave the hermit still declines
To give you the secret magic word you use to save the day
Find the sorcerer’s manuscripts then interpret what they say
Squandered youth, wild stormy stories, hidden truth of night
Dreams bring colorful vibrant myths, strong psychic insight
The realm inhabited by poetry and poets, invisible to some
Portrays life more intensely, gives clues to why we have come
flora
NaPoWriMo 2015
It has been a real privilege to inhabit the place of the poets this April. Thanks to all who contributed and read.
Spylight
April 24, 2015
— 3 Comments
skeleton
Windows of stained glass, gothic arches reaching down from heaven
Contain secret hiding places from which to see the world in procession
Between clouds and stars light years have passed uncounted, forgotten
Pathways of comets, trails of meteors falling to earth, and fools misbegotten
Bright illumination shines through the veils, the curtain, and the hidden door
While multitudes enrolled in rival schools of thought collapse into war
Youth, athletic performance, strength have become the peak obsession,
Playing games is a metaphor when competition is the prize possession
NaPoWriMo 2015
Poets and poetry are celebrated during the month of April here. Enjoy reading writing and reciting!!!
Isolated Incidents
April 21, 2015
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Arcs of time and industry ebb and flow with innovating thrills
Cabinets filled with medicine bottles offering colored pills
Return the reflection with irony and mysterious vague glance
Rusting in the basement of chance, iron predators sing and dance
Post industrial
After thought of swimming in polluted water to the ship of rules
Most of the company parted in haste to avoid the jeering ghouls
Manufactured waste, canyons created by exhausted greedy souls
Sharply cut into the landscape, drill deeper holes, impossible goals
Industrial
Ride the poetry train in April by reading, writing and hearing more poetry. Find new poets to enjoy here.
NaPoWriMo 2015
Minor Key
April 17, 2015
— 8 Comments
dawn
Mandolin trills with sad sounds of distant hills
Waltzing to tunes that copy ancient steps
Taken by ancestors then followed by custom
Hard times in remote poverty stricken hollow
Grist for the mill of class distinction and politics
Strength reserved for the fight against outside
Influences, foreign thinking, radical ideas of justice
Mountain fog and shadows crawl along the valley
Softening the view, keeping it narrow and dark
NaPoWriMo 2015
April is for poetry writing. Join the fun by reading or contributing here. Enjoy!!!!
Window Dressing
April 15, 2015
— 1 Comment
wrinkled
Gazing out through the window made of magical reflection
Scenes play out vividly structured for the ego’s protection
We find we are exactly the picture of perfection and gravity
When our memory edits all stories to obstruct our incapacity
Our flawless composure, wisdom, grace, incomparable wit
Are features of our self image, where the hubris never quits
You may be the only one who knows the truth in the end
Courage sees behind the tales, between the lines, my friend
NaPoWriMo 2015
Every day in April poets are contributing verbal blessings here. Ride the poetry train for fun and creative stimulation. There is something for everyone in this group.
Destined to Fall
April 14, 2015
— 1 Comment
intricate
Water finds the way to flow around and over any obstacle encountered
Vertical drop, narrow banks of rocky cliffs send a river splashing downward
Like the River Rhone flows through the Lake of Geneva, energy remains
The signature of rushing liquid communicating exactly like the rains
Falling from the heavens, moving mountains, shaking boulders free
Direction has not been questioned because every drop is heading to the sea
NaPoWriMo 2015
Enjoy the creativity available all during the month of April here. Ride the poetry train to deepen your understanding and appreciation of art and life.
Electric Soul
April 12, 2015
— 1 Comment
copper
Compressed and coiled to rise with great jubilant recital
Those words never uttered, thoughts buried, smothered, smoldering
Cascades of songs and tributes to romance obscured in shadow
Leaving impressions too faint to be heard or interpreted by strangers
Wound around old wounds and spinning in familiar territory
Grace slowly unwinds the layers of crusades and causes
To reveal a universal storm of color, thunder and lightening
NaPoWriMo 2015
Enjoy the creative work of all kinds of poets during the month of April here. Find new creativity by writing one of your own. It is therapy for the inner you. Everyone has a poet within.
Fate or Fortune
April 11, 2015
— 4 Comments
Makers of envy and avarice, green paper creatures
Faces of national heroes serve to guard their values
Internalized between agreements, overexposed features
Images of past betrayal written across the centuries
Imitation freedom, a state of restraint, a wicked teacher
Between imagined fantasy and all too vivid toxic misery
cholla
What kind of advantage is gained by digging deeper?
Is there an alternative to repeating the worst of history?
NaPoWriMo 2015
Check the daily poetic action here, or follow the hashtag #NaPoWriMo. Join the fun and ride the poetry train all month in April.
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