Presents of Imprecision

On By existophile1 Comment

I’ve never been good at precision. I can do it when I must, but I feel like I have spent much of my life longing to more precise, especially when it comes to making things. I look at the carefully placed, sewn and designed items of others and think…why can’t I be more like them? This world we live in values precision, and I have always been a bit random, a bit messy a bit all over the place.

Concertina folded scarf

This is why I have found myself falling in love with the “dirty pot” method of botanical printing and dyeing. Even when I try to create a specific design leaves and bark shift as I roll them around the copper or iron pipes or concertina the leaves into a press. It doesn’t matter since every reveal is a wonderful surprise of pattern and unexpected color.

Ready for the dyebath

Every dye session is like wrapping up a present and every unwrapping feels like my birthday. I’ve never been good about waiting to open presents and the ability to “gift” myself on the regular with totally surprise combinations feels like a magical power.

Added to this is my love of plants and flowers, just not on my clothing. I don’t think I own one single floral-patterned item of clothing. How wonderful to discover that I can add what I am calling “goth botanicals” to my wardrobe.

I also like scarves, A LOT.

I’m lucky to live somewhere with a plethora of vegetation that produces good prints and so happy that my love of the humble onion extends to golden green hues on fabric.

Detail, jersey scarf: onion skins, sycamore and rose leaves and black tea details.

More to come….

The Laughing Heart

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laughingheart

The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

Try to Praise the Mutilated World

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Day 3 of National Poetry Month!

I was lucky enough to spend 2 weeks in Poland three years ago. There were statues to poets, murals with poems and the tourist bureau in Krakow even had a free chapbook with Polish poets in English translation.

What might our world be like if we paid more tribute to our poets? What if more of us were exposed early to a world seen through the lens of language scattering logic and metaphor; opening us up to possibilities we may not have considered or seen? I can’t help but think it would be richer in spirit.

Audre Lorde I think said it best:

Poetry is not only a dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.

 

You can find Adam Zagajewski’s poem here:
Try to Praise the Mutilated World

What Kind of Times are These

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Adrienne Rich had a way of bringing together beauty and pain and pointing to what was hidden, but needed light. This poem exemplifies that spirit. I was lucky enough to see her read and speak at Ithaca College shortly after 9/11. Her work and writing on intersectionality and the politics of poetry still read as relevant today as when she wrote them.

I am choosing a visual image to embroider from each poem I pick during National Poetry Month. Mushrooms recycle, transform and absorb, they grow in the shadows and have contributed their gifts to humans in so many ways.

What Kind of Times are These? by Adrienne Rich

Happy Poetry Month!75829