Surrounded by the Energy of Creating

     I love being surrounded by books and thoughts of literature during the cold of winter! There is a magic with reading the written word, and a definite magic with writing words down and learning to arrange them, toss them out or recreate them into a totally new piece of writing.  

     So, teaching my first poetry combined with photography class at the local State Fair Community College has been the impetus for additional ideas in furthering my literary prowess. Not only am I teaching and hoping I'm encouraging creativity in the students, but as usual the students always encourage me to reach higher and dream bigger and create more. With this class, I am combining my love for reading and writing poetry with my first love of photography and art.

      For one assignment, I had each student select a 4-x-6-inch photo. The photos were turned upside down so they couldn't see their selection until everyone had one. The stories behind the photos weren't revealed to the students, but they were asked to write a poem using their photo for inspiration. Not an easy task, since the photos were not generic but each unique in their own way, as you can see below.

      For one student the photo above, an abstracted hosta flower I created for an art show in Los Angeles, became a very humorous poem for children about a monster cabbage who came, along with its veggy cohorts, to terrorize a fictitious town. What a wonderful imagination booster!!  

     The photo to the right, was created with two red dog food bowls at each side, a green baby bib in the center and a dryer sheet box on top. I shot it using a slow shutter speed while moving the camera. It was then further manipulated in Photoshop to create the feathering that you see now. The student who received this photo was a surgeon, who saw it as possibly an explosion but also connections in the brain. To me, I see feathery flowers, probably because a major part of my photography has been garden photos for magazines. That makes sense. We each see differently based on our life's experience. 

     This photo of a homeless man holding a soda can  (face not shown here) because of his weary eyes, red bearded face and hard working hands, became to one student, the inspiration for a poem about an archaeologist at a prehistoric dig site! 

     

     And the photo below of a dying geranium laying in the snow, prompted one student to originally ponder writing a poem about death and shadows. Instead, she did a full circle and wrote a lovely soulful piece about a dancer.

     "She dances...The Spirit flows through her like a a vessel of love." 

          One of the assignments, writing without the sense of sight, left us all pondering the idea of which sense we would be most willing to give up. This assignment inspired me to write a poem also, "Oboe Sonata." The poem began as an exercise and became so much more. As I wrote it, I began to hear an oboe playing in the wind. That's when the poem "turned" and morphed into an audio rendition based on a musical piece I love called "Gabriel's Oboe," from "The Mission " by Ennio Morricone and played by cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

"...music floats on the wind, the rise and fall like a living creature

breathing, wind chime-like soft sadness,

singing of lives not lived, a melancholy enchanter

with butter smooth measures,

oboe sonata,

Gabriel's Oboe,

like angel voices,

ascending heavenward

   on the breezes of my youth."

     Our human imaginations are ever fluid and evolving so no matter where inspiration comes from it's essential to a creative person's being. I hope to continue to inspire and be inspired over and over again. Not only during the cold winter months surrounded by books and words and art, but surrounded by people, year around, who love to create, who are filled with the energy of learning!

Operation: Save Nana's Tree!

     Hot, hot, hot! That's what it is across most of the United States. We've been seeing temperature's from 99 to 108 for the last 10 days or so, and no rain. The grass is tuning brown. You have to be careful when walking outside barefooted, on the concrete or stepping over the metal threshold of the French doors, or you'll be doing the hip-hop, two-step while muttering, "Rats!" Well at least that's what I say, anyway.

My favorite tree, a birch losing its leaves.

      I've been getting up early in the morning to water my flowers and kitchen garden and to take the dogs for an abbreviated walk. So far the flowers and veggies are doing okay, with only an occasional bowing of their heads and curling of their leaves--nothing that a quick revival of the water hose can't correct. But a couple days ago, I noticed our beautiful birch tree shedding its leaves. Not just one or two, but a mass exodus of leafy canopy descending well before their autumn departure. That same night I watched the comedy movie, "A Thousand Words," with Eddie Murphy who learned the value of choosing the right words. Full of himself, every time he spoke a word a leaf fell from the tree. He was cautioned that if all the leaves fell off the tree it would die, and he would do the same.
     This particular birch is one my favorite trees in our yard. We have pin oaks, a catalpa, red buds, dogwoods, a cypress and several sugar maples. But, this particular tree has weeping limbs that descend gracefully, sweeping down to touch the ground and bark that elegantly curls. I like to use this tree as a backdrop for outdoor photos--and much to my husband's chagrin the graceful sweeping limbs slap him in the face when he mows--(I don't think he'd mind if it died!) We've actually had word's about him trimming it!!

Singing in the "rain." Water play helps my tree!

     I, on the other hand, don't want to lose this beautiful tree. So the other day I decided to connect several hoses together and water the poor thing for two hours. I have no idea if this amount of water helped, but it sure couldn't hurt. According to ABC news, in June there were over 3000 records set for the highest temp in in cities and towns across the U.S. And, already this month, 1000 more record temperatures have been made across the country. Supposedly, according to the meteorologists, there is no relief in sight for some time yet. 

The kids beaded up like little waxed cars!!

     So yesterday I devised a plan to "Save Nana's Tree." The grand kids wanted to play in the slippy side, so the most logical solution would be to place the water slide near my drought stricken tree. Because so many hoses were connected together the water pressure wasn't high enough for the slippy slide to work properly, so my daughter and I manned the hose with a sprayer attachment and sprayed the kids. It became a fun event for them as well as us, and a good teaching event about conservation. Such as what happens when it doesn't rain for a long time (plants and trees and crops die), and why the tree drops its leaves (to help it survive and to carpet the ground to preserve moisture).  
     As we sprayed the kids they beaded up with water drops like little waxed cars--which they thought was very funny. They got into the sport of it too and took the hose close to the trunk and sprayed the tree and spread it's fallen leaves out to further help keep the sun's rays from drying the ground.
     It looks like the simpleness of leaves failing from a tree, during the hot days of a summer drought, brought us together for a moment of fun and learning--priceless for a family! Maybe we even helped save Nana's tree--we'll see.