egrets, true and faux

my bench

pink

a week of diana

the images i'm posting for the next few days
were taken with a diana camera at
the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
a selection of images
from the year long project can be seen here

tulip tease

self imposed challenge: tulips/shadows

one art

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Elizabeth Bishop

Keeping things whole

In a field
I am the absence
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.

When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in
to fill the spaces
where my body's been.

We all have reasons
for moving.
I move
to keep things whole.

Mark Strand



how did i almost completely
forget poetry month?
thank you m. heart for the
gentle (melancholy) reminder

image 1: on taos pueblo land looking
towards mabel dodge luhan house, august 2008
image 2: georgia okeeffe's 'white place', august 2008

i had hoped...

...to watch crocuses fight
their way through this wreath.
i've been watching
since january
but alas, they've
removed it.


january 19


march 30


april 15

branding

this puts me in mind of the belushi
greek luncheonette sketch on the
original snl...no coke, pepsi.


pepsi


coke


pepsi


coke

april sunday at the met

hugo van der goes, ca. 1470s
portrait of a man
because, despite the bowl cut,
he seems so contemporary,
i've always adored this portrait.



attendent to bodhisattva (avalokiteshvara)ca.13-14c
this gesture always moves me,
his face and stance
an iconic manifestation,
of humble thanks.


i'm saddened
when leaves begin to show
among the white pear petals.
soon they'll snow to the ground
and green will overwhelm...


Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes,
don manuel osorio de zuniga ca.1792
in all the years i've visited the met
i have never paused before this painting
simply because it is so familiar.
image my surprise when S showed me the
prominent magpie in the foreground


the almost-first
robin of spring
bob bob bobbin'
in central park

playing catchup

the bare bones of an excellent weekend

first the summer day -
saturday, 77 degrees -
interpolated into the gray and
still-winterness, cosy and familiar,
that is new york in april...

it was more than i could handle:
all the shiny, happy people
milling about greenmarket
unfamiliar with the warmth,
gazing at the sky...

i went home and shifted my closets,
winter to spring/spring to winter
and created a massive pile of
giveaways, bringing up the carriesque question:
do our shoulders narrow as we age or
did i really buy all those lovely
jackets too large by THAT MUCH???

sigh. adieu lovely black wool armani jacket
bought for a song at loehmann's.

then there was yesterday:
taking in some eastern karma and
the wonderful early Netherlandish rooms at
the Metropolitan Museum
and meeting blogging friends from afar
in front of Breughel's Harvesters.

a quick review of Bonnard to prove S right
and then a leisurely cup of tea (coffee for D)
on the balcony overlooking the lobby
- a nice place for tea
(or, if someone were so inclined, to leave a letter box
hidden in the wall...i'm skeptical that the cleaning staff
would miss it, though, what with increased security & all...)

A walk across the park was followed by a
pleasant meal at an arbitrarily and fortuitously
selected restaurant.

as i said, bare bones. photos to follow.

rose

a friday rose

and if you haven't as yet seen
the viral video of susan boyles
you wont regret going here

different route

in celebration of the sun
coming out to play
i walked to a subway station
a bit farther this morning
and was delighted
with the visual bounty


seventh avenue flower pot


hyacinth


jefferson market bird


blooming pear


thread


tribute

tea with honey, und so weiter...

the cough persists.
it does not further to
pretend otherwise.
perseverance furthers.

have you ever read an i ching entry
where perseverance didn't further?
maybe it's just me.

the cough got bad enough so i
took myself to the doctor
to rule out, say, walking pneumonia.
i walked out of the office without
pneumonia of any kind
and a prescription for
codeine cough syrup.
score.

i'm tryinig something
homeopathic
first although it doesn't seem to be
having an effect.

and in other news,
the cartoon below, from the new yorker
sums up my feelings about
the state of the world
pretty nicely.

apropos of a recent conversation

i want to believe in the possibility of miracles

sunday

daffodils all proper

at a brownstone in the village

this little buddah...

goes well
with my zen quote
of the day
calendar



no question
is so difficult to answer
as that to which
the answer is obvious
george bernard shaw

spring morning

blue corn man

blue corn man, aka blue corn chip man
was discovered in a bag of
Garden of Eatin' Blue Chips
blue corn tortilla chips
in March of 2004.

i find his visage
soothing.

a flamingo walks into the office....

so what was i supposed to do? ignore it?

magnolias

stuck at home