Tag Archives: junk journal

Light Snow, Week 2: #TankaTuesday

This is the 2nd week of the Light Snow season for Colleen Chesebro’s #TankaTuesday challenge based on the 24 Japanese seasons.

Colleen gave us our kigo phrases for this week, as well as the poetic form. We were to write three dodoitsu, a form of Japanese poetry, following a 7-7-7-5 syllable count pattern.

  • #1: “early winter dusk”
  • #2: “chilly north winds blow”
  • #3: “warmth around the hearth”

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afternoons lose light sooner

coyotes prowl for dinner

gloom collects in my kitchen

early winter dusk

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chilly north winds do not blow

we balance in luxury

no longer hot, but not cool

air gentle to touch

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though today’s weather is fair

tomorrow will be chilly

and then we’ll be grateful for

warmth around the hearth

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Care December will be starting day after tomorrow at Everything Art. Every year, Kasia who runs EA offers this free self-care and intuitive art “course.” Every day we get a video with art prompt and self-care tip as well as a brief nature experience. The only thing she asks is that we donate what we can to Action Against Hunger.

In preparation for the Care December experience, I made myself a little junk journal with a pretty cover. For the journal, I used a New York Life brochure. The staples didn’t hold so I bound it with a shoe lace. The cover is denim from an old pair of jeans, plaid fabric from a dress Grandma made for me when I was twelve, and an applique I had for my daughter’s wedding junk journal that I did not use. I wish the colors came out truer in the photo, but it’s this early winter daylight, I guess. The applique and lace are the same hunter green. The greens in the plaid are rich. And the denim is a true dark denim blue. So this image is a dud, clearly.

Each page is prepped for usage with gesso or collage.

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New News and an Anniversary Present

Don’t miss my interview yesterday with poet Millicent Borges Accardi: https://writersite.org/2023/02/06/from-mrs-virtue-to-the-covid-19-pandemic-an-interview-of-millicent-borges-accardi/ Millicent talks about the teacher who instilled her love of poetry as a kid. It so happened that the teacher was the daughter of a famous poet. She talks about her Portguguese heritage, both generally and the literature as well.

In January, I had another ekphrastic piece, this time a poem, taken at Visual-Verse. I neglected to mention last time that we only get one hour to write these to the art prompts. It’s a very intense process. https://visualverse.org/submissions/the-tournament/

Are you interested in a Giveaway for Rooted and Winged? LibraryThing is running one right now. https://www.librarything.com/ner/detail/46725/Rooted-and-Winged

Main Street Rag has published my review of Justin Hamm’s Drinking Guinness with the Dead. While I can’t post a copy of the review as it’s a print issue, I can tell you I give it two thumbs up. Hamm’s work is really tied to the Midwest and its vast once-farmland, so while anyone would love it (I think), Midwesterners would especially cherish it.

My daughter’s wedding was a year ago this coming Sunday. So look what I made for daughter and son-in-law. A wedding junk journal.

I had to find this nifty little suitcase after I realized that with the fragility of the book (cuz junk) and their lifestyle the book wouldn’t last long without protection. I was able to add in their wooden ring boxes, little place cards, extra photos, and the napkins from their previous courthouse wedding where we drank blue prosecco and ate cookies. Last year’s wedding was the whole shebang because that’s what they like.

See inside on the left? That’s a little clutch I made out of plastic grocery bags to store the cassettes of their wedding music.

That project was loads of fun, but now I’m about hearted and laced and sweetthinged out.

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New Poems Up at Sheila-Na-Gig Online

Grateful to Sheila-Na-Gig online journal and editor Hayley Mitchell Haugen for publishing two of my wolf poems. These poem are not in Rooted and Winged, but rather in a future project. I really love these poems (haha) and hope you do, too.

Both poems are “how to” poems:

*”How to Make a Hand Shadow Wolf”

*”How to Digest the Wolf”

Two Poems at Sheila-Na-Gig

 

I hope you’re having a lovely holiday weekend and that you join me for the Rooted and Winged blog tour beginning September 15.

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Violent Crime & the Family: New Essay at South 85 Journal

writersite.org

The beautiful South 85 Journal has published my essay, “Family History,” in the new issue. This creative nonfiction piece is about a violent crime that occurred within my extended family. Writing this has been so difficult, but also necessary. I just couldn’t wrap my head around what happened, so I explored it in this way. I hope you read this piece because the sharing of it also helps me process it all. But a warning: it is about violence and family.

https://www.south85journal.com/issues/spring-summer-2022/family-history/

My great-grandfather’s gavel

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Working on 100 Small Steps at Everything Art UK–this is day 15

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New Poem Up at Tipton Poetry Journal

Grateful to Tipton Poetry Journal and editor Barry Harris for publishing one of my Little Red poems.

Thanks for meeting me for coffee

Thrilled to get one of my reds in this journal. The poem is on page 12 of the document, which is page 6 of the journal. Here is how it begins.


These are tag pouches I made with trash, specifically tea bags and price tags.

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New Poem Up at Feral: A Journal of Poetry & Art

Grateful this morning to Feral: A Journal of Poetry & Art and editor Beth Gordon for publishing one of my Little Red poems.

WHAT HAPPENS IN THE DARK WHEN IT’S COLD OUTSIDE

I hope you enjoy this new take on the old story.

Arty Junk Journal

Just finished these scrap clumps last night to use in my journaling. I never did unload all my vintage fabrics, so I am using them for fun.

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