‘Overwhelmed’ looms on the flashing billboards of my irises
‘Uncertainty…’ notches tighter the belt of the world
I’ve yet to decide on an acceptable version of heaven
Still, I must not give into ‘the unfinished’ of the past newest year
This will be the newest year!
My mettle must leap beyond obeyance of previous resolutions
Fundamental confusion must not stymie my goodwill tenacity
‘Where to begin’ roadblocks must not unseat me
On or off, I am driver, I am driver, I am driver
In my hands, my keys, below my keys, my feet
This will be the newest year!
The impractical apparatus of time must be accepted
In the know is the ‘now’ where we all exist
nothing more
nothing less
With less one can always make more, I can always make more
This will be the newest year!
As this newest year approaches, wineries will bottle their harvests
The media and social will continue their ‘rule of sale’
quintessential chaos begets profit, profit begets stockholders,
stockholders rule the world
“We can all save someone, we cannot save everyone”
—good words for a nearby desk sticky note
This will be the newest year!
Those standing ahead of my engine might consider
I won’t have the balls to roll them
And, they are correct
There are ways around not having your goodness stolen
Fire exists in many forms, I can choose one
This will be the newest year!
Poe spoke of “long fits of sanity”
before he fell into a coma while wearing someone else’s clothes
There is something masterful in the un-mastered struggle
the purity of the un-chartered quest on a quiet day
‘Hold to heart my windmill’ I must sing each morning
as I shake the rust off my fingernails
This will be the newest year!
Wishing you all a kinder and more peaceful newest year
Here’s to 2023!
Love, am:)
Tag Archives: media
Sometimes Painting a Dog
I hope you and your loved ones are well.
I believe every human being should paint a dog. This is our Mojo. My daughter, who will miss him when she leaves in August to study Sustainability, asked me to paint his endearing face for one of her blank walls.
I’ve been on a personal mission to improve my word and art mind while trying to avoid deep media dives. I generally remain off-politic on this site, maintaining this space as my creative respite. But there’s so much going on out there, and I worry what this world will be like for my young adult children and their future families. The heat isn’t only climate-related.
I believe every human being is entitled to:
be whoever they believe they are
love whoever they choose
A woman’s body is her own as are her personal choices
I pray my daughter has the freedom to make her own choices
(Mojo’s background was originally purple, my daughter requested more earthly tones:) )
Scarecrow
revised this older piece this morning, sort of where my mind is floating right now
can’t remember when I sketched this, I’m thinking it was a few years ago
hope you’re all managing okay — AnnMarie
circle right go left
since 9/11
“A husband and father, as he did every morning, kissing his wife and daughter before driving to Rescue 1’s firehouse on West 53rd Street in Manhattan. And his unusual decision to stop as he walked to his van on Sept. 11, 2001, and return to kiss them one more time.”
“I’m saying to myself, he survived. He was a Marine, he was a Boy Scout (and) he was a rescue guy,” Tillie Geidel said. “If anybody could survive, he could survive.”
– Leonard Sparks for the Times Herald-Record, September 11, 2016
portrait of Gary Geidel, Rescue 1 – painted this for his mom in 2001
it’s never perfect
out of body
experienced
feet in the clouds
head below the rest
not moving forward
but losing no ground
heart and soul
right now
a keyboard duet
for an invisible piano
will be studious again
at rock bottom
where the colored paper plays
the pencils swirl
and the brushes sweep into dance
the melody heard
by intruments
not requiring perfect circumstances
they know life
is never perfect
even at its most musical
The Colors of Humanity
Imagine our earth a giant color wheel
each of us a gorgeous dot of pigment
equal reds, equal greens, all colors equal
but we humans don’t think in terms of equal
quite as much as we should
we are alike
but ‘enjoy’ thinking otherwise
we tend to shove one another around
crash head to head
we cancel each other out
and become void
we choose to destroy our brilliance
yet
if we agreed
equal to be equal
equal reds, equal greens
if we learned to stand
side by side
what beauty there would be
on the color wheel they call this complimenting
on the earth we’d call it peace
I can’t think of a more beautiful, earthly color coexistent than a parrot
parrot in Prisma pencil done around 2002
opposing colors on the color wheel are called complimentary because when placed side by side they brighten, when these same colors are mixed in equal measure, they create a neutral or gray
the other side of the rainbow
“we’ll find a way of forgiving”
is this true
wouldn’t that be beautiful
not to end
in hatred
but to persevere
in love
“somewhere over the rainbow”
because we can’t stay on this side anymore
we learn to cherish
internal not eternal beauty
of children
of people
of humanity
that rainbow keeps looking better
on the other side
green lush, pure blue
conflicts end with handshakes
not burning holes
what color there would be
what a brilliant world we could live in
we’re but one side away
if only
Created last year for a dear blogger friend–Simon Tocclo, a man of action trying to affect genuine change in Liberia. Among his many social platforms, Simon can also be found through his blog, Liberian Me
“We’ll find a way of forgiving,” borrowed from, West Side Story
“Somewhere over the rainbow,” borrowed from, The Wizard of Oz
life is a line
we sometimes spend our lives concerned over –
being first on line
choosing the right path
towing the line
being offline
being online
going down the wrong road
border lines
bylines
lineups
crossing the line
traffic lines
skylines
tree lines
the waterline
the shoreline
outlines
tan lines
following dotted lines
our waistlines
defense lines
taking the shortest line
getting wires crossed or knotted up
sniffing lines
hem lines
panty lines
firing lines
signing on the line
communication lines
wrinkle lines
writing lines
lines of demarcation
timelines
fault lines
waiting in line
making headlines, avoiding them
picket lines
yellow lines
assembly lines
coloring in the lines
cutting on the lines
perfect lines
making beelines
memorizing lines
first lines
last lines
stepping out of line
lining up
drawing lines in the sand
pickup lines
party lines
lines of crap
a line of bullshit
lifelines…
the only line missing
is the only line that matters
it is the line cut into our flesh upon conception
the thin, supple line that separates our life from our death
there is a line.
walk it well
Life Cycle, acrylic on paper painted thirty years prior
Job Box
Long ago
letters were thoughtless
compartmentalized
in walls of wood
lined in metal
alone as they were
dull
strung together
blossomed
broad thoughts
narrow concepts
soft guilt
hard passion
letters
singular
sideways upside down
gathering residue
together
prescient
wipe clean
return home
job box
alone again
’til evenings events
rally
once more
May you dream of beautiful transient letters making gorgeous journeys…
Above: Long ago, individual metal letters for traditional typesetting were kept organized in job boxes. The boxes were actually drawers that slid into a larger metal cabinet. Today, these boxes are considered antiques. I was given a plain wooden job box in exchange for a painting I did for someone. I painted the box and added my kiddies plastic toys, when they no longer had need of them. 🙂