bird calls of canada

#25: make a video of someone dancing

2009-10-10T20:32:00.000-07:00

I am, indeed, dancing to Beyonce. I know many, or some anyway, would be appalled. I tried to find something Indie cool, but this is the song that moved me to dance today, and so there it is. I can't quite believe I'm posting this. I'm not a very good dancer, but I truly LOVE to dance...and that's what this whole LTLYM thing is about? Or partly about? creating for the sake of creating, exploring for the sake of adventure, dancing for the sake of moving...something like that.

Assignment #66 - Make a Field Guide to Your Yard

2009-10-06T20:42:00.001-07:00

1)Brick implies the ocean

2)There were barbecues at one point, I'm pretty sure

3)This one reminds me of grade 7 birthday parties and of paying attention

4)Plant with arms wide open, and dancing

5)The many hands of an insect, disguised

6)Two lighters in embrace

7)Bottle cap implies hockey games

8)Leaf considers it's mortality

Learning to Love You More

2009-10-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

My friend Aaron is doing this assignment, and posted his results, and has thus inspired me. I will attempt to do as many of these as I can. I think it is a grand idea and hopefully will be good remedy for my creative mind that is at present a bit sluggish with the onset of October. Here is the full list of assignments, taken from the website www.learningtoloveyoumore.com

70. Say goodbye.

69. Climb to the top of a tree and take a picture of the view.

68. Feel the news.

67. Repair something.

66. Make a field guide to your yard.

65. Perform the phone call someone else wished they could have.

64. Teach us an exercise.

63. Make an encouraging banner.

62. Make an educational public plaque.

61. Describe your ideal government.

60. Write a press release about an everyday event.

59. Interview someone who has experienced war.

58. Record the sound that is keeping you awake.

57. Lipsync to shy neighbor's Garth Brooks cover.

56. Make a portrait of your friend's desires.

55. Photograph a significant outfit.

54. Draw the news.

53. Give advice to yourself in the past.

52. Write the phone call you wish you could have.

51. Describe what to do with your body when you die.

50. Take a flash photo under your bed.

49. Draw a picture of your friend's friend.

48. Make the saddest song.

47. Re-enact a scene from a movie that made someone else cry.

46. Draw Raymond Carver's Cathedral.

45. Reread your favorite book from fifth grade.

44. Make a "LTLYM assignment".

43. Make an exhibition of the art in your parent's house.

42. List five events from 1984.

41. Document your bald spot.

40. Heal yourself.

39. Take a picture of your parents kissing.

38. Act out someone else's argument.

37. Write down a recent argument.

36. Grow a garden in an unexpected spot.

35. Ask your family to describe what you do.

34. Make a protest sign and protest.

33. Braid someone's hair.

32. Draw a scene from a movie that made you cry.

31. Spend time with a dying person.

30. Take a picture of strangers holding hands.

29. Make an audio recording of a choir.

28. Edit a photo album page.

27. Take a picture of the sun.

26. Design an article of clothing for Mona to crochet.

25. Make a video of someone dancing.

24. Cover the song "Don't Dream It's Over".

23. Recreate this snapshot.

22. Recreate a scene from Laura Lark's life story.

21. Sculpt a bust of Steve.

20. Take a family portrait of two families.

19. Illustrate a scene or make an object from Paul Arensmeyer's life story.

18. Recreate a poster you had as a teenager.

17. Record your own guided meditation.

16. Make a paper replica of your bed.

15. Hang a windchime on a tree in a parking lot.

14. Write your life story in less than a day.

13. Recreate the moment after a crime.

12. Get a temporary tattoo of one of Morgan Rozacky's neighbors.

11. Photograph a scar and write about it.

10. Make a flier of your day.

9. Draw a constellation from someone's freckles.

8. Curate an artist's retrospective in a public place.

7. Recreate 3 minutes of a Fresh Air interview.

6. Make a poster of shadows.

5. Recreate an object from someone's past.

4. Start a lecture series.

3. Make a documentary video about a small child.

2. Make a neighborhood field recording.

1. Make a child's outfit in an adult size.

Rafts in Water

2009-06-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

Everything has a centre to which it falls

And I remember

In the ether when you had already landed here

With our parents,

I began falling.

Somewhere in the second year of your life you called my name

In a dream perhaps, or while playing in the yard with miniature men

Dressed up in war

You called my name and I was brought toward

You called my name like calling out the thunder

Or spring.

Our parents hushed voices

The air through the window

The creeking front door

The light on the ceiling.

And then…

Red wagons, tin can shoes, piles of leaves, construction site, ice through windows,

Running away, swing sets, hockey sticks, battle beasts, grass like fur, fur, birds, runaway hamsters, long hills to walk up, bullies who I destroyed for you in my mind, penny candy, attic spaces, ladders, rafts in water, water snakes, chasing dogs and skunks and light

And light

These years have spun so quickly

And all I can say truly is that

I am grounded because you

remembered me

From that place where we had no names.

I am sometimes off in a space with no hands to hold me.

I am often tripping over choices, and others, and my own breaking

And

I am always brought back

To the centre to which I fall

This gravity that holds me safer

This one who will always know me, and tell me, and remember

This comfort and grace, to be your sister.

The Winter Calf

2009-01-05T19:14:00.000-08:00

The winter calf knows only

this snow,

this quiet,

this still field

of many mothers cooing

standing close by to preserve

this small life.

No siblings or peers to speak of,

none that have survived their arrival,

the winter calf becomes inward.

Watch him watching you

as you dole out the bails of grass,

as you call in the dogs,

as you try to take care.

Across the long expanse of yard

the winter calf stands for hours

watching the forest for signs of life

during the deepest cold in decades.

You cannot tell me that this one

is lonely.

He is loved for his singularity.

A source of hope for the mothers of loss;

a source of warmth during longer nights.

Do not try to write this poem

2009-01-04T21:32:00.000-08:00

This poem will be

a blue river that recedes from you

and rushes toward

the ocean

that is everything.

Do not try to hold it

it is not yours to

break or bend or bleed into.

This poem is a hand.

how can your words be a hand? only hands

and sometimes rivers

can be hands.

This poem will be a hand

that signals the beginning

of a world.

This poem will be the fall

it will be winter and then

it will melt.

do not try to write this poem.

Do not try to write this poem.

It is not yours to bend or break or

bleed into.

It is a blue river

that will recede from you

and rush

into the ocean that is everything.

winter canyons

2009-01-04T21:13:00.000-08:00

This year is a clear sky with a wind chill like the feel

of my heart

has been breaking ever since the beginning

it won’t stop falling wide open.

I cannot stop this falling wide open.

Every time I cry

every time i bust open these stones

i am trying to excavate some truth in this skin

this shiftable maze of vein

i drive down roads full of orchards and lakes

sing with my lungs at the top

scream out someones name that is not mine