MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU...

To all friends old and new...please accept this award with my thanks as a very small gift of appreciation for your friendship and all the wonderful things I have enjoyed this year on your blogs and in your comments.
Wishing a Merry Christmas to you all...
and a wonderful New Year.

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER...

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago...

...What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.
by Christina Rossetti

TIDINGS OF COMFORT AND JOY...

Now to the Lord sing praises,
All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All others doth deface:

O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

lyrics to God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

~

What a wonderful thing that our Savior hears and answers our prayers.

PRAYERS FROM THE HEART...

We send prayers aloft

for our sister Clytie

prayers of healing

prayers from the heart

prayers for our gentle keeper of hearts.

Father in Heaven please hear our prayers.

THE WARMTH OF DECEMBER...

Feel the warmth of December
In the candles on the mantle
From the glow of the Yule log
From the lights on the tree
In the eyes of the givers
In the smiles of the children
Feel the joy of the season
Feel it shine all around us
It’s the gift of our Savior
For the hearts that believe.

DSW 09

I LOVE THIS POEM...

Art by Edward Burn Jones

~

Love after Love

The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,

and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here.

Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine.

Give bread.

Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit.

Feast on your life.

by Derek Walcott

JUST SO YOU KNOW...

Several of my friends have asked about the poems and art on my blogs...These are the initials I use on all my artwork and or poetry, it is my signature...I know, I know it's the same as a famous shoe company...but I have been around a lot longer then they have...and I'm not selling shoes so I don't think they will mind.
If I know the author of the piece of art or poetry I will post it, if I don't I just leave it blank. Just so you know...

TURKEY'D OUT...

Turkey in the morning

Turkey in the evening

Turkey at supper time

Be my little honey

and eat a slice of mine.

My apologies to the Lennon Sisters

HAPPY THANKSGIVING...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING...

to friends who have given me plenty to be thankful for.

PLEASE SPARE THE ROD...

art by Marianne Stokes
~
The hardest stone
stern will beguiled
all washed away
in the tears of a child.

My hand is stayed
I failed my part
your tear filled eyes
have torn my heart.
DSW 09

IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER...

I know my face ain't no shining star

I know how homely I are

But I don't mind it

I are behind it
It's the guy in front who gets the jar.

The Ugly Duchess by Quinten Matsys painted about 1515

verse unknown

GONE FOR GONSALVES...

This is the illusion art of Rob Gonsalves. I really enjoy it and just wanted to share it with you my friends...

BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA...

Autobiographia Literaria

When I was a child
I played by myself in a
corner of the schoolyard
all alone.

I hated dolls and I
hated games, animals were
not friendly and birds
flew away.

If anyone was looking
for me I hid behind a
tree and cried out “I am
an orphan.”

And here I am, the
center of all beauty!
writing these poems!
Imagine!

by Frank O'Hara

RAINBOW SEEKER...

Rainbow Room

Almost any rainbow
Finds a place to start,
In a rain stained heaven,
Or a tear stained heart…

by Lillian Everts

MUTE...

art by Salvador Dali


Mute

Some ever quite thing
I would that I could be,
A window through whose opening
You look upon the sea-

Some inanimate bit
You cherish day by day,
Having constant need of it
Forever in your way.

A song that makes you glad
A picture on your wall,
Some unfeeling thing that had
No need of you at all.

by Julia Van Norman

LET THE EVENING COME...

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in the long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don't
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

by Jane Kenyon

JOCKAMO & RICHARD...

This is Jockamo, he is a French Harlequin...isn't he an arrogant looking fellow I fell in love with his beautiful blue eyes and his teeny tiny heart. He goes well with the poem I want to share, they are both favorites of mine.

Richard Cory

by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good-morning,” and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

FULL MOON WARNING...

Full Moon Warning

~
Sitting in the darkness howling
he reached through the window
tapped me on the shoulder.
Sorry moon,
I said,
No light of your own
borrow from someone else.

He beamed a knowing grin

through the huge hole he poked in the sky.
Miserable moon,
I said,
setting all to glow, Illuminating nothing.

He kept on smiling down

smiling like a lover
Devil moon,
I said,
Distant cold hearted fickle orb

here one night and gone the next.

Rising a little,

he sent a bright finger rippling across the water

beckoning he drew me like the tide

into the darkness
to dance in the glow of his ambient light.

Hateful moon,
I said,
you know you make me crazy.

DSW 09

WELCOME NOVEMBER...

Color steals from the scene leaving the landscape
mottled in muted shades of grey and brown.
the last of autumns vibrant leaves let go and roll away.
Canadas loiter in the field and pond
fill the sky in huge arrows pointed south.
Grey clouds hang thick and low ,
twitching finger branches tap the window.
As bare corn stalks rattle in the wind,
abandoned pumpkins wither in the skeletal garden.
Abundant harvest, feast of Thanksgiving, prayers of gratitude surrounded by
Flocks, hundreds of black starlings shifting paisleys in the air.
And then, snow, a few flakes, then more, and then winter.
This would be November.

DSW 09

HAPPY HALLOWEEN MY PRETTIES...

art by Grannie Annie

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL MY

GHOUL FIENDS...AND SISTER WITCHES.

HAVE FUN, STAY SAFE,

INDULGE YOUR INNER CHOCOLATE LOVER!

I HAVE BEEN HER KIND...

Her Kind

by Anne Sexton
I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light:
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.
I have found the warm caves in the woods,
filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,
closets, silks, innumerable goods;
fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:
whining, rearranging the disaligned.
A woman like that is misunderstood.
I have been her kind.
I have ridden in your cart, driver,
waved my nude arms at villages going by,
learning the last bright routes, survivor
where your flames still bite my thigh
and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.
A woman like that is not ashamed to die.
I have been her kind.

~

Here's to real witches, to those of us who probably would have been torched at the stake had we been born in Salem in the 1600s instead of safe and insane in the "enlightened" twenty first century...I have been her kind.

WONDERFUL WITCHES...

art by Charles Wysocki

Why dance with the trolls...when you can soar with the witches,

and thrill at the clouds flying by.

Why sweep with your broom...when you can sail cross the moon
and back in the blink of an eye.

Why put up with grief...when instant relief

can be had dipping apples in lye.

Don't just veg in your chair...cause some havoc out there

and hurry cause Halloween's nigh.

Grab a tall pointie hat...and that one eyed black cat,

an old broom and you're ready to fly!

DSW 09

FISHY ART...

This is my latest big collage piece. The pictures on it are by James Christensen (don't you just love his fish & angels). I love his art and love working with it. I didn't do much to alter the art this time I wanted it to be more about visual motion, perspective and the altering of shapes. This is better in person because his pictures seem to sink into the canvas...of course this is just for my own wall because of copyrights...but if James doesn't want me hacking up his calendars he shouldn't sell them to me. tee hee

THANK YOU SO MUCH JANN...

Thank you to Jann of FOREVER JANN for this lovely award. Jann is just the best friend anyone could have. She is a beautiful and creative lady who spends her energies creating her unbelievably super fantastic blogs and her wonderful altered art. Check out her blog you'll love it!!

A LITTLE HALLOWEEN MADNESS...

Freaky art by Chris Mars

~

I ran across this freaky interpretation of Halloween it's wild and different so I wanted to share it with all my blog friends who know that wild and different is my thing. Keep the home cauldron bubbling babe Halloween is almost here.

PROOF OF MY INSANITY...

About a year or so ago I fell in love...right in the lighting aisle at Lowes. It was love at first sight with a Shoe Chandelier...just because it made me smile...and because it inspired me. Every time I went to Lowes (which is a lot) I would visit my shoe chandelier shake my head and say...YOU'RE NUTS. Well friends the temptation to see it everyday and make it what I wanted, was too much and I brought it home. When I opened the box it looked about like the top picture. Two days and seven bottles of paint later it is everything I knew it could be...and (bonus) it gives off so much light it is wonderful in my art room. And I don't worry about what people think when they see it because...they pretty much all know I'm crazy anyway.

P.S. Thanks to my dear, sweet, long suffering husband for hanging it up for me.

DON'T MAKE ME CALL OUT THE FLYING MONKEYS...

Are you a good witch...or a bad witch???

Which, witch will it be?

I've asked myself this question,

the answer's vague you see.

Am I a good witch...or bad witch,
no matter what my kids might say,

if I'm a good or bad witch

really depends on the day...

~

Just don't make me call out the flying monkeys!

DSW 09

ADVENTURES OF ISABEL...

...Once in a night as black as pitch

Isabel met a wicked old witch.

The witches face was cross and wrinkled,

the witches gums with teeth were sprinkles.

Ho ho Isabel! the old witch crowed,

I'll turn you into an ugly old toad!

Isabel, Isabel didn't worry,

Isabel didn't scream or scurry,

She showed no rage and she showed no rancor,

But she turned the witch into milk and drank her.... by Ogden Nash

FALL IN LOVE WITH FALL...

One of the things I love best about fall, is my autumn yard babies, in all my favorite colors. The bees love them too.

SULAMITH WULFING ROCKS...

This painting by Sulamith Wulfing is one of my very dearest possessions. It was on a postcard I found it in the collage book store many years ago, but I could find out nothing about the artist, so I framed it and hung it on my wall...Enter the Internet and GOOGLE image (another great joy in my life) Imagine my delight when after decades I find a whole site dedicated to Sulamith and all her works. You will find many of them on a Slide at the bottom of my blog...ENJOY!

TRICK OR TREAT OCTOBER...

October's sky is black and filled with stars,

a Hunter moon rises full and bright over the pumpkin patch.

Cornstalks shiver and huddle together in bunches,

the scarecrow stands his guard alone.

Purple magic swirls through the night air,

fanned by the swish of a witches broom.

Jack-o-lanterns pier from porches with wicked leers,

while small goblins scurry round about

collecting candy and cackling with glee.

Trick or treat October, trick or treat?

DSW 09

A SONG CALLED, NOVEMBER...

art by Sulamith Wulfing ~ lyrics by Azure Ray

~

So I'm waiting for this test to end

So these lighter days can soon begin

I'll be alone but maybe more carefree

like a kite that floats so effortlessly.

~

I was afraid to be alone
Now I'm scared that's how I'd like to be

All these faces none the same

How can there be so many personalities.

~

So many lifeless empty hands

So many hearts in great demand

And now my sorrow seems so far away

Until I'm taken by these bolts of pain.

~

But I turn them off and tuck them away

'til these rainy days that make them stay

And then I'll cry so hard to these sad songs

And the words still ring, once here now are gone.

~

And they echo through my head everyday

And I think they'll never go away

Just like thinking of your childhood home

We can't go back, we are on our own...

TORNADO WARNING...

art by Rob McCormick
LIFE IS A TORNADO WATCH...

...are you going to hunker down in the basement,
...or stand on the roof, let the wind give you rock star hair...

...AND YELL ...

...I DIDN'T RAKE THE LEAVES CAUSE I KNEW YOU WERE COMING!

YOU JUST TAKE MY BREATH AWAY...

art by Obinski

Sometimes it amazes me

How strong the power of love can be

Sometimes you just take my breath away.

You watch my love grow like a child

Sometimes gentle and sometimes wild

Sometimes you just take my breath away.

And it's to good to slip by

It's too good to lose
Too good to be there

Just to use

I'm gonna stand on a mountain top

And tell the news

That you take my breath away.

CLOUDBURST REVIEW...

Grey shrouded actors bow to the ground.

Applause thunders on and on,

encore, encore,

the stage runs wet with tears.

DSW 09

ROMANCE WITH THE HISTORICAL...

wonderful art by Scott Gustefson

Life in the nineteenth century fascinates me. However the thought of having to endure it would send me screaming into the woods. Corsets, hoop skirts, petticoats and fans might be someones idea of wonderful...but not mine, and the ridged rules and restrictions on women...Oy, I would have been known as a first class hoyden, men's breeches, bare feet & ankles and all...George Sand is my hero.

Still, I love to read about it. Dickens, Austin, Bronte, Sand...Kleypas, Woodwiss, McNaught, Quinn...give me a historical romance and a lazy afternoon and I am in heaven.

Though when I think about it, it seems funny that my mind has settled a fascination on one particular time period over another, even though I wouldn't want live then. Egads...Maybe I was George Sand in a previous life. LOL

MOURNING AN OLD FRIEND...

art by Sulamith Wulfing

Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I miss you like hell.

Edna St Vincent Millay

A HEART FOR SOMEONE DEAR...

GOD CAN MEND YOUR BROKEN HEART,

IF YOU GIVE HIM ALL THE PIECES...

TRY TO REMEMBER...

Try to remember the kind of September

when life was slow, and oh so mellow.

Try to remember the kind of September

when grass was green and grain was yellow.

Try to remember the kind of September

when you were a tender and callow fellow.

Try to remember, and if you remember,

then follow...

Try to remember when life was so tender

that no one wept except the willow.

Try to remember when life was so tender

that dreams were kept beside your pillow.

Try to remember when life was so tender

that love was an ember about to billow.

Try to remember, and if you remember,

then follow...

Deep in December it's nice to remember

although you know the snow will follow.

Deep in December it's nice to remember

without a hurt the heart is hollow.

Deep in December it's nice to remember

the fire of September that made us mellow.

Deep in December our hearts should remember

and follow...

ALL THAT IS GOLD DOES NOT GLITTER...

art by Daniel Merriam

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reaches by the frost,

From ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring,

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.

John Ronald Reuel Tolken

SWEET SEPTEMBER...

Welcome sweet September with your crisp apple nights

and your warm and mellow amber days.

Waltz through the fields with me September

fill my arms with the joy of your bounty.

Hold me close September for you are fine

and I love your gentle autumn ways.

Let us dance the last dance of summer together

for your warmth is fleeting and winters chill draws nigh.

DSW 09