rising, Monotype of the Day #681

Day 311 of Year 2 (Actually Twenty-four hours 316)

I've been spending a lot of time in the garden this week. It is renewing, new life budding everywhere. I'm specially taken with the weeds. Unwanted and untended simply unstoppable, they volition have their say. Their vigor for life in the worst circumstances is admirable and inspiring. This impress has nothing to practise with weeds or gardens but in that location is something in both that is deeply hopeful and sustaining like a sunrise. My love to all those who are sick or suffering.

A Purification
By Wendell Berry

At start of bound I open a trench
in the ground. I put into it
the winter's accumulation of paper,
pages I do not want to read
again, useless words, fragments,
errors. And I put into it
the contents of the outhouse:
low-cal of the dominicus, growth of the ground,
finished with 1 of their journeys.
To the sky, to the wind, then,
and to the faithful trees, I confess
my sins: that I accept not been happy
enough, considering my adept luck;
accept listened to as well much noise;
accept been inattentive to wonders;
take lusted subsequently praise.
And then upon the gathered refuse
of mind and torso, I shut the trench,
folding close once more the nighttime,
the deathless earth. Beneath that seal
the old escapes into the new.

From New Collected Poems https://amzn.to/2XqlI44

knowledge tree (Monotype of the Twenty-four hours #670)

Day 300 of Year ii (Actually Day 305)

I remember when I hit day 300 a year ago, it felt like such a milestone. Now in my 2d twelvemonth of this project I've hit day 300 once more and information technology feels adept only like just similar any other day. I've begun to look at these monotype as footprints. I brand one each day, like one footprint following the other, and move forward. That's been my motto since I've been dealing with long-term illness, focus on the modest steps, the rest is beyond our control. My love to all those suffering or dealing with illness.

"I" ["No, no, there is no going dorsum"]
By Wendell Berry

No, no, at that place is no going back.
Less and less you are
that possibility you lot were.
More and more you take become
those lives and deaths
that have belonged to you.
You have become a sort of grave
containing much that was
and is no more in fourth dimension, beloved
then, at present, and always.
And so you have become a sort of tree
standing over the grave.
At present more than ever yous can be
generous toward each day
that comes, immature, to disappear
forever, and nonetheless remain
unaging in the mind.
Every 24-hour interval you have less reason
not to give yourself away.

From A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems, 1979-1997 https://amzn.to/2YYJXsz. Such a wonderful book of poems!

waiting to open, Monotype of the 24-hour interval #641

Day 271 of Year 2 (Actually Mean solar day 276)

I feel at a bit of a loss in the studio right now. With the puppy, my studio time has been limited and I'yard missing that internal spacious where work starts to hatch. I always turn to the Wendell Berry slice below the title when I feel this manner.

The Real Work
Wendell Berry

It may exist that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,

and that when nosotros no longer know which way to go
we take come to our real journey.

The mind that is non baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

From Standing Words https://amzn.to/34xo8Rm

finding peace, Monotype of the Day #623

Day 253 of Year 2 (Actually Twenty-four hours 258)

I couldn't bring myself to erase that cute stripe of pink ink from yesterday'due south plate so I made it into a tree. What else could I do? 😊I am trying to comprehend what is happening correct now and accept in this suspension, and then I am going on a daily walk. The streets have a peacefulness usually only experiences on Thanksgiving or Christmas afternoons. Bird vocal is everywhere. I am grateful for these small-scale moments of dazzler in the middle of this storm. My beloved and prayers to all those who are ill or suffering.

The Best of Any Song
By Wendell Drupe

The all-time of any song
is bird song
in the quiet, but commencement
you lot must have quiet.

From A Timbered Choir https://amzn.to/33T0w9x

carmine handed, Monotype of the Day #569

Twenty-four hours 199 of Year 2 (Actually Day 204)

I am starting a large hand piece and I'm really excited nigh information technology. The hand print I fabricated two nights ago has been sitting around in my encephalon nagging me. Too tight, too controlled. I feel much relieved later on making tonight'due south print. It's so strange and amazing how much these print impact me energetically.

I often choose a poem from a book and then search the internet for it so I don't accept to type the whole matter from scratch. This poem has a get-go function non typed below. Interestingly most everyplace online left it off and I really think for this time of year, information technology's ameliorate this way. I'll mail service information technology again in summertime in it's full form.

Excerpt from Wild Geese
By Wendell Drupe

Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient religion: what we need
is here. And we pray, non
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in center,
clear. What we need is here.

From The Selected Poems of Wendell Drupe https://amzn.to/2OluBYW

infinite, Monotype of the Day #541

Solar day 171 of Year ii (Actually Day 176)

I've been struggling a scrap with the monotypes for the past week or so. So much of my energy has been directed to prep for my testify that when I go into the print studio, it's been hard to focus. My mind has felt cluttered. I asked for an paradigm tonight to help me clear my brain out and open back upwardly to the creative flow. This unproblematic image came and looking at information technology, I immediately experience more open and grounded. Deep breath, intermission. I volition return to work tomorrow refreshed. Today'south verse form (below the championship) is another from Wendell Berry. I just got a new book of his work so I can't help myself! xo

Sabbaths 1992 Two
by Wendell Berry

Elevator up the dead leaves
and see, waiting
in the nighttime, in cold March,

the purplish stems, leaves,
and buds of twinleaf,
infinitely tender, infinitely

expectant. They straighten
slowly into the low-cal after
the nights of frost. At concluding

the venture is fabricated: the brief
blossoms open, the petals fall,
the hinged capsules of seed

grow big. The possibility
of this return returns
again to the seed, the dark,

the long wait, and the light once more.

From A Timbered Choir https://amzn.to/35nN4d8

the forest in winter, Monotype of the 24-hour interval #536

Day 166 of Yr 2 (Actually Day 171)

I Go Amongst Trees
By Wendell Berry

I get among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes tranquillity
effectually me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.

Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fright of me leaves information technology.
It sings, and I hear its song.

And so what I am afraid of comes.
I alive for a while in its sight.
What I fright in it leaves it,
and the fright of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its vocal.

Subsequently days of labor,
mute in my consternations,
I hear my song at concluding,
and I sing it. As we sing,
the twenty-four hours turns, the trees motion.

From A Timbered Choir https://amzn.to/2SFS4qw

the forest at nighttime, Monotype of the Day #532

Mean solar day 162 of Year ii (Actually Twenty-four hours 167)

Sabbaths 2014- VI
by Wendell Drupe

Up in the blown-down woods
you try to imagine the tornado
cracking through the trees
while you slept, branches
and birds' eggs whirling
in the night. You tin't do information technology.
Y'all tin imagine the place
as information technology was, and as it is.
The moment of transformation
the presence of creation,
itself beyond your attain.

From Given https://amzn.to/36azgE5
the forest at night
#monotypeoftheday
Year ii, Solar day 162
(Full projection days 532)

the sprout, Monotype of the Day #515

Day 149 of Yr 2 (Actually Solar day 150)

"The seed is in the ground. At present may we remainder in hope, while darkness does its work." ~ Wendell Berry

Sometimes information technology'southward necessary get out of the studio, take a deep breath, and air out my head. Creativity is a cute mystery whose mechanisms are veiled. Nosotros aren't meant to know how it works, but to receive and bring that energy into the physical world. Getting out of the studio occasionally disengages the listen and gives space for that mystery to unfold and develop unconsciously. Information technology releases control so surprising things can happen upon returning to work. Like a seed maturing hush-hush, we know zip of what is itinerant until the first shoots intermission through. That is the beautiful adventure of existence an creative person.

the sprout
#monotypeoftheday
Yr 2, Day 149
(Total projection days 515)

the passage, Monotype of the Solar day #474

Twenty-four hour period 108 of Year 2 (Actually Day 109)

When I went to start my print tonight, the remnants of final nighttime'southward impress, specifically the sky and mountains shapes were still in that location. Something in me couldn't wipe it away and so I used it over again to very different consequence. Information technology made me retrieve of how much is given and how much we willfully refuse to see. Information technology would have been so easy to wipe this ink abroad instead of allowing it voice. So much of studio practice comes downwardly to listening.

Listen!
By Wendell Berry

How fine to have a radio
and beautiful music playing
while I sit at residuum in the evening.
How fine to hear through the music
the cries of wild geese on the river.

From Given: https://amzn.to/2PsMnuv

the beacon at night, Monotype of the Day #472

Day 106 of Year 2 (Really Day 107)

Yesterday was interesting. Despite my extreme dislike of the print bubbles, it received a positive response proving once once again, an creative person is not meant to estimate the value of their own work. Work flows through and out. Radical trust is required, trust that though an artist may not learn the true purpose of an individual piece, there is purpose. Tonight I needed this red, I felt it warming my chest, giving me life force. Information technology changed me. Only I will never know if it has a purpose later on information technology goes out into the globe. That has to be okay because the fastest way to cake up artistic menstruation is to go fastened to sure outcomes. Creative freedom comes from disengagement especially detachment from making a "good" piece of work of fine art. Every work has a purpose whether information technology is to change the artist, its viewers, or both. Yesterday was a great reminder to trust, turn off the judgement, and turn on the flow.

ALL
by Wendell Drupe
All bend in
1 wind.
From Given https://amzn.to/2NgLN0dg

the approving, Monotype of the Day #461

Day 95 of Year 2 (Actually Solar day 96)

At that place is a magical air about the studio these days. I made some real progress today finishing up some sometime projects that take been hanging around. I am then grateful for the aid of my studio assistant. I'm also grateful for a person who recently showed upwards out of the blue with some much needed expertise. He is helping me make a piece I've been dancing around for ages. Information technology'due south taken so many years to empathize that the less I attempt to force projects to happen, the more things move. Each time I finish myself from pressing against an obstacle with a gentle, "patience Sybil, patience. Information technology'due south okay not to see the way", something new and exciting opens upwards.

To Know the Dark
by Wendell Drupe

To get in the night with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, get night. Go without sight,
and detect that the nighttime, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and night wings.

From The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry https://amzn.to/33MW1wf

in the low-cal, Monotype of the Day #454

24-hour interval 88 of Year 2 (Actually Day 89)

I merely received a new book of Wendell Berry poems and I constitute the poem below. There are so many gems in it. The ane that stands out the most right now is "At that place are no unsacred places; there are just sacred places and desecrated places." In the studio the sacred is hands accessed, the veil between worlds pulls thin. Merely I love this reminder that the sacred is e'er present and waiting for our sensation. Berry's directions to himself apply to visual artist'due south likewise. Ane note though, he encourages usa to doubt people who like our work. I think he but means keep pushing. No insult to my commenters intended! 😊 xoxo

How to Be a Poet
Past Wendell Berry
(To remind myself)

i
Brand a identify to sit downwards.
Sit downwards. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill — more of each
than y'all have — inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your poems,
doubt their judgment.

ii
Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
In that location are no unsacred places;
at that place are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

iii
Have what comes from silence.
Make the all-time you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a verse form that does non disturb
the silence from which it came.

From Given Poems: https://amzn.to/2AZDS1I

Habitation at terminal, Monotype of the Mean solar day #426

Day 60 of Year 2 (Really Twenty-four hour period 61)

I've been traveling the past week or and so bringing my son back to college and now I'k happily home. It'south challenging to print on the road merely also very satisfying. I fabricated today's print this morning because I wasn't sure what time we'd make it home this evening. It felt strange to practise that a good 12 hours earlier than normal, like my rhythm was disrupted. I recall there is something of import to my process in waiting about 24 hours to make each impress. It allows time for things to cook internally. I think it effects the outcome. Now that I've done a morning print, I retrieve I volition switch to mornings for a while and see if the time of day effects things as much as the waiting period. xo

How to Be a Poet
Past Wendell Berry (To remind myself)

i
Make a identify to sit downward.
Sit downwardly. Exist quiet.
You must depend upon
amore, reading, knowledge,
skill — more of each
than you have — inspiration,
piece of work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your poems,
incertitude their judgment.

ii
Exhale with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electrical wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay abroad from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
in that location are merely sacred places
and desecrated places.

three
Take what comes from silence.
Brand the all-time y'all can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.

From Given Poems https://amzn.to/2Lqg116

This ane I found on https://www.verse-chaikhana.com/web log/2015/eleven/06/wendell-berry-how-to-be-a-poet/, simply I'1000 ordering the book tonight!