trying to say something

...And when they tell you life is not like this,

life is never like this, life will never be like this,

insist that the sun has always found a time and a place,

the moon too knows when and where to enter,

and you too have your stories,

and you too have your place.



~Shira Erlichman, "How to Tell a Story"

here it is studio time

pages, pages and pages

mark and scratch

carve and stamp

i follow the path to where it leads

soon there will be books

i love the sun of sweet autumn

the visit of bears and coyotes to the fruit trees

warm afternoons and crisp evenings

i want to preserve the light somehow

to remind me on dark winter nights that

the sun and moon each have their place

i want to tell each artist how much i

enjoy and revere their work

how my eyes take delight

how I read each word you write

and feel connected on the path we walk

alone but together

When the woman you live with is an artist, 

every day is a surprise. 

Clare has turned the second bedroom into a wonder cabinet, 

full of small sculptures and drawings pinned up on every inch of wall space. 

There are coils of wire and rolls of paper tucked into shelves and drawers.

The next day I come home to find that Clare 

has created a flock of paper and wire birds, 

which are hanging from the ceiling in the living room. 

A week later our bedroom windows are full of abstract blue translucent shapes 

that the sun throws across the room onto the walls, 

making a sky for the bird shapes Clare has painted there. 

It's beautiful.

The next evening I'm standing in the doorway of Clare's studio, 

watching her finish drawing 

a thicket of black lines around a little red bird. 

Suddenly I see Clare, 

in her small room, 

closed in by all her stuff, 

and I realize that she's trying to say something, 

and I know what I have to do.

~Audrey Niffengger, The Time Traveler’s Wife