Evelyn Ihrke

Inspiration Piece

Life Layers Pantoum

Cecilia Driscoll

Response

In the layers of your life

in the branching and flowing

you dance, almost invisible

lit by fire or stars.

In the branching and flowing

in the blues and the greens

lit by fire or stars,

sparks of abundance.

In the blues and the greens

cascades rush, veins flow.

Sparks of abundance

in charmed golden light.

Cascades, rush.  Veins, flow.

Through structure and weather.

In charmed golden light,

arms, branches, reach.

Through structure and weather

through memory’s shadows

arms, branches reach.

Stars bloom, arising.

Through memory’s shadows

winged silver with dreams

stars bloom, arising.

What do you see?

Winged silver with dreams

you dance, almost invisible.

What do you see

in the layers of your life?

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Brian MacDonald
Inspiration piece

Measure
By Cecilia Reid Driscoll
Response

Where are you

in the quotidian gold?

A pattern of dreams and acts

has brought you here.

Adjacent angles,

curves conjoined,

overlapping shadows.

Scattered leaves.

You used to wander.

Now you pause.  And search

together and alone

for the best available answers.

You used to fly.

But what weightless place

could be better than where you are?

You settle

where the sun warms your back.

You settle

where your friends are.

And anyplace you gather

is a gift, a golden moment.

You take what you can get.

Take a measure.

Take what you need

to keep on going.

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Note: All of the art, writing, and music on this site belongs to the person who created it. Copying or republishing anything you see here without express and written permission from the author or artist is strictly prohibited.

Inspiration Piece:  Ode to Stone by Cecilia Reid Driscoll

Open your eyes.

Look closely.

Listen through my years.

I am the older brother,

the grandfather,

the man-in-the-moon.

I am the railroad track,

the sled runners,

the highway.

I am the sturdy base and walls,

keeping out intruders,

wild animals,

heat and cold.

I am the hearth,

the circle that holds the fire,

the circle around which you gather,

with marshmallows and stories.

You mine me for my best qualities,

refine me,

put me to work where I am needed.

Heat and pressure and time

often make me more beautiful,

stronger, more complex.

For the most part, I am quiet.

I am rarely perfect,

but crystal glories may hide inside me.

When I am older, broken, small,

children pick me up from streams,

find me in fields of green and gold.

Sometimes they tell me their dreams.

When those of short lives carve me,

or make their mark on me,

I am still who I am.

I am here to serve.

I am red, I am beige, I am black.  I am gold.

I can build or break down.

I am the source of mountains and mighty legends,

living giants, teachers, protectors of the North.

I am the path and the cave,

the foundation, the crust,

soft at the ultimate core.

I am the bridge and the wall.

I am here to serve.

Inspiration Piece:  Mermaid Photograph by Shirley Neal.

Response Piece:  Sidewalk Siren by Cecilia Reid Driscoll

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anais Nin.

I.

sister, how you glow

despite the weariness of ages in your eyes

despite your unshed tears

you remember children

who played in your waves

made laughing beards of sea foam

dove in and out of sight just to tease you.

they have grown beyond your reach.

II.

they say you sang men away from righteous work

but you have long been silent.

III.

disenchanted sister, queen of the lost

you almost smile because you cannot cry.

when you left your last known world

everywhere was new and strange.

you tried to fit in,

holding on to shells of what you loved.

you could not absorb

the things of this world.

IV.

I knew you at a distance

on the street the other day.

you still wore your loud bravery.

you still clutched your addictions.

I crossed lanes of traffic to reach you.

then I realized you were not real,

just an open-hearted memory

created by another mortal who lost you too.

V.

golden mother, ocean’s daughter

you tried to move gracefully between two worlds.

your surface and what lies beneath

shimmer with the beauty of your lives.

VI.

mirror-window, I have carried you

across latitudes and meridians to this last island.

I would I knew you better.

all I know is reflection and desire:

to walk away from golden poisoned glory

to breathe warm light in green and blue dimensions

to sing the rising songs beyond the Sunset Beach Café.