Category Archives: Digital Art & Photos

etched in silver – a blackout poem

etched in silver

i’m a woman
no longer young
changed by water
and wind, etched
in silver and want
hot flesh, a face
disappearing into
landscape

~kat


A blackout poem based on the poem below by Allison Funk:

Self-Portrait in the Nude

To understand what it would be like
          to remove my clothes
as painters do in portraits of themselves

          I imagine I’m the woman
who knows her body
no longer belongs to the young artist

who painted herself before she had children,
          before her topography was changed
by forces erosive as water and wind,

    and yet she goes on painting it,
the girdle of her earth that is now an etched terrain
crossed with silver rivulets.

And hills, I want to say to her.
          Valleys. Then hummocks,
hot springs, hoodoo. What is art about

          if not depression? Uplift? Depression
again?
 At which she straightens

          the flesh of her shoulders and neck

to face me before I disappear(ing)
into landscape,
my favorite state of undress.

Copyright © 2018 Allison Funk.


don’t move in winter

don’t move in winter

if you can avoid it, don’t move
in winter when days are short, no
birdsong to sweeten the dawn; no
cricket chatter, no creepers
chirping to quell the cold, black
silence of endless nights…take
it from me, i don’t advise it, for
change is never easy during
the season of letting go; when
death looms in the shadows seeking
souls to pluck. Winter is not for the
faint of heart…i know, and yet,
i am a tree, uprooted, barren limbs
trembling, bending, mantle scattered
to the wind, faded fronds snatched
from my fingertips as frost’s cool
kisses nip; numb to the core, i am
dormant, no consolation but the
promise of spring, of soft rain fall,
sun-warmed buds bursting, fields
of flowering weeds, nestling beaks
gaping, earthworms slithering,
rainbows, and greening…beautiful
greening…sigh…the tree that i am
rests for now in sleepy slumber
inside these unfamiliar walls…
perhaps they will feel like
home come spring…come spring

~kat


The New House

The New House

No creaky floors, no walls

that groan with century old tales,

no glaring street lights dimming

the star-flecked, velvet veil.

No nosy neighbors peaking

through shuttered curtain slits,

the quiet here is deafening

but for a hawk’s shrill twit.

The timpani of woodpeckers,

a lone owl’s soft hoot hoo,

gray squirrels cluck from lofty boughs

and deer folk bound from view.

Here, just enough is everything

a body needs and more,

simplicity’s perfection gleams

from white-washed walls and doors.

It’s rather like a dream here still,

of drywall, sticks and stone.

She stood here empty on a hill

until I called her home.

~kat

(Settling in, finding my voice amidst new surroundings…and perhaps a tiny nudge from a sleepy muse!)


döstädning

döstädning

I am a tree in autumn,
limbs stiffening from
dawn’s first frost,
clinging wistfully to
the dying remnants of
summer, old photographs,
books, trinkets, effigies
of a life lived long and
full, roots deeply
entrenched in the
familiar, yielding to
the wind whispering, it is
time to let go, to render
to yesterday its relics,
to turn the brittle page
in naked abandon, to rest
my soul in the cool present,
to sleep, to dream of
another glorious spring

~kat


Döstädning, which means “death cleaning” in English, is a method of downsizing and organizing from the Swedish author and artist Margareta Magnusson. Death cleaning isn’t about getting rid of all your stuff, but rather streamlining your life so you’re only holding onto what makes you happy.

I am moving from my big two story home in a month into a sweet little one level home on a hill in foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Hence, I’ve been a little less prolific in my writing here, obviously preoccupied with the details of moving. I am hoping my daughters appreciate my efforts to leave a smaller footprint for them to dispose of when I’m gone. And as for the years I have left (which I hope are many) I am excited to begin a new, simpler chapter. Peace!

Here’s my new view…


Cinqku Finit

the muse
is silent
there are no words
but for the wind’s taunting
whispers

~kat


I’m afraid I missed a few days of my challenge of a poem a day. Life, I’m afraid, got in the way. But I am trying to be gentle with myself, telling myself it is okay to let the words in my head settle a bit. To rest. To sleep a bit, perhaps even dream a dream or two. I’m not sure if I will challenge myself to a micro-poem a day in October, or just let the Muse lead me where she will. A time to rest…must be the season. 🍂🍁🍂