stormwatch

Tonight I will open the doors
and the windows, invite
the moon, pull in the stars.
The wind will come like a river
bearing a thousand petals.

Bring the snow in the folds
of your coat. Let it swirl and drift,
obscure the boundaries of my heart.
In this way I will learn to love
the long grey shadows of winter.

treasures!

My dear friend, mermaid sister and wonderful poet, Ava, sent me treasures! Oh, delight! She sent a beautiful sea-blue chaplet and a fabulous photo! What a perfect gift! These are true treasures sent from the heart. Thank you, my friend. I treaure you.
http://www.xanga.com/avajsouth

No, this is not my dacha. I am far from the Volga and any hint of snow. It was nearly 80 degress here today. Sometimes I actually love Texas. The sunset was fantastic as I drove home from McKinney. Christmas shopping is nearly done. This is a good day in December.

Late September in the Urals

I send these greetings to you
from so far away. I imagine folding myself
into this envelope. I have become so thin
it is nearly possible. I walk every day
into the edge of the forest, where the light begins
to change. It frightens me, but I go
deep enough to see the stand of larches
that remind me of Ekaterinburg
and you, of course.

I recall the breeze that made the leaves tremble
like your hands that first afternoon.
Already war whispered in your ear,
my rival from the start.
I kissed you there in stippled daylight.
I did not care that we were bold.
I saw your eyes as windows
open to a cloudless sky.
When your hair fell across your forehead,
a curtain of silvered silk, I was lost.
I saw then there was no retreat.

Now I fight my own skirmishes.
My enemies are small, but many.
The dying leaves that spin
and land at my feet tell me
winter waits. Every moment
that bleeds into the earth
takes me further from your embrace.

Today my hands grow cold
and shadows cross my path
in long dark rows that echo
the bars that hold you.
Still I go to see the larches
and fight, once more, the demons
of miles and hours that strive
to imprison my heart and yours
in a impenetrable tower of forgetting.

Without music, life would be a mistake. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000000ENF?tag=wksuradio&link_code=sp1&camp=2025&dev-t=D8R4VVNZH2YHO

t'is the season

...and dance by the light of the moon.

Ah, Bedford Falls. Now there's a place to spend Christmas.

Christmas reminds me...

... that I love Robert Goulet.

Is there anything more glorious than 70 degree weather in mid-December? I think not. Ahhh... well, perhaps~ St. John trumps a warm winter in north Texas, I must admit. Still, this is a pretty amazing day. I'll take what I can get.

in December

This year the geese have flown
so low I‘ve seen the thick shafts
of pewter on the undersides
of their wide strong wings.
I envy their instinct,
their destination clear and constant,
imagine an existence free of decisions,
a life on the wing-
predictable and finite,
with one song-
beautiful and wild.

The clouds look like snow,
grey sacks slung low in the weary sky.
My fingers ache in warning.
I keep them busy,
fill them with my own certainties,
the tasks that define me,
the instincts that guide my steps.

I stand on the margin of winter,
my back to the wind.
There are no more geese overhead,

no flakes of first snow.
Only a few late leaves flutter down.
I catch the brightest one,
press it to my heart.

tis the season

Ok, technically last night's dinner was not a holiday event, but a party this close to Christmas still qualifies as such. Terry's birthday celebration was fun and I survived Paul's Porterhouse, aka: beef heaven. Terry looks damn good for 50, poor fellow.

Tonight more festivities... & another chance to wear my new, smokin' hot black shoes!

Still colder than Admiral Perry's outpost. Damn winter!

silly me...

What was I thinking? Tibet, when it is so obviously Nepal where I live. It is so frigging cold! I am sooooo trying not to hate winter, but with little success. Ah, screw it- I'm venturing out. Everest calls. Where's that damned sherpa?

I actually worked my arse off today at my job... What's that about? Then, of course, home to the real job. It is too cold to move. 18 or some such absurd temperature tonight. Damn! Am I in Tibet? I am so glad I don't have to work tomorrow. The Square is a morgue on cold days. I need a hot toddy... whatever the #*$@# that is.

The stars are indeed bright tonight deep in the heart of Texas. A final look at the night sky is an incomparable nightcap. It is all I can do to lasso my heart when the stars pull at it so. Stars and words... gifts without measure.

Lines For Winter ~by Mark Strand

Tell yourself
as it gets cold and gray falls from the air
that you will go on
walking, hearing
the same tune no matter where
you find yourself --
inside the dome of dark
or under the cracking white
of the moon's gaze in a valley of snow.
Tonight as it gets cold
tell yourself
what you know which is nothing
but the tune your bones play
as you keep going. And you will be able
for once to lie down under the small fire
of winter stars.
And if it happens that you cannot
go on or turn back and you find yourself
where you will be at the end,
tell yourself
in that final flowing of cold through your limbs
that you love what you are.

oh, joy...

My trunk show went very well! And best of all, it is done!!!!! I feel absolutely liberated!

real snow

snow today...trunk show tomorrow

Texas blizzard

Last weekend's Dicken's festival was greatly enhanced by... http://www.magicsnow.com/main.php!!! How lovely to see snow against a blue, clear sky!!! It was really beautiful!!!!!

newyweds

Jake & Shawn~ married all of five minutes.

the whole fam damnly

We look like a circus, because, frankly, we are... carnies! The whole lot of us!!! Here we are trying to look normal for a second or two. What a challenge! Seriously, what a grand day!

Mr. & Mrs. Jake McLain!!!!

yeah, yeh, yeah... I caught my typo in the flyer.
Spent all day doing wedding prep with Juli. We had as much fun as two crazy women can without breaking any laws.
I am too tired tonight, but, dear readers, soon I will regale you with a tale of Turkish acrobats, belly dancers, candlelight,a hookah and champagne (otherwise known as my goddamn, fabulous job). Stay tuned. It will be a story for the ages. I am really hysterically tired and insanely wired! I need sleep, but I am terrified I'll forget some wedding detail. Ah, it will all be history in less than 48 hours. Off to slumber. Goodnight, loves...It appears my dream boat has arrived...

Hooray!

The mailer is done at last!!

I'm working on wedding things today, and the flyer for the trunk show, and laundry, and housework... that's all. Chilly today. I am hovered over my little heater. The house is warm for normal folk... just shivery me thinks anything below 80 is cold. I need coffee...

In Texas the sky is generous
as if to compensate for scrubby trees
and all those long, flat miles
that go from one barren place to the next.
Mornings become unveilings of rose
tinged landscapes that blossom
against a canvas of celestial blue.
In the quiet of sunrise, the day teeters
on the rim of possibility
and in my heart there are too many
words and pictures to contain.

You can say anything you want, yessir, but it's the words that sing, they soar and descend...I bow to them...I love them, I cling to them, I run them down, I bite into them, I melt them down...I love words so much...The unexpected ones...The ones I wait for greedily or stalk until, suddenly, they drop...
~Neruda

"I want to know God's thoughts, the rest are details." ~Einstein

tgif...

Juli and I are off to do wedding things. It is another gorgeous day. I am loving November! Now, that is amazing!! Life is good!!!!

This sky where we live is no place to lose your wings so love, love, love.
~Hafiz

even Mars is smiling...

80 degrees AND a majority in congress! What a day!

ghost in the machine

My last three posts for this riviting blog have vanished. Pity! They were so clever! Oh, well...
Yesterday's dreary weather has also vanished and in its place there is a lovely Tuesday. There will be no weather related excuses for not voting accepted today.
I have one million things to do today. The wedding is in less than two weeks! Egads!!! Haven't a clue what I'm wearing. The men have it easy... a suit or a tux. I still have a gazillion favors to make!!!
My trunk show is also fast approaching. I guess I will solder pendants in my sleep. I have lots of art done, but the soldering always slows me down. I'll get it done. And, as usual, the emails for special orders are starting to come in.
Well, I am off to tackle my list-o-tasks... and vote. You should too!

Today, I am the decider...

If the doors of perception were cleansed
everything would appear as it is. Infinite.
~William Blake

As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.

~ William Blake

boo!

pretty god

Where is my sparkling deity?
I see her in the surf and stars,
on blue wings and emerald stems.
Her hymns are written for larks
and sparrows. A lilac bower
forms her temple. And I?
I breathe that I might see
and know the heart that thrums
and spins this world. In light
and wind, in the stillness of midnight,
in everything that is, she gleams.

Friday...

Ahhh... a most unexpected good mood has descended on me like a jester's cap! An unmerited haze of goodwill swirls about. I feel defiant toward this dreary day. Creativity springs forth through the grey clouds. Take that!

Nothing happens until something moves. ~Albert Einstein

The French Mix

The French Mix is a lovely shop on The Square in downtown McKinney, Tx. They carry my pendants and collage work as shown above.

All day Sunday I cut out hearts, snipped
from yellowed pages of Russian fairytales
and The Book of the Dead. I gave them wings-
some silver, some black, others fashioned
from glittered tulle, spread like tiny banners
of possibility. On my table a pile of hearts
grows like petals dropped on a still day.
I give them names, like Gypsy and Always.

From my window I see the red oak shiver
off her bright confetti and a gust of geese
lifts up into the gallant, streaked sunset.
I have made too many winged hearts.
They suffer under the weight of one another.
I pick one and slip it out the window.
I do not watch it flutter or ride the chill
air that brings the silent moon.