Author: Karen

Stuck

Karen

Here I am, working on another reliquary. This will be my fourteenth. [You can see my other reliquaries at Reliquaries at my web site Karen’s Whimsy], so you’d think I’d have the hang of it by now. But noooo . . . I’ve been sitting here for an hour and a half surrounded by paints and papers and trims wondering how to coordinate everything for this book. My mind is a muddle. Maybe it’s the daylight savings time thing. I’m feeling just a little off and very indecisive.

I had an idea for how I wanted this altered book to go, but now it seems to be veering off into a different direction. I thought it was going to be predominately turquoise, but now it’s tugging at me to be shades of lime green and gold, but as I try to get everything straight in my mind, I’m afraid I’m going to make it too green.

It’s fear. Fear of screwing up. I’ve already put so much time into this book, that I’m paralyzed about making a wrong choice. My stomach is in knots. I’m testy with everyone who crosses my path. I keep getting interrupted. The solution is hanging in front of me like a piece of a cobweb, but when I reach for it, it wisps away. I thought if I could write about this it would help. So far, it’s not.

Nature Poems from A Cup of Sky

Karen

I guess it was almost two years ago now that I finished my altered book A Cup of Sky. Here are two poems that I like from the book.

Water
drops fall
in the sweet sweeping rush
of the rain
into the sea
in to
the cup of its shining waters.
Or
down
to a tranquil,
brown-eyed little river
or the brook
that plunged
over the edge of the cliff
and froze to a stalactite of crystal
it
became
my waterfall.

Snow
a frosty gem whirls by
and all is fresh and pure
old scars are hidden
lies heal over
old and gray are perfect
as perfect.
A snowflake of air
crystallized
yet bewildering
is beyond the power of
metal or wood or stone.
Nothing in nature
nothing in art
is so unique
crystals descend
from the fingers of a fairy.
O to be the first
snowflake
as men looked up
at this gift from the skies.

If you like these poems, be sure to visit A Cup of Sky to see the art work and read all the poems from the book.

Listening to Anne Lamott

Karen

One of my favorite books about writing is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. She writes in such an engaging way, making everyday struggles seem sweet and sublime.

When I saw that she was going to be speaking in Berkeley, near my home, I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hear her. She spoke for about an hour, mixing her wry humor with simple truths about her life as a mother, daughter, and writer. You can read my reflections on the evening in my essay Anne Lamott :: Tender Words.

The Tatooed Girl

Karen

I’m in love with the tatooed girl.
She stands in front of me,
waiting for coffee.
From beneath the neck
of her faded t-shirt
yellow bellflowers bloom.
The petals of a pink cornflower
peak from under her collar.
She reaches for her coffee
and reveals
a giant bumblebee sipping nectar
off her shoulder blade.
She’s small and unassuming.
I believe she cuts her own hair.
She has the delicate features of a child
but the impatient look of someone
wanting to be somewhere else.
She doesn’t smile at all,
not even a secretive glint
to hint at the garden
that grows on her back.

Welcome to Karen’s Whimsy Web Log

Karen

I have been wanting to get on the “blog bandwagon” for some time now, but there always seems to be something else to do. The past few times when I came here for a visit I couldn’t figure out how to post anything. Turns out, since I was using Safari with my mac, all of the editing features were disabled. No wonder I couldnt’ tell what the heck was going on! Ah . . . we long suffering mac addicts sure have it rough some times. Finally I discovered that I could access everything I needed just by using Firefox for my browser. Problem solved. So here I am, ready to join the fray.

Now I’ve never been very good at the whole journal-type thing; I have several nice blank books all over the place, consisting of one or ten entries, and then blank pages for days. So the odds of me keeping this thing going for an extended length of time are against me. Still, it’s worth a try. What have I got to lose but a little bandwidth?