safe.
the new work is all about being
safe.
feeling safe.
enclosed, not cloistered.
i've been photographing these as i move through the work
and then i realized friday night
i felt safe
at home.
deeply safe.
vulnerable, scared,
myself, definitely flawed and unable
to tie up
the loose ends.
those ends.
TAUNY
(tradtional arts in upstate new york)
our local folklore organization with the (let's face it) bad name
has mounted a quilt exhibition.
i love the real ones
the simple,
made from so little, ones.
these are the cloths that speak to me
and these photographic
patches of quilts
please my eye
and my sense of safe.
meanings lost in time
but not the caring.
beautifully stitched reminders.
the gallery space is large and those quilts soften
and humanize the bigness.
i liked it so much.
i was stitching this weekend
sampling
in case paper with kami-ito
and other samples came, too.
feeling safe.
i buy anne johnson's cards at tauny.
they make me wonder
what it must be like to work as a botanist in this place.
to know the land that way.
i come home to make more samples
as i think about things:
gratitude that my son is well,
my daughter is, too.
my love is well
over at our new home.
tauny had another surprise
poems by a friend
john scarlett
he practices farming with oxen,
sugaring,
husbanding, grandparenting
blacksmithing,
and writing.
i imagine him behind his team mowing his haymeadow:
the children's path
through the grass
mown away
(a haiku from his new collection, between waves, available at TAUNY)