NOTES

in celebration of
dandelions
dickinson
poetry month
pollinators


…………………………….


The Dandelion’s pallid tube
Astonishes the Grass,
And Winter instantly becomes
An infinite Alas—

The tube uplifts a signal Bud
And then a shouting Flower,—
The Proclamation of the Suns
That sepulture is o’er.


………………..

Dickinson wrote this poem as a letter to her friend Mrs. Edward Tuckerman and included an additional line, “Vinne told me.”

Celebrating  Harvard University Press new edition The Letters of Emily Dickinson edited by Cristianne Miller and Domhnall Miller.

Dickinson’s letter to Tuckerman is in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society (Worcester, MA)

seeing writing editing 
typing cutting sewing
prototyping a chapbook

as a maker, it always helps
to bind a book
hold it in one's hand
consider next steps.

Thanks to Holly Wren Spaulding & Poetry Forge
for the recently completed course, 
A Body of Work, where we took snippets
and ponderings and made them into poetry.

setting the table
for the next chapters

prismatic utopia

studio rainbws
in circles & squares

waxed linen thread spool
'Thought Forms' squared chart
stacks of Shaker boxes
Winsor & Newton 'Revival' dot card
& grids of buildings clad in 'beauteous colors'

this morning’s poetry prompt
from Heather McKay Young 
pick a color & I chose
‘purple.violet.iris.mauve.’

on my morning walk,
I found myself on the purple trail
by happenstance
by coincidence
by necessity
by unknown choice
by poetry

on eclipse day - 
circular images -
maps & cities
rugs & blots
sun & buckets
utopias & moons


1/Polly Jane Reed, Spiritual Map. The Holy City.1843, Philadelphia Museum of Art
2/ Mary Gartside orange blot, An Essay on Light and Shade, 1805, Dr. Alexandra Loske
3/ Elder Joshua Bussel, Shaker Village, Canterbury NH, 1850 - detail, Winterthur Library
4/Edward Deming Andrews color slide, Winterthur Library
5/Knitted rug attributed to Sister Elvira Hulett, C. 1893, Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon

March 21 is International Colour day.
March 22 is World Poetry day & World Pigment Day.

I’ll be reading a bit of poetry on 22 March (12:50pm EST)  for the Slade School of Arts, 
Colour & Poetry: A Symposium VI, 21st - 22nd March 2024.

A cross and inter-disciplinary two-day virtual event held by the Slade School of Fine Art, in celebration of International Colour Day, World Poetry Day and World Pigment Day. T

The symposium hosts a range of speakers representing the arts and humanities, science, and industry, drawing upon knowledge from within and outside of the UCL community.

flipping flapping
through days & pages
of moths & butterflies
of collage & happenstance
of colors & moons

yesterday’s bright studio light,
catching color out of the corner of my eye.
preparing for DFZ Gartside discussion
reading poetry for the Slade Colour & Poetry symposium
mapping out a poetry manuscript with Poetry Forge

colour or color 
no matter how you spell it
connects the dots

Mother Ann Lee
29 February 1736 — 8 September 1784

Cosmic feminist karma
Inspired when first in,
When women invited in.
A broadsheet to marketh the course, to report. 

Lace repurposed, given new life, liberties,
infused with psychedelic indigo.
A spectrum instructed with solemnity
Occasionally, light flickers. 

Mother Ann Lee embodied cosmic feminist karma
bringing a new religion into the worldf
ounded on principles so radical that they endured persecutions 

One could say her broadsheet was verbal;
she being illiterate to written words
yet literate in all realms cosmic
. 
The written  Testimonies of her contemporary believers 
and works of the later visionists-scribes themselves of hearts and leaves
and maps and flowers and trees-- 
scripted scrolls brought down from spirits’ energies spoke to her cosmic energy. 

Stone Prison 
How can I but love my dear faithful children
Who’re willing to bear and suffer with me
When I was on earth and in a cold prison, I cry’d
To my God to remember me 

I prayed to God to protect my dear children,
To strengthen the weak and comfort the strong
For I was distressed and in a stone prison,
And none but my God to protect me from harm. 

—excerpt from ‘meetinghouse’ --  spoken word by Brece Honeycutt & Shaker song/Stone Prison sung by Miriam Cantor Stone. performed at Shaker Heritage Society for Moonbow #6, July 29 2023.
.

2 years ago today, Copy Press launched
‘A Bird to overhear-‘ for their Becoming Fireflies series!


“Are we listening? Are you listening?
When did I start listening?
When’d di you first hear them? Do you recall which one?
Was it the dawn chorus? Or the wail, cry, caw at last light?
When did it dawn on you?  Are you listening?

Can you name them? How many can you name? 

According to the New York Times only 1 in 8 can
Name more than 20 species. Can you name their songs?Can you hear them? Can you see their flight patterns?

The landscape architect Gertrude Jekyll, once blind,
could name them by the sound of their wings in flight.”

-text excerpt from 'Listening" chapter |  watch ‘A Bird to overhear-‘

I am forever grateful to Copy Press for their faith in my work. Thanks a million, Vit Hopley, Yve Lomax, Jono Lomax and Opel Morgen for this collaboration and all you did to make it happen.

'A Bird to overhear-'  photography, filming/Brece Honeycutt; script, narrator/Brece Honeycutt; script editor/Vit Hopley; producer/Yve Lomax; video-editing, post production/Jono Lomax; graphics/Opal Morgen; thumbnail image/Brece Honeycutt

Rainbows
In dye swatches
In color torn from pages
On wooden spools of thread

Research materials for
Poetry manuscript class-
A Body of Work-
with Poetry Forge