Mistle, epistle & toe

To the one I’ve been writing for

Where is that door with mistletoe?
I wouldn’t want to miss
carrying you across that threshold
with a kiss...

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2008)

Written for ‘Mistletoe’ at Inspire Me Thursday.

New Year’s Eve Cinquain

To A.B.*

May you
be happy with
the choices you make for
the year to come, no matter what
they are.

* whose choices most likely won’t include hers truly

My first attempt at a cinquain upon instigation by Totally Optional Prompts. The specialty of this one are a few run-on line endings. All in all, this might not be my dearest wish, but it’s wishing someone happiness by doing what she considers to be the right thing with any self-interest on my part removed. And that might not be the worst to wish for somebody.

– Len “On the Brink” Blumfeld (© 2008)

Definition of the form
A cinquain is a short, unrhymed poem consisting of twenty-two syllables distributed as 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, in five lines.
(Definition by Linda Jacobs at Totally Optional Prompts)

I believe ...

that a great many nasty things are coming to a head now*

... but this may also bring about much needed change.

* For example, individual and corporate greed, all-pervasive commercialism, bickering nationalism at the expense of the world's good, religious fanaticism, idiocy despite or because of the availability of information, crime and fraud on the Internet, to cite just a few.

– Len "Seer" Blumfeld

Posted for I believe ... at Sunday Scribblings.

Canjurian dancer

Canjurian dancer wearing traditional costume
Ink and acrylic on photo paper,
digitally edited, 2008

Created for Inspire Me Thursday's Dress.

Antique gift

Antique gift of uncertain significance
Acrylic on cardboard, 2008

Posted for Inspire Me Thursday's Make a Gift.

I didn't have to make this gift - it was on my desk under a layer of papers and other "art", waiting to be discovered as a gift of uncertain significance and slightly revised.

Narrow escape

“Now you be thankful that Fury didn’t run away, son!”
“Aw ma, you wouldn’t have laid a guilt trip on me, would you?”

Written using fury, guilt, thankful from 3WW CXIII.

– Leonard “He Who Never Cared That Much For Horses” Blumfeld

The blunt fib

So

blunt

and mute

today, so

alive and within

a fluid flow just yesterday.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2008)

Razor-edge-of-day reporting fresh from the self-observation front.

Coffee & Wild Animals

For "Coffee Break" at Inspire Me Thursday
The photo shows the giraffe tin that holds my coffee powder
and the cheetah and zebra cups company and I drink from.

A walk in the snow, ca. 1975

The merest quiver of air
scatters powdery crystals

Tenderness of rosy cold blush
on Evelyne’s cheeks

– Leonard “Nostalgic Mood” Blumfeld (© 2008)

Remembered upon instigation by the 3WW words blush, quiver, tenderness.

A tinge of Klimt

A tinge of Klimt
Acrylic and ink on photo paper,
digitally modified

My contribution to Inspire Me Thursday's Open Topic.
Actually, the original is more Klimtian, having gold in it.
But I very much like the batik-like blue that replaced the gold.

Defying gravity

As long as there's
at least a nuance of hope

there's hope to shake off
even gravest gravity

– Leonard Blumfeld

Written using hope, gravity and nuance from 3WW.

My style

It’s quite my style
to wait for a while,

to sit back and wait
while holding a bait.

And it’s just bad luck
every once in a muck

that the prey
goes away

without taking a bite.
Nothing caught. Good night.

– Leonard “Amateur Fisherman” Blumfeld

Written for Sunday Scribblings #133, My style.

Today's romantic horoscope

Today's horoscope said:

Your romantic partner could be expressing intense emotions towards you today. These might be positive, but they also could be negative. Try not to let any emotional outbursts disturb you too much. Sometimes it's important to release energy that you have been holding in. Your partner might need to get some things off of the chest, and you should try to listen with an attitude of compassion and empathy.

The main difficulty is the little devil of a romantic partner herself. Is she or is she not? Anyway, feedback today has been both - a smile in the morning and ignorance in the afternoon. Neither very intense... But I always listen with an attitude of compassion and empathy. Even when there's nothing to listen to...

Forbidden

I knew I had done something forbidden – something terribly forbidden.
The faces around me were solemn and accusing, all those faces of people I'd thought I knew well and that now looked as closed as closed books. I'd even thought that they liked me.
No-one came forward to tell me what I'd done that was so terribly forbidden.
But I was all heated up about it, beet red in the face, cheeks burning, hands clenched, an electric feeling all over my body.
Solemn, silent, accusing faces around me.
No-one would talk.
That, perhaps, was the worst.
Worse than whatever I'd done that was so terribly forbidden.

– Leonard Blumfeld

Written for Sunday Scribblings' Forbidden. An improvisation on some of the guilt nightmares I've had.

One cool dissolve

In one dissolve
that trinket –
that measly little
stinky pink thing –
destroyed all my zest

– Len "Falls for Trinkets" Blumfeld

A somewhat deviant haiku written to get dissolve, trinket and zest from 3WW to interact. And a free contribution to Totally Optional Prompts.

Note
Not much work here at work ... and it shows, doesn't it!

Papercut art

A photograph underlayed with a papercut for Inspire Me Thursday's Papercut theme. I made a papercut, scanned it and underlayed a recent flower photo with it. This is just a section of the whole picture.

Good things combine

It's another grey day, with the clouds vacillating between letting go (mildly) and holding back but remaining grey and threatening.
A headache has been at work in the back of my head.
They're killing trees out in the backyard.
The motor saw is adding to the entertainment.

– Leonard "Razor Edge" Blumfeld

Knight on bended knees to his beloved lady

Barely a drop in the evenings now, only glad mist admidst the pallid murmurs of your dark rivulets. Oh how you make me swoon!

– Leonard Blumfeld

Nonsense ditty incorporating all nine words – drop, evenings, glad, mist, motionless, murmur, pallid, rivulets, swoon – from Café Writing.

Social mind at work

A little cartoon from the insect world for Inspire Me Thursday's Storyteller.

African Yellow

African Yellow
Acrylic on paper, photographed, clipped and digitally modified, 2008

A belated entry for Inspire Me Thursday's Yellow.

In the sky - cruising and vacationing

Today's horoscope for the coming week said:

You enjoy being in control, Capricorn, but this week the Universe shows you that it's not always possible for you to be in charge. You may decide you like taking it easy! Mercury turns retrograde on Wednesday. You'll play catch-up with the people and events in your life for the next three weeks. This is a great time to relax and swing in a hammock. On Saturday a new vista opens for you as the Moon in your sector of travel conjuncts your ruler, Saturn. You may embark on a long cruise or sign up for an exotic vacation.

• For a long time I've had the feeling that I'm not very much in control. It's been more like an inescapable road to follow, with some traffic lights and yield or stop signs for guidance.
• Glad to know that the Universe with a capital U is behind it all.
• They guessed right – I like taking it easy. I like things served on a platter, all nicely garnished and ready for the taking. Alas, that's not the way it works, and I'd be very surprised if it did next week.
• Don't have no hammock and don't even like 'em very much, to be honest.
• If it were up to horoscopes, I would have gone on long cruises a lot over the years. Exotic vacation? Perhaps Kazakhstan ... I've been getting interested in it due to infatuation with one of its citizens.
• I'll see, but I'm not holding my breath.
  

Breath from beyond

Breath from beyond

Acrylic and ink on paper, 2006

For Inspire Me Thursday's Breath.
My mother passed away last Friday. Whenever I go
back to look at her, I still expect her to start breathing
again any moment.
This won't happen, of course. If there were any breath,
it would be from beyond, as in the painting. Life,
colors and breathing are underneath the blackness.

Welcome home

The prince is back,
oh princely abode
with your dusting
needs and clothes
strung up to dry.

Go, inhabitor, go
put some music on
and make it some-
what inhabited.

It’s Sunday morning,
someone died Friday,
and you’ve just
taken announcement
letters to the mailbox.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2008)

Largely autobiographical, razor-edge-of-time, so to speak.

This also offers some explanation of my recent writing (and blogging) inactivity.

PS:
I’m using the not very existent* word inhabitor on purpose ... somewhere in between inhibitor and inhabitant.

*On the Internet it mostly exists as a spelling problem.

1st of September fib

It's

calm

in here

with my co-

workers gone. A lull

before the chatty storm returns.

– Leonard Blumfeld

Against the clock with music

Created for Inspire Me Thursday as specified ... against the clock in a way - the timing and mood being provided by a sufi music CD purchased today. Further constraint: colors picked at the beginning ... orange, cinnabar, raw umber, black. Executed in acrylic on Fabriano paper in approx. 40 minutes.

Ruby Bear

Ruby Bear for Ruby Tuesday.

Intimate river waiting

I
know
that an
intimate
river is waiting
somewhere to carry me along
infinitely. Where
is that boat,
that oar
it
takes?

– Leonard Blumfeld ( © 2008 )

Written with intimate, river and waiting as ingredients and inspiration from 3WW in the form of a fibonacci diamond.

Not quite polka

A late polka entry for Inspire Me Thursday. I like the liveliness and lightness of polka dot patterns and thought about creating something with polka dots all along, without ever finding the right combination of spare time and right mood. Today I pulled out the roll of a painting I'd started earlier this year. Noting that it had some round elements that had polka dot potential, I went to work with black for enhancement. The whole painting measures about 100 x 180 cm and is acrylic on orange kraft paper.

Transformation

From the last thoughts of Erica M. Youngblood

At age 45 I'd reached a point where I was willing to try anything to transform my imperfect physique. I'd always thought certain parts needed improvement – my overlong, sharp nose, my receding chin, my sagging bosom and flaring hips –, and when I chanced upon Madam Oryema through an ad in an esoteric magazine, I thought I had things licked. Little did I suspect that her patented blue shrinking pill would turn me into a candy-coated blue peanut. Here I am now, immobile on the floor, waiting for somebody to come in, sweep me up and dump me. Or worse: pick me up, wipe me and munch me.

Faithfully recorded by Leonard Blumfeld

Drawn and written for Inspire Me Thursday and 'Shrink'.

Well, I could ...

Do
I
have to?
Nice choice to-
day: sleep in? Go shop?
Paint? Write? Sheer opportunity ...

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2008)

It’s Saturday, so this is all true. For Sunday Scribblings #122.

Seven shadows

Seven things that cast shadows ... or remove shadows

1. Twists of fate (obviously these work both ways)
2. Love in all its insincere, fitful, joyous, painful and – ultimately, hopefully – genuine, unadulterated incarnations
3. Intersocial play ... the equality – inferiority – superiority game
4. The weather
5. The planets (anything can be blamed on planetary influences)
6. I myself
7. Constraints ... basically anything: taxes, traffic rules, work, the need to have dough ... anything that restricts freedom ... thank God for some of these

List inspired by Café Writing: "So, gimme seven things that cause shadows in your life OR gimme seven things that you do to chase the shadows away."

Black Mexican Turtles

The stylized black turtles (or what else could they be?) I brought back from Mexico many years ago. For Project Black Take 9.

On a blackened door

This one I found near London's Brick Lane this May.
Take 7 for Anna Carson's Project Black.

More about treasures found in Brick Lane.

Approaching black

Another city ground shot for Anna Carson's Project Black.
Shades of asphalt approaching black.

Black holes

Black holes in the city for Anna Carson's Project Black.

Has much black

The Old House in Hereford, UK, built in 1621
for Anna Carson's Project Black.

Twigs, blossoms, sunlight

Twigs, blossoms, sunlight
Acrylic on paper, 2002

Posted for healing at Inspire Me Thursday.

Even though I do not necessarily think of healing as a prime objective of my painting effort and paintings, there definitely is an effect I look for in what I paint and what I'd like viewers to experience.
Several years ago I had an art exhibition titled 'Between harmony and disharmony.' One of my friends who attended the opening said, "You know, in your previous shows there were some paintings that were disharmonious, but there's not a single one here today that feels that way to me." I took that as a compliment and accomplishment.
But back to the experience I'd like to evoke ... I'd like the people who look at my art to feel that they have received something best described, perhaps, as nourishment for the soul.
And that would qualify as some sort of healing, wouldn't it?

Leonard Blumfeld

Sky and thin strip of city

This cloud formation out of my living room window fascinated me the other evening. My contribution to today's Wordless Wednesday.

Artistic games

Old games played with new tools at the Tate Modern in London.
Posted for Ruby Tuesday thanks to qualifying clothes.

Original Ruby Tuesday invitation.

The breather fib

Grey
sky
in July -
a breather -
a breeze before the
next scorcher that is sure to come

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2008)

A day of emotional relaxation so far, perfect for reporting on something as neutral as the weather. At the same time, I almost reproach myself for being so mercurial: how can it be that someone I felt so passionate about just a few days ago now seems so distant – and not only that, but comfortably so? Or only numbly so – in keeping with the weather?

Hot summer day haiku

Sweating it out in the office all day,
with the addition of A. driving long pointed nails
into my all-too-willing soul

– Leonard “Leached Out” Blumfeld (© 2008)

Potential protest
"But that's not a haiku," some might scream, "because it doesn't have umpteen syllables and is not about bucolic things like cherry blossoms in bloom or the shedding of pine needles!"
Oh well, to me it feels like one in this heat.

My summer poem for Totally Optional Prompts.

Treasures from Brick Lane

Among the treasures I brought back from an excursion to London's Brick Lane – a street full of Bengali/Bangladeshi restaurants and stores – were six Bangladeshi films on DVD and Monica Ali's 2003 novel Brick Lane (now also a movie).

For several years now I've mostly picked books to read that were about a matter I wanted to read about – an interesting biography, personal fate, specific geographical or historical setting.

Brick Lane fits all four categories, is beautifully written and has a deeply human story to tell. I might write about it again once I've made more progress.

Dollhouse by director Morshedul Islam is set in 1971, when Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) was fighting for independence from Pakistan. Rehana, a young woman from Dhaka, comes to the village to seek refuge from the war-ravaged capital city. Essentially a happy, bubbly girl, she displays strange reversals of mood. The film gradually reveals her secret in a series of flashbacks.

A beautifully photographed film that stems from a time zone so different from our hectic one. A domain in which it is possible to feel the significance of every moment, the flow of time. I wish I knew Bengali to fully appreciate this soft-spoken gem of cinema.

Permanence

Will
what
was be
always? Kept
in an infinite
reservoir of thought, action, wish?

– Leonard "Transient" Blumfeld

A fibonacci for One Single Impression and Transience or Permanence.

Everyday art

It's 'art in the everyday' at Inspire Me Thursday this time around, and this photograph is exactly that. It is a snap of a section of a lamppost I took a few weeks ago, which has, over the course of its existence, obviously been exposed to various events and layers, such as posters stuck and removed, rusting, cracking, spray painting, weathering and who knows what other everyday occurrences.

L. Blumfeld

My nights without you

... are terribly boring.

To give you an idea – last night I ate three boring sandwiches (turkey on bread, nothing else), then ironed five shirts while watching Switzerland and Turkey slush it out.* While you were on my mind a lot. While I was thinking that our nights together could be a lot more exciting. For example, we could do ironing together. Or other things.

– Leonard Nightdreamer Blumfeld

For Sunday Scribblings' "My Nights"

* Actually, that turned into quite an exciting match in the second half. I was rooting for the Turks, so I was thrilled when they got the ball in a second time about one minute before the end.

Towering cloud

Evening sky with towering cloud. Taken out of my window last night.
Barely blue – I know. Darkest blue and lightest blue for Project Blue
and Wordless Wednesday.

Blue flowers

Blue flowers in Kensington Park for Anna Carson's Project Blue.

The hummingbird speaks

... and then there are those parts of Nature
ideally made for my fluttering approach,
colored an attractive red, to take a sweet
drink ... even though sometimes
big-eyed beings eye me from close-by ...
and I’ve also found the fount empty at times ...

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2008)

Inspired by Inspire Me Thursday.

Jivin' in Munich

That's me blurred and jivin' in front of a gigantic art object in Munich last year. Posted for Self at Photo Hunt.

Decadence, sleaze and excess

Discovered in London, UK. Posted for Wordless Wednesday.