It has been a long time since I have posted. Who better than Rumi to soften the blogger's block.

IN CUBA

In Cuba medicine is without medicine

education without global access

Lawyers supplement their meager income

as ladies of the night-shift for the European tourists

 ticket to freedom through marriage 

An Island of regrets and sensuality 

removed from civilization

raped by the Spaniards, tended by the Africans

Caribbean beauty lost to communism

Her soul and rhythm nourished with

Cafe negro, tobacco smoke and rum

black beans and sticky sweet fried bananas

Her balmy waters forever sultry-sexy

preserved in the formaldehyde

of Castro's perverse dilapidation

frozen in time 

in the year 1959

Sam's Music Box

What do you give someone who has everything? Why, a hand made, one-of-a-kind personalized treasure box that plays their favorite song. Stay "tuned" for the charming lost art of music boxes and I will show you the next one as it takes shape...

"Do What You Love...The Money Will Follow"

"Always Sing" Suet Feeder by Evelyn Colom Kiggins

There are things that put you in the "zone". 

You have been at it for hours and yet time stands still. 

You are focused, serene, joyful! I am there when I write and when I create collages. The other day I was at Wings where my "Always Sing" Suet Feeder Collage was for sale.  http://wingsandcheepshots.blogspot.com/

and it had been moved to a new spot. When I saw it, I turned it a little. Today I visited the shop and someone had purchased it! That would make the third sale to date! It is very encouraging! I was digging for the photos I took of this particular one, and was glad I still had them. Sometimes parting is such sweet sorrow....

Bella's Music Box

There is a little girl, Bella, who just turned four.  She is the older daughter of the very talented Seattle photographer, Sarah Bunch, http://www.sarahbunchphotography.com/, and she is the inspiration for my first music box.
Bella loves pink, butterflies, elephants, books, music, and horses are her very favorite. I chose a tune from Dr. Dolittle, "Talk To The Animals", for the music box, which, since it is new territory for me, I am working on the proper installation for it. I look forward to sharing with you the sound and interior of the finished piece, but most of all to give it to that darling girl!

Bella's Music Box

Living The Poem

When boldly I announce that I am a writer, something my friends and family know about me, they inevitably ask: What do you write? That is when I feel a shyness come over me, and shrinking a bit,  I attempt to answer with a description that is short, to the point, compelling and satisfying to the person asking, who has taken an interest to ask.  This is the reason why I have not been "public" about the contents of the journal before: The idea is to connect and my fear is disconnect! Just as any writer would  have it, I didn't want the interested to lose interest. I needed to refine, define the voice and the audience, to chisel at it so to speak, so that I would not lose the reader/listener.

The first point I want to make is that the perception of being a writer is that 1) you have been published 2) you are working on something to be published in the future 3) that you have defined which category of writing your writing falls under.

I am attempting to answer the question about what it is that I write, so for the most part,  this is where journaling becomes the full work for me. It is an autobiographical writing artform in itself, lately getting more recognition as a tool for self-knowledge and documenting, with memoirs appearing in the publishing spotlight. I began my writing "journey" in notebooks when I was 15. Embellished at times with clippings, pictures, drawings, doodles, unfinished stories, and many, many dreams and poems embedded throughout, they cover over three decades (almost four)!

 When I discovered Anais Nin's journals at the university bookstore one day, I was elated and thrilled! Someone else had done it in a very similar way and I had found my mentor. To this day, Anais has been one of my writer-heroes, followed by Henry Miller, Erica Jung, Virginia Woolf, Colette,  Gustav Flaubert, Herman Hesse, to name some that come to mind immediately. I have admiration for so many more, not just writers of books of all kinds, but for lyricists/songwriters as well.  I continued to make my entries and let the words come, and become, as I expanded my self-guided tour through literature and non-fiction.

 What I want most of all: to portray a time and place, people and ideas, to document history, personal and collective, and to spark the imagination. The plan was to publish the journal just as is, in it's organic form, or perhaps not publish it at all, but let it be an original work of writing, a collection. I would select hardcover notebooks and they would be stand-alone parts of the complete set. They would be a work in itself, no editing, just raw and real.  At the time when I recognized how passionate I was about this life-long project, I had no idea of the opportunities and many choices and forms of "publishing" one's work that would unfold as time passed, and I am excited about some new possibilities that are on the horizon...

Here are some pages from the notebooks beginning with the following posts, while continuing to add some current writing, and multimedia. These notebooks are about to have a life of their own here, where the experience of writing becomes complete in the sharing!

 For starters, here is an entry from 1981, when I worked in New York City and my commute was devoted to reading, "Oh, Page, Oh Citadel". That was my Virginia Woolf phase...I think I was reading THE WAVES....

From November 2004 (Page 1)

From November 2004 (Page 2)