Low Tide Delights

Zip and I took advantage of the -3 foot tide this morning and enjoyed the Spit Beach, where we delighted in the sand, light, warmth and quiet calm.

When my soul seeks comfort
I wander the pebbled shores
Each wave welcomes me home
And I am filled by the sea.

 

Spring Migration - And so it Begins

Geese, ducks and swans are returning and woodland birds greet each morning with song. Our nighborhood has been blessed with a Great Gray Owl pair as well, calling late in to the night.

And so it begins, this resurrection of spring.

Poem A Day - Day 15 - Love and Anti-Love

Love

Tall trees

Reaching ever upward tilting forward

Shedding leaves like a winter jacket

Naked bare, then blooms bursting

Bend and creak

The lifting breeze sways you so

Nesting birds, crawling ants, a squirrel hides chattering chattering

Splendid form with roughened skin where bodies lean

Ancient roots and layers of years

Your life force calling

Calling out to me

Anti-Love

Raging fire

Scorches through the forest

Shaking canopy

Knocking large timbers to their knees

Exposed roots

Charcoal trunks

Leaving a desolate wasteland

Carpet of dark black soot carves a path through the distance

Timbers

Shrubs

Birch and pine

Needles splayed in dying embers

Ancient legacy of primeval story

Smoldering stillness envelopes the woods

Pause

Breath

Dripping sap

Sprouting green

Singing lark

Life force calling

Calling out to me

Camino de Santiago - Still Walking

Buen Camino: A Pilgrim's Journey is my exhibit of photographs from my time on the Camino de Santiago in the fall of 2011. This exhibit will be on display at the Homer Public Library for the months of April, May and June. 

Tonight, I'll give a talk and slideshow presentation during the opening reception. This will be the ninth presentation I've given in various States as well as in Canada on my 500 mile walk across Spain! I'm thrilled that there is such overwhelming response to this pilgrimage. 

There is a new documentary out on the Camino: http://caminodocumentary.org/. I haven't seen it, but it has received good reviews.  Of course, the movie The Way was and continues to be a big hit to pilgrims and the curious.

Two and a half years after my Camino, I'm still walking...

 

Poem A Day - Day 14 - If I Were...

If I were a pencil
I would rewrite pages in the journals
that line my bedroom wall.

If I were a painting
I would hang tilted on an angle
just a bit off to the side.

If I were a flower
I would throw my scent out in to the night
for insomniacs to smell.

If I were a tree
I would bend my branches through your window
and kiss you while you sleep.

Write a Thon Writing - Fun & Productive!

Another fun write-a-thon has come and gone. Arriving in to Anchorage after a five hour drive, with just 15 minutes to spare, I found my seat and began to write.
 
During the four and a half hour writing frenzy, I was very productive, writing three poems and working on a prompt my friend Jackie suggested.  I also enjoyed interacting with other writers as well as the delicious food and drink that was provided - I am still coasting from the caffeine and sugar!

Thanks to everyone at 49 Writer's for hosting such a fun and lively event again this year. And thanks to everyone who sponsored my writing page, lending their support to 49 Writers, while cheering on my writing endeavors!

Poem A Day - Day 13 - Animal

As the sun rises, I lean in to the light

Ever-lengthening rays of spring

Grounding me gently, firmly

Planting roots in to warming soils

This heart reaching ever upward

A song of thanks, whispering caught on the wind

Carried beyond the horizon, beyond the clouds

Dancing, rising, soaring

Throat caught in the soft belly of my human animal

Upward into the ebb and flow of all that was, all that is, all that will ever be

Missing Henry

Henry passed away one year ago today. He is loved, missed and thought of often...

Homer Sunset and Moon

The view from our deck last night.  Imagine the beauty when it's actually a full moon.  Ah yes, we're blessed...and soon, the Sandhill Cranes will make their annual return and grace us with their haunting calls, delicate beauty and joyous flight above our house.

This is spring in our neck of the woods.

Poem A Day 12 - City

City Sounds that Frame my Days and Nights
(or: An Ode to Brooklyn)

Every morning they come

Rolling their carts up and down the empty streets

Plunk, plunk, plunk go the wobbly wheels

- These bottle pickers

Every afternoon they stroll

Bouncing their orange globes down the dusty sidewalks

Wham, wham, wham go the basketballs

- These young athletes

Every evening they ride

Revving their engines throughout the neighborhood

Boom, boom, boom go the stereos

- These hefty bikers

Every day they drag me from sleep

Pluck me from work

Keep me awake

-       These welcoming sounds

Poem A Day - Day 11 - It Takes Two to Tango

The prompt was to write on a common theme or phrase.
I chose - "It takes two to tango".

Two to Tango

Shallow depth of sand
surrenders to my weight
a path of footprints trailing.

Narrow width of flesh
releases in his grasp
a night of careless loving.

Shallow depth of sand
surrenders to our weight
a path of teardrops falling.

One Year Ago - From Wild Rides to Wildlife

Last year, I was living in Brooklyn, New York and eagerly awaiting opening day at Coney Island's Luna Park... 

This year, I am in Homer, Alaska and eagerly awaiting the migratory arrival of the Sandhill Crane...

Poem A Day - Day 10 - Future

Like a lover's kiss
this promise sits on my lips - 
moist and inviting.

Trust, it whispers
let go, it urges -
be still and know.

You were
you are -
you always will be

Enough

You knew
you know -
you have always known

Love

As the tide ebbs
so does it flow - 
crashing waves leave treasures behind.

Poem A Day - Day 9 - Shelter

Dew

Clings to the leaf

That bows to the tree

Which stretches ever upward

Thin bark flutters caught on a breeze

And dances out through the woods past the fields and the hills

Where it comes to rest at last near the sea. 

Happy Birthday Taz!!

Woot woot!
A big shout out to my birthday boy!

Write-A-Thon or Bust

This Friday, I'll join other Alaskan writers at Snow City Cafe in Anchorage for a 4 1/2 hour writing marathon. 

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/christinawhiting/49-writers-2014-write-a-thon 

This is my third year participating in this fun event that always yields some juicy morsels. A fundraiser for 49 Writers who hosts the event and provides fantastic resources to Alaskan writers, I'm grateful to everyone who has made a donation to my Write-A-Thon page, to support me in my pursuit of the writer's life -  thank you to Betsy, Jared, Beth and John, Denise and Jim, Pat and Blair, Susie, Jonathan, Teresa and Taz! 

To all of you who are actively embracing your passions, I salute you. Thanks for the inspiration...

Poem A Day - Day 8 - Violence / Peace

Violent Peace

Shame holds me to her breast
where she smooths my cheek with callused fingers
her smiling gums pulled back against rotting teeth.

At last I pull the cord
on the flashing neon sign that keeps score
and my successes and my failures take rest.

Poem A Day - Day 7 - Self-Portrait

Self Portrait

On the third Tuesday of every month I leap from beneath the covers
dancing and playing and swirling
as the ever-changing light plays its peek-a-boo games through the blinds.
The innocence of childlike bliss fills me
my feet wandering through the moments
as they pass minutes to hours.

On this grey Monday I hover beneath the warm flannel sheets
groaning and twisting and waiting
as the shadows throw themselves against the walls.
Melancholy leans its weight upon my shoulders
my breath narrowing to brief inhalations
as they shallow reflect and pause.

On Thursday afternoons my light and dark embrace,
flirting and touching and dancing

as the hardwood floors creak and sigh to their frenzied tango.
Windows fly open and shutters swing on their hinges

my fingers bounding across faded piano keys

as they wrestle me to myself.

Poem A Day - Day 6 - Night

As Night Comes to Play

Words slip for my pen like a whore stepping out of her corset
The blank page an eager lover naked and inviting
daunting
naughty
prolific
echoes
to soar
Vowels drop and consonants droop like water from the ever-dripping kitchen faucet
Daaaamn u
Damnn meee
Ddamn the whole lot of uss
Yes, you too, you their shrunk down in the corner covered in cobwebs, claiming anonymity
With those long legs and bundled breasts, shrinking violet is not your lot in life
More like chorus girl
Lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree
a
e
i
o
u
b g r x and z too
Voluptuous vowels and constant consonants
Keeping me company as the minutes on the grandfather clock tick, tock, tick, tock
And I long to write something, anything of "substance"
Knowing that my words are my children, running scattered here and there
Finally coming home to rest, hot chocolate with marshmallows from a hearty mug
And laying tossled hair on cool pillows
Waiting for the Fairy Princess in our dreams to rescue us
From the words that chase us through the dark forest
The words we claim before we embrace our happily ever after.

Poem A Day - Day 5 - Discovery

Like ancient petroglyphs scratched across rugged, rocky surfaces

A crisscrossing pattern of lines juts haphazardly outward from the corners of my eyes

As the days and months, moments and years pass, these wrinkles etch themselves Deeper and deeper

A pronouncement of reconciliation for the chronicle of my life

Hope and hopelessness, health and stress, wonder and fear, joy and anger

Great choices, poor choices, choices not made and choices made without my say

No archaeologist invades my face seeking knowledge

No friend

No lover

No child

I am the keeper of these tales

They are my rite of passage

These lifelines

A legacy hard won

Creases marching across the landscape that is mirrored back to me

Displayed for public consumption, reverence or shunning

Listen, listen they whisper

My own story folding and unfolding

Renderings

Bow down to me and I will bow down to you

These ancient petroglyphs scratched across rugged rocky surfaces

Poem A Day Challenge - Day 4 - Since

Since When Did I Stop Seeing You?

You used to fill my gaze but now are just a blur
Two ships that pass in distant seas
These rose-colored glasses are fading fading
Do you see me or am I just a shadow now too
Lurking in dusty corners
Obscured from the light.

Poem a Day Challenge - Day 3 - Message

 

Resurrect thy strength woman

Welcome the lengthening light of day

And shout

Let your voice be carried upon the sparrow’s wing

Beyond the clouds

Beyond the horizon

Beyond all that is, all that was and all that will ever be

There are no whispers here

Yours is a song that must be sung

A song that must be heard

Exhale

Release

Let go

Resurrect they strength woman.

Poem A Day Challenge - Day 2 - Voyage

Throw me a rope
So that I might join you 
Hovering over the crevasse
Peering down in to its great depth
Measuring its width
Landscape shifting
You standing on one side resolute and firm
And me kneeling here as the ice gives way around us.

Poem a Day Challenge - Day 1 - Beginnings

Today, to further nurture my goal of a daily writing practice, I joined an online group of international writers who are taking the challenge to write a poem a day for the month of April, in honor of April is National Poetry Month. 

Because I am a writer and a photographer, I decided to expand this challenge to include a poem and a photograph, as inspired by the daily prompt.

Here's the poem I wrote and the image I shot for the Day 1 prompt - Beginnings.

Today I went looking for remnants of my life before loving you

Bits and pieces of me scattered throughout the rooms of our house

Covered with dust and cobwebs

Stashed in to corners behind closed wooden doors

Buried deep within faded boxes

Tucked under beds laden with heavy blankets that graze the floor.

It was just a thing of curiosity really, wondering if my heart would pause or skip

Moments of time to recall the spaces and places and faces of my forty years

Old love letters, postcards and poems of fading ink read and read again

Gentle caress of forgotten tarnished trinkets of silver and bronze and even gold

Dried rose petals that spill out of a metal trunk

One-eyed worn and torn stuffed animals staring resolutely back at me.

To crack open aging spines of yellowed photo albums

Pages that tightly bind the secrets of ghosts long since remembered

Pets and parents, siblings and friends, family and strangers and all in between

Former lovers whose blue, brown, gray, green eyes hold me in quiet regard

Distant voices that echo laugher and tears and promises kept and dismissed

Skinned knees, broken heart, blue ribbon stapled to a story and the blush of my first kiss.

Stashed in to the bodice of music box ballerinas that adorn sun-draped window ledges

Buried deep within the jubilant cartwheel of my long lost innocence

Bright pink candy ribbons dipped in brown sugar and vanilla frosting coated recollections

Sweet like cotton candy clouds that are at first a bear and then a bunny and then your face

Tucked just behind my fluttering heart, whispered memories on a clear cool night

Beginnings and endings scattered throughout the rooms of my heart.

If you'd like to join the challenge, it's free and you just need to register at http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/2014-april-pad-challenge-day-1