Creative Every Day

Abundance and Envelope Houses

April 15th, 2008

Drinking in some abundance today...feeling grateful for warm spring air, cats in ridiculous sleeping positions, clown fish dancing in their anemones, the hubster cleaning off the porch, so we can make use of it again, a lovely art lesson with a family on Saturday, enjoying my creations from Artfest, a clean fridge, freshly washed pillow cases, new markers and the smooth way they move across paper, a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, bills paid, poetry on an envelope, laughter, wrapping my arm around the hubster late at night, finding a cat toy under the covers, quiet understanding, an invitation, a thunder and lightning storm, a couple good Red Sox games, socks with whales on them, silly text messages, Numi tea.

A big congratulations to Marilyn whose poetry is being published in Patti Digh's book, Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally which is available for pre-order from Amazon now!! All the artists who submitted work to Patti's project are also having their work published in the book! So cool! I submitted some work and I'm not sure which piece was chosen. However, you can see some of the art that was created around the essays that Patti wrote, here. I'm so thrilled to be a part of this project. Thank you, Patti!

From reading Marilyn and Patti's blogs, I know that it is National Poetry month, so I was thinking about poetry today and a line came to my head about envelopes being shaped like houses. I was looking for something to write it down on, when I realized, "Duh, I should write it on an envelope!" I had a stash of my neighbor's unused wedding invitation envelopes that I'd been saving for use in art and I pulled one out and wrote out a poem in white ink. Inspire Me Thursday's theme this week just happens to be "envelopes." I've used little envelopes before in art and I love them, but it was fun to use an envelope in this way. I've got some more envelope ideas floating around in my head, so perhaps I'll do something with those too. And here's the poem I wrote on the envelope above:

envelopes
shaped like houses
holding letters
and tucked away secrets.
hidden corners
and longing
make the floor boards creek.

to seal this letter,
this chapter,
this page
of your life
you must bring
the whole roof down.
destroy the illusion.
lick.
stamp.
send.

you let go here.

somehow,
magically,
your message arrives.
your messy wishes,
whispered words.

and just when
you've forgotten
or made yourself forget,
you receive a reply
in the license plate in front of you,
in the billboard on your commute home,
in the page you open to,
in the envelope
shaped like a house
with the roof torn down.