Arts

alignments, connections, and collaborations

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Last week I received a huge box at my door, and inside the box was an original piece of art, an unexpected gift of a painting from a talented and kind artist friend whom I collaborated with at Banff Centre. How over the top generous of Lynda Schneider Granatstein. Her gift reminding me of how inspiring to be part of something bigger than myself, to have someone invite me to participate in their process brings life. The painting is now hung in a place of honour, and I am thankful. Thank you again, dear Lynda.

This morning I received an email from a fellow blogger in Kenya, Africa. Kenny is someone I’ve connected with online around poetry. Kenny writes poetry on his blog Kolembo (and elsewhere) that turns me inside out, it’s raw, unique, gutsy, haunting and lyrical. Today Kenny asked if he might include a poem of mine on a blog venture he’s involved with. Of course, I said yes. In a couple of hours you will find ‘Provision’ included  in this months selection over at Ten of the Best (and I say that with my heart in my throat feeling less than worthy of inclusion). Kenny, my friend, thank you. And for the African sunshine you sent me today… double thanks. I can feel the warmth on my shoulders.

God continues to surprise and intrigue me.

SDG,

Lesley-Anne

I get by with a little help from my friends

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Here’s to friends, real, tried and true, old like a comfortable slipper, new and heart racing scary, virtual friends, and those yet to be.

Girls skipping at an athletics carnival

Girls skipping at an athletics carnival (Photo credit: Powerhouse Museum Collection)

Here’s to friends who share wisdom, like another supper idea when the recipe box in my head comes up empty, or say no when the bathing suit is just a little on the scanky side. Here’s to friends who laugh til they pee when I say something completely off the wall, and share their leftovers, and pass me kleenex at just the right moment, and let me use their chapstick.

And here’s to wordie friends… those who read and listen and affirm and suggest. The ones who understand the writing life is a bit lonely at times, who know a village, similar to the one required to raise a child, is needed to release a poem to the world. The ones who say something back when you say something you think might be OK to say out loud.

I have what I think might be a new poet/blogger friend in Vancouver, just over the mountains to the west. I recall reading about Samantha once in the paper, a couple of years ago. She inspired me. I found her online recently and read her blog, read what she’s up to which includes writing a poem a day for over a year. Wow.

And although I have yet to meet this friend face to face, she gave me a gift. What a generous spirit Samantha Reynolds has. What a gift to be featured on her blog, bentlily!  Thank you Samantha Reynolds! Thank you for believing, like me, that writing words down must always be followed by giving them away. Thank you, my friend.

Here’s the link to bentlily, Samantha Reynolds stunning, uplifting and creative blog.

And here’s the link to bentlily’s featured poet for the week (me).

Breathless and happy,

Lesley-Anne, SDG

So, maybe this is less about me popping up…

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…and more about possibility, opportunity, about keeping eyes and ears and heart open for the potential in each day to offer a word, speak a grace, write with the indelible ink of kindness on another’s soul? More about giving room for God, and inviting him into the conversation. Because I can certainly walk around and randomly read poetry in my daily life when I carve out time to do so. But it’s more likely that I’ll have time along the way or while I’m about other business to speak, to share, to read, to respond. And if I let God lead, then every interaction carries potential. Reminds me of what I just mentioned the other day about ‘purpose’ or ‘intent’…

This morning’s ‘verse of the day’ arrived in my inbox and I smiled… even in King James Version it makes sense to me. And, ironically, a short time later I did the exact opposite, spoke a word out of season, created a commotion where a good word would have been so much better… yes I have much to learn. This often happens to me, just when I give credence to some concept, some way of living, my life is tested in this very thing. It’s suddenly very real then.

VERSE OF THE DAY – King James Version

Proverbs 15:23

“A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season,
how good is it!”

Yesterday I was invited to Bo.ttega to participate in “ESCAPE”. an experiment in paying attention, opening up, creating an opportunity in my life and my schedule for God to do what only he can do.

It started with wonder, awe, reminders of who God is, his power, his glory, his love… continued with worship in music and dance and video and communion, with humble admittance of how much I’m in need of God’s love and forgiveness and acceptance of me and all my lumps and bumps and blunders… and then the creative opportunity… to allow the love and grace of God to flow through me into my mind, my heart, my pen, my paintbrush, my tongue. If this all sounds a little uncomfortable and outside of the box of Christendom… well, it was. And it was raw and real and powerful and tears flowed and hearts melted and wrong things were made right and after 3 hours I was drained and invigorated and so very grateful for having been there. I was not alone in that. We will gather again next month to escape again, to let God lead.

Here are some pictures of our humble experiment in Spirit led creative expression…

Thank you to all the organizers. Thank you to God for his work in us.

Soli Deo Gloria (for the glory of God alone)

Lesley-Anne

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Hello world!

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Poetry
Poetry (Photo credit: Kimli)

So, here’s my new blog “pop-up-poetry” that will follow my adventures in reading my poetry out loud on the streets of Kelowna British Columbia (and maybe other locations). Each time I read a poem in public, I will post the poem here. I might share a story about a poetry reading encounter too.

I believe art is for all of us, first for the artist, then for humanity. Art for our need to create beauty, express the gift… and beauty for the sake of saving the world, exposing our gift to others to touch their lives in a positive way.

Yeah, a bit of a lofty idea perhaps, but I do believe it is true.

I’ve been writing for years, and now I’m going to lay it out there for you. I hope it grabs you. I hope it echoes. We’ll see what happens.

The idea of me popping up and reading poetry in a spontaneous way to complete strangers, was planted in my mind when I took a trip to Vancouver, B.C. and learned about Pop Up retail. I heard of a movie company that had set up shop in a vacant storefront for a couple of weeks to sell off props, then once they were done, they closed… vanished. Same thing happens with clothing, art, and other retail establishments that literally pop up overnight and are gone within a very short time frame. I thought HOW COOL IS THAT! I looked into it a little more, and discovered that there are poets out there doing this… or similar things to this. Check out this YouTube video of a New York experience of pop-up poetry. Like the Flashmob phenom., there’s this idea of taking what we have to offer artistically and giving it freely to others. The artist as cultural philanthropist kind of thing.

Anyway…I’ve been blogging for years, writing poetry longer. Reading to myself/family/friends/acquaintances is fun, but reading to strangers is… risky, exciting, and I believe, necessary for me to grow as a poet/artist. I need to up the ante. So, here goes…

I’ve popped up to read poetry spontaneously a couple of times. Once last April, I walked around a plaza and read a poem by someone else… for National Poetry Month. This time, I went out one sunny September afternoon and read poems to a dozen or more people… my poems. I had some unique responses, some very interesting conversations. It was good.

And I do all this knowing that in some circles, the idea of freely sharing your work isn’t done. The purse strings are tight, the rules restrict. I’m doing it anyway. Until I’m convinced otherwise. Here’s something I wrote on the topic.

If you are interested, you can check out my other blogs Buddy Breathing, Sometimes Suicidal Mama, and My Gracenotes, by clicking on their names.

I’m excited to meet you, I really am. As with all of my blogs, I consider this to be community… a dialogue… not a monologue. So, let me know what you think. (Talk back!)

Click here to read what I read first time out… it’s my next post!

Stepping out,

Lesley-Anne