Less isn't more. Less is less. And anyway focusing on having less is a cycle of futility. We will always have something that we could live without. I have never met anyone (even when I was on the streets) that didn't have some scrap of something that they thought of as priceless or special. I am speaking about choosing to have a gentler hand in living, a less firm stance on what we want to happen tomorrow and a better understanding that what we have today is pretty amazing. I learned far more useful things as a day to day living or poor student than I did as a grad or undergrad; how to repair any engine, pluming, carpentry, electrical and masonry. I had to learn to make money and also to have a car, water or lights and a fan. And that learning made me appreciate those things I brought back to useful, working order. All I am saying is happiness comes from within. If I choose to see things as a burden rather than boon, then what you have now is more than enough.
Poem from the Muse -
Listen to the mustn’ts child, Listen to the Don'ts.
Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossible, the wont’s.
Listen to the cant’s and the never wills,
then child listen close to me.
Anything can happen child , Anything can be
Blowing RO
Shakuhachi blows
Mindless intent presented
Purposefully flows
Ahh the flute -
Hear the flute blowing
Refreshingly like water
Cooling as it flows
HAIR
A long winters past,
and I look like a bear,
all scruffy and ruff ,
bristling with hair.
So I went to the barber and fell asleep in his chair,
and when I awoke
I had no more hair.
Yet to my surprise
I was still bare.
Feet
Two step lively
One steps up
Two jump
One stomps
One kicks high
Two can only try
Two glide and dance
One takes a stance
Two makes a pair
Takes you every where
One alone can’t do much,
so one becomes two by getting a crutch.
A cold nose!
Ok, here goes –A man sank his nose deep in the snow,
deposited there by a hard blizzards stare.
His nose got a tingle
and ears heard a jingle,
the nose felt a prickling,
the cheeks looked like pickling,
nose turned bright red,
snow covered head.
Ears felt some sting,
cheeks felt nothing, nose was blue and felt nothing too.
A man lost his nose in the snow, he left it too long and the poor nose froze. That’s how it goes when your nose is in snow. You may be left with nothing to blow.
When art is your passion.
When color fills your soul.
When canvas and paper surround you in rolls,
And you have a brush for every texture and line.
When paint stains are present on most of your clothes.
When color can be identified by a whiff of the nose,
And you know that red is not the color of rose.
When a walk in the woods is a study of hues,
And you know that water has very few blues.
When your hands ache from not holding a brush or a pencil or chalk,
And you are sure that certain paintings and sculptures can talk.
When you can get lost in the things that you make,
And all of your friend’s describe you as a flake.
When matching clothes and hygiene are moot,
And relaxing music is a flute or a lute.
Chances are that you are not the artist you want to be.
But you are the artist that everyone sees.
So scribble on napkins, and watch how folds clump.
Keep hoping to organize your art supplies dump.
Read about Goudy, Gauguin and Seurat.
But never doubt that an artist your not
