Random Writing - Finding My Way -
Artificiality and Life
-3/28/08
Photography and Writing by Sheila Finkelstein
EXCUSES FOR NOT WRITING
from my Morning Pages – 3/28/08
I want to write some Nature poems for Bards of a Feather on Tuesday. Could it be combined with the Heart Writing work this week? Nature is the subject.
What do I write? Could start out writing on why I don’t write. Have this story that I need to be spontaneously, passionately moved about something to write freely, or rather that it’s the only time I write well. Ironic, since when I’m simply in the moment with a prompt, words bubbles out, well kind of flow – usually good stuff.
I guess it’s simply a matter of sitting down to write with a blank canvas in my mind – no pre-thought judgments or considerations, simply look at some words or the objects and write. There certainly is an abundance of material
For instance, now I look at the plastic ferns gracefully (as graceful as plastic can be) radiating out from the center of a vase on the glass table son Rob made years ago in High School.
I could write about the table also, but let’s stick to the ferns. People who feel energy from living things would know immediately that they are not real. There is no/was no life. Angela, who opens my Lulu flower book to be inspired by a photo for the day quickly moves to another if the page opens to the artificial flower one.
Real ferns when cut could not be so upright as these sitting on the table
And, moving on to ARTIFICIAL FERNS
PART 2 - ARTIFICIAL FERNS
Artificial Ferns - sitting on a table graceful, spreading out from the center of the blue pottery vase purchased years ago.
Unbeknownst to you the viewer the opening of the vase feels like lips.
Gently they hold these ferns in place. There might even be florist foam in the bottom of the vase to hold them still. Study them long enough and you can feel their lifelessness. Contrast them with live ones.
Once cut, the ferns outside my house would flow down and around, a soft feel. I don’t think any would be upright and I might be wrong. My live Boston Fern keeps cropping up in the bushes between the branches and in isolated spots… little pieces seem to migrate no matter how often I pull them out.
Do they have a message? What message might they have about survival, not being held down, cast off?
The ferns on the glass table are a decorative reminder that green can help sell a space. I had bought them, put them in a pot and placed them in a corner of an empty apartment that needed to be sold. It helped as did the silk-like lilies in my Pictures to Ponder: Flowers Book 1, the one flower photo people pass over as they feel the energy from all the other live ones. And yet, the artificial did the trick. Was it because they seemed to add something or rather were they a comfortable confirmation of the sometimes artificiality of life?
Despite it all the green ferns for me, as I glance out on my patio, do give me a quick lift bringing closer the green from outside my almost totally windowed space, a lively contrast to the colorful piled up books three feet away.
See Also - Plastic Ferns on a Glass Table in Picture to Ponder, Vol. 4 - Issue12.
PART 3 – Next - A PILE OF BOOKS
A PILE OF BOOKS – SPINES VISIBLE
As I sat writing, I glanced a short distance,
a couple of feet, across my patio and the following
observation, then words, came –
Colorful spines bring a smile to my face
Contrasted with the vase of plastic ferns,
a couple of feet to my right, their left.
They have a life of their own.
Not in an even line - the books.
Could almost feel like a precarious balance
Yet, they’re solid.
Blues, lavendar, greys.
Some type is white or yellow
Then there is red.
No, it’s yellow and red –
The words – FIND YOUR (yellow)
COURAGE! (red)
Words popping out -
“Walking” - “Peaceful” - “Uncommon” - “Code”
“Trust” – “Gifts” – “Courage”
Coltaire (a name) – “Ignite”.
A colorful stack, balanced (visually) by
The front of a greeting card, angled, shifting, toward me
The top one in the basket that is about a foot to the right
I still smile as I consider grabbing for my camera
So you, too, can see what I see.
I won’t be the same, though,
As each of our visions and interpretations are
always different, even if it’s an infinitesimal one.
And that’s another story or article.
Marifran can write it.
I giggled as I wrote the last.
The smile remains broad on my face.
©2008 Sheila Finkelstein
And for those curious, the books on that non-toppling
pile, listed in order of their names – top to bottom:
(Note the toilet tissue paper bookmarks)
WALKING DISTANCE - Marian Thurm
Hillman - WAY OF THE PEACEFUL WARRIOR
WISDOM OF THE PEACEFUL WARRIOR - Millman
Chandler - FROM ENTREPRENEUR TO INFOPRENEUR
LIVING AN UNCOMMON LIFE - John St. Augustine
THE ADSENSE CODE - Joel Comm
Don Miguel Ruiz -THE FOUR AGREEMENTS
TRUST YOUR VIBES - Sonia Choquette
THE TEN GIFTS - Robin L Silverman
THE CULTURE CODE - Clotaire Ra[aille
FIND YOUR COURAGE! – Margie Warrell
SPEEDWEALTH - T Harv Eker
9 STEPS TO RECOVERING OR PREVENTING CANCER and other diseases - Goodman
IGNITE YOUR INTUITION - Craig Karges
Books owned by Sheila Finkelstein – 2007-2008