AD.

WALKING ON THIN ICE

VIVID HAPPINESS

VIVID HAPPINESS

A baseline for happiness I remember is
how Mom & I’d tear through
the autumn countryside
in our econobox car
after church

It was in Kirtland Hills curviness,
drippy leaves, raw water grass
good place for zealots

Take me for a ride, I’d ask–
no thoughts of gas, all that is
involved in that–
we were just happy
to drive

In church my mind buzzed in preteen,
then teenage excitement about
universal ideals, togetherness,
respect for each preached
in UU pulpit, youth group

The vibrancy of the lessons
opening my heart like a gate
pouring out and letting in
to protect everyone

Some kind of
restless leg syndrome
I ached to do important,
good stuff, for sure

I was set more alive
for those drives

~ Lady

Harmony of the Forest

Harmony of the Forest

I’d like to grow trees everywhere where they are to be. Lots more places than now. I see trees being grown and growing so tall. So tall, like primeval forest. Trees securing part of our future and our future making a compact to help them grow.

When I creep into the wildness of what is fundamentally our story as children, the forest is there, God’s gifts to we.

Sure, there are wolves among the trees, but one can build shelter, and the wolves are no longer threatening. Rather, soundtrack to listen to at night. Wolves finding footstep in the paths. Wolves ascending wherever wolves ascend to thrall and yowl, drunk in the blue on the gold of the well-hung moon.

When one goes between two sheets of trees, trees on either side of one, or even in a thick of trees, trees in front and back and to the sides of one, it’s an entering into laden air. Oxygen bathes nostrils and calm claims brain. Silver sounds of birds filigree around like ornaments describing water.

Bees hang honey in the trees. When you see a fringe by a field, it’s a refuge for their nests. That’s where they tidy themselves into combs. At day they descend to garland fields with business.

If a bear finds a bee nest, that’s a good meal for the bear. The bees bear it for the bears. Bears are beings that we can feel we might be when we are out in the woof of the wild.

The new primeval trees can start here. We’ll plant them in the watersheds, and they’ll hold in the water, they’ll hold in the humus we all need to grow our nests healthy in ways that compost and patter and nurture and invest. The best investments, trees and bees, wolves for night song, birds for day, bear paws of the sweet, stung zest.

~ Lady

SOME WORK

SOME WORK

They say
the grasshopper
didn’t do it

But I’ve seen
grasshopper industry

I’ve seen
insects of orchestras
folding, thrumming and vibing
grasshopper there with the rest of ’em,
singing his leg on forewing
sexy

How one can carry an instrument
with them

How voice can be like a leg
like an arm
for what you need to do

Voice
voice in void voids void

A fish splashing in itself

A satellite broadcasting
some kind of rain

An umbrella for a spot

Or an antenna

A key

Flash lightning

Opera

An opera singer
doesn’t have to carry
a suitcase
for her things,
just sing and sing

Like the grasshopper
zinging along its thing
on a string

Someone at home with
herself, in herself,
herself home

Carrying all her worldly
possessions zipped
in her own self world

Finding vast velvet
when convenient

She lets things open
fallow, fertile
future replete

Sung, sing, will dip
and sing again

~ Lady

FIDEL PERVASIVENESS

Fidel Pervasiveness
forgiving itself

Fidel Pervasiveness
making Bathtub in Itself
making Backscrubber
making Soap
and scrubbing Itself

Does it get lonely
Fidel Pervasiveness
hold Itself close to Itself
looking longingly for something
other than own thumb to suckor
Its own breast
Itself suckling on Itself
Itself loving Itself
Love

Fidel Pervasiveness

Fidel Pervasiveness making dolls
from Itself,
walking talking dolls
Doll and God, God and Doll

God as Mom holding Doll babe,
Dali, Dolly

God as God-Mom and God-Pop
sent into world with amnesia
so they can find each other again,
see what comes of it

God throwing rolling dice
closing Its own eyes
trying to forget

God no longer titillated

God wanting projects to pass time

Wishing to be at peace with the mirror

God wanting Other God,
Other God wanting God

Other God and God combining together and
realizing they’re still the same gosh-dang God

Oh how God is lonely but how words can be balm

Oh how God can yearn but then find solace

Yes?

Solace in the Solipcism

I AM WHAT I AM

What am I?

Oh, God.

~ by Lady & God

Is it not Quest, but Story?

(I didn’t know my reality was in holding mode, initial conditions mode left to mold. It was waiting for me and I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know it.)

(And we left the country in 2006, and we initiated our big Quest even though we didn’t know we were on one… well, if only to make art and have adventures in a kind of artistic and for me, initially, mostly secular way. Zzzzzzzz…..)

(And I found crazy sane magic, non-secular magic. I found ghosts. I thought I was crazy and not. I am not crazy, OK? I am not. I am one of the most lucid narrators in this glob, this moshpit of whateverness that we’re making into i-care-for-it-ed-ness.)

Where is this going? The Quest.

We were invited to Minneapolis to participate in a reading last weekend about outlaw poetry–“Wanted.” It felt like kindling the Quest again to me–our combined part of the Quest.

(I plucked fistfuls of clover and distributed them to poets and passers-by. The men who go to work and eat at the pantry on our street, West 14th. I wrote letters and sent them to grieving folk and prisoners. I would rather write letters for the purpose of poetry and celebration because I don’t want anyone to be sad circumstance. An abundance of letters to help along happiness.)

(I helped with the production of Matter Ring. The reading being named “Wanted” and the book by friend on mattering topic jives.)

And we set out.

I drew a picture of myself, a version carrying the shield of clover, bees abuzz around me, Excalibur truth wielding. Me, fairy, part of God/Reality.

I found out stuff about clovers and the pernicious nature of the idea of dualism. Clover in Illinois saving the environment, Shamrock in Mentor not-so-much-saving-it. Businesses wielding the shield of clover. Clover itself always good.

And I forgot about the “we” part and thought about the “I” part, and on my BIG TO-DO LIST is to figure out the we part in this picture. I am thinking/have always thought that Smith is Merlin. And I am quester, and I am Lady-of-the-Lake.

I found out about clover lawns and am ever an enthusiast of permaculture.

Bees! The story!

The story is that in short, there were storytellers there, and this is kind of a detective story and a quest. Aren’t all? And isn’t the search for the Holy Grail a detective story? And isn’t it about the land, how we are the land, how we are royal?

I worship Your Royal Highnesses the Bee Queens. Who knew that people were at the mercy of bee queens and their workers? Is it a matter of pulling up the fabric and seeing the relationship at that point? Can all points worship all other points and be worshipped as well?

The story is a winding stream that we are helping be healthy with many habitats for wildnesses. Streams buttressed with living carpet, plant blanket. The outlaw part has something to do with the story… living in nature but following higher law, law of out-of-dooredness. Marijuana figuring prominently in so many outlaw poets’ tales.

What is the spirit of plants–what is the spirit of clover and what is the spirit of marijuana?

. . .

A bee inspected me yesterday when I went outside. It hovered there, and inspected me. It tried to come inside, too.

. . .

Is it then not Quest, but Story? Is writing Story the Quest? What is it, from what point do I pick it up this big gob, this kaleidoscope?

~ Lady

Our Spaceship Earth

Our Spaceship Earth

 

Smith, me and Mandycat are on a spaceship. Sometimes it’s just me, actually. But most of the time it’s the three of us. It’s our apartment. Our apartment is the spaceship cabin. And we are the passengers of the events that we read about. And sometimes we are the captains. We can always take the helm of the spaceship and help the events around us, too.

The other day I was cutting out our new insurance ID cards from Progressive and at the same time I decided to put together the spaceship model, OUR SPACESHIP EARTH. It struck me that we are going to be driving backed up by Progressive now in our big wide spaceship earth. And I also found a bunch of four leaf clovers that day. Very auspicious.

We have platinum membership on OUR SPACESHIP EARTH so I wonder what that means. Does that mean that we are VIPs? I think we are VIPs if we remember that other people are VIPs, too. But back in the apartment helm, we are definitely captains of this realm. And sometimes outside the realm, too, when we settle in and gel into the moment, listen to its sounds and understand what is going on with the flow.

Several years ago I asked the aliens to beam us aboard. I think they are telling me that we are already on-board.

The meaning of OUR SPACESHIP EARTH is to realize that although Earth is a big wonderful place, it seems to be finite at least in the everyday grasping of it and understanding how to utilize it properly, and that this spaceship is to be respected and maintained, especially the garden part of it. We are still in Eden; we were never expelled.

I do not think we will need to use our ID cards other than to have good assurance that we are covered, the Precautionary Principle. And I like the idea of it being with Progressive. Does that mean that we’re driving our spaceship in a progressive direction now? I like to think so. Progressive with all the good connotations.

~ Lady

Lenore

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~ Photo Collage by Lady

Dharma Run

Dharma run May 16, 2012. 3+ miles & a stop to water the peas. ~ Lady

Blue Sky Folk Festival May 19 in Kirtland, Ohio

Blue Sky Folk Festival May 19 in Kirtland

Blue Sky Folk Festival in Kirtland on
Saturday, May 19

. . . where great musicians can connect with new musicians . . .

Blue Sky Folk Fest Great Guitar Raffle

Blue Sky Folk Festival Gift GuitarCheck out this awesome guitar that could be yours! The guitar will be signed by all of the featured performers at Blue Sky Folk Fest 2012.

It’s a full size Dreadnaught style cutaway guitar with a fantastic blue sunburst finish, professionally setup up by luthier Patrick Podpadec from Wood-n-Strings Guitar Repair Shop. Equipped with a piezo pickup system with active EQ controls, it includes a gig bag, guitar strap, guitar stand and extra set of strings. This guitar is ready to plug in and play with the tone and action like the pros have.

Raffle tickets on sale at Blue Sky May 19. $5 each or 5 tickets for $20.

Music, Music and More Music

Model wearing shirt showing Blue Sky Folk Fest designWhat a line-up: Hal Walker, Matt Watroba, Dale Rodgers, Laura Lewis Kovac and Hickory, Rebecca Wohlever, Tina Bergmann, Bryan Thomas & Hu$hMoney, Marc Yanko and more . . .

Don’t Be Caught Short-Shirted

Pre-order your 2012 Blue Sky t-shirt online and save! Pick it up at the festival May 19. These shirts will sell out!

A Search for Harmony

Last year's cookieFour “official” jam sites will be set up at the May 19 Blue Sky for musicians to practice and meet other musicians, but we know from last year that they’ll set up and play anywhere they please.

More Open Mic !

This year we’ve expanded to two stages – featured performers and open mic. The extra stage will give more open mic musicians a chance to shine – hosted by Spoon Too Soon, who will also perform their own brand of back porch roots, folk and country music.

Plan Your Day

A jam session at last year's festivalDon’t miss your favorite artist. There are workshops and classes too; view our schedule online.

Family Corner

Spend a day soaking up sun* and music – The Blue Sky is truly a family affair. Kids 12 and under come free. Crafty music and art-making, harmonica lessons, spoon lessons (what?!? you’ve never played a spoon?!?), clogging, storytelling, a playground and more . . . plus, mmmmmm, root beer floats, (n)ice cold lemonade, and fantastic fair food.

*tho this festival will be held rain or shine!

Creates wonderful memories for both adults and childrenBut I Just Want to Listen

Absolutely. Sing along, dream a little, listen a lot. No instrument required.

What? Klezmer Music?

What is the Workmen’s Circle Klezmer Orchestra doing at a folk festival? The genre originated in Eastern Europe and the particular form now known as klezmer developed in the United States Traditional clog dancingin the milieu of Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants who arrived between 1880 and 1924. Nope, not bluegrass, not roots music, not country – but it’s still Northeast Ohio folk music, and we thought you’d like this rousing start to the Blue Sky Folk Festival at 11 a.m.

Share and Share a-Like

Do share this newsletter with your friends – share our Facebook pages – “Like” us on Facebook. Help us bring the folk music community together in Kirtland on Saturday, May 19.

Blue Sky Folk Festival at East Shore: A Search for Harmony
Saturday, May 19, 2012    11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church
10848 Chillicothe Rd. (Route 306 just south of Route 6), Kirtland, Ohio 44094
Map