Bits of Inspiration ~ My Story

 I can't believe this is my last prompt in the Garden. I am so blessed to have been part of Imaginary Garden With Real Toads. Each poet I've read here, met here, has been a mentor and inspiration to explore my voice through poetry. Today I find it fitting to share an incredible art piece from artist, Karina Llergo, titled, My Story, which she has graciously given me permission to use for our prompt.

My Story by Karina llergo  (used with permission)

"Throughout her professional life, Karina painted and worked tirelessly to develop her unique style.  As a lifelong dancer, competitive swimmer and enthusiastic skydiver, she found herself drawn to depicting on canvas the palpable energy of the human body in motion.  Driven by these fascinations and armed with her talent for figurative painting , Karina found a way to translate her observations and creative imagination into thought-provoking paintings of breathtaking beauty.   

Today's challenge is to create a new poem inspired by Karina's vibrant, beautiful art piece. If you repost the image to your blog please credit Karina by using the following link: https://karinallergosalto.com/. 

Please feel free to visit and view more of Karina llergo's  amazing art at  https://karinallergosalto.com/ and on Instagram @karinallergoart.com

If you post your poem on instagram using Karina's image, please tag @karinallergoart  and mention her as collaborative artist in your post. 

Bits of Inspiration ~ The Colors in a Song

Today we are gong to experiment with Synesthesia, particularly the color of music. A while back I listened to The Well Podcast, produced by Anson Mount and Branan Edgens who had Melissa McCracken as a guest. She said when she was fifteen she had a navy blue phone and she wanted a ringtone that would match it, a warm color to go with the cool color to balance it. She was looking through her iTunes and saw a Michael Jackson song, Cheater, and thought well, the song was orange so it would work perfectly. When she brought it up to a friend he had no clue what she was talking about. A couple of years later she discovered she had Synesthesia. To sum it up as simply as I can, when Melissa listens to music she sees it in colors. Immediately I thought about the psychedelic 60's. (No, not the mind bending drug part, the color part.) The psychedelic art combined with music.

So all this brings me to today's challenge. I have provided the following songs and I want you to choose one and listen to it. Visualize the lyrics, the music, and discover what colors you see or what colors come to mind and write a poem from that color wheel. Please indicate which song you chose. (If the videos don't show up in the post for you, choose a song, listen to it and find the color(s) it brings to mind. Please indicate your song choice.)

So my toad friends after you've word colored a song into a poem, visit your other poet friends to read (see) the colors in their poems. 

Bits of Inspiration ~ You Write the Color

Today I am making it simple. I'm providing the images for inspiration and you my dear poet friends will write the color. Choose one or more of the images and bring at least two colors into your poem. You have complete charge over poetic style. If you don't share the image in your post, please indicate which image/images you have chosen to poetically paint. All the photos other than my own came from pexels.com and are free to use as you wish (as are mine.)

So get out your poetic paint palettes and bring some color to these images, place your link in Mr. Linky, and visit your fellow poets to read the art of their words.

Bits of Inspiration ~ Poems in April ~ Bell

We are more than half way through the challenge of thirty poems in thirty days. What a wonderful month of poetry it has been thus far. Today I would like to offer a quote and photos as inspiration for your poetic offerings.

The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers. Matsuo Basho

Today's challenge is to simply allow the quote and images to bring poetry from you. Place your link on Mr. Linky and then visit your fellow poets to read their journey into bells and flowers.

Bits of Inspiration ~ Poet Discovery

Hello Toads and visitors! I'm excited to introduce you to a poet I discovered over the holidays. Her name is Jessica Helen Lopez. I am currently reading her poetry collection, Always Messing With Them Boys, and she hit me with wow from the first poem. She is sassy, bold, frank and was the former City of Albuquerque Poet Laureate and the Poet-in- Residence for the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History from 2014 to 2016. I could go on and on about her, but for brevity you can learn more about her here.

Today I want to focus on her poem, Mama is a Poet. 

"oh silly mama 

why are you always scratching

words out of your head,

like nighttime pulgas, like old-school

rollers wrapped around the pelos of your bangs,

pink little pieces of crazy?"

(Translations: pulgas - fleas, pelos-hair)

And again I say Wow!  For today's challenge I want you to express why you write poetry. There are so many ways to approach it. What it means to you. How you began. Critics who don't get your journey. Be bold about it. (In case you don't know it. You are already bold. Anyone who places their work on the internet knows it is available for the world to read. Kudos to all of you!)

As always share a new poem inspired by this challenge, drop it into Mr. Linky, and visit your fellow poets to read why they write poetry.

Bits of Inspiration ~ Doppleganger

Have you ever wondered if there is someone who looks just like you, but you've never met them? I've been told numerous times I have a twin. Well, not an actual genetic one, but someone who bears a strong resemblance. I've yet to meet my doppelganger.

Of course there are those distant relatives living and deceased who have marked resemblances to yourself or another family member. My youngest daughter, Carrie, bears an uncanny resemblance to Cher. There is a genetic connection because Cher's mother and my father were distant cousins. Carrie doesn't always look like Cher. It can come in the tilt of her head, a smile, or her theatrical ability to slip into a character. 

Doppelganger literally means double walker. There have been numerous references to them throughout history. They have been referred to as ghosts or the speculation we humans are time travelers. In this picture my husband Charlie was eighteen years old on a family vacation. He is on the far left with a girl standing behind him. One day he was looking at the picture and called me to come look at it. We both agreed the girl standing behind him held an unsettling resemblance to Dawn when she was seventeen. Is it possible? Is he playing ping pong with his daughter who traveled back to the future? 

For today's challenge I want you to write about an encounter with your doppelganger/time traveler. It could be a painting, a photo album, a magazine, or face to face. Meet him/her in whatever circumstances your imagination creates. Please make sure it is a new poem, post it on Mr. Linky, and visit your fellow poets to discover their responses to their double walkers.

Bits of Inspiration ~ Frida Kahlo

Today I want to inspire you with the life and art of Frida Kahlo. Frida was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacán, a village on the outskirts of Mexico City. She was a painter who often painted self portraits. At age six she contracted polio and at age eighteen she was severely injured in an automobile accident. It was because of her accident that her plans to attend medical school were ended and the childhood hobby of art led her to pursue becoming an artist. Much of her art was painted from her experiences with pain.

There is so much to learn about this amazing woman. I think I am so drawn to her because she was a woman who suffered incredible pain, and chose to let it be her muse, her inspiration to create art. I made several attempts at doing a Reader's Digest condensed version of her life for this post, but I simply couldn't do it. So after all the head scratching I settled on sharing her image and some of her quotes as inspiration.

“I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me, too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.” 

― Frida Kahlo

Self portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird

By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, Link

"The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration." ~ Frida Kahlo

“I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to better.”

― Frida Kahlo

“They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” 

― Frida Kahlo

“Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.” 

― Frida Kahlo

For today's challenge choose a quote, a photo, one of Frida's art pieces as inspiration or like Frida, choose yourself to paint with words. As always write a new poem for the challenge, post it on Mr. Linky, and take time to read the work or your fellow poets. (Learn more about Frida  and view her art here.

Bits of Inspiration ~ Stairs

Stairs can be my victory or my defeat. The climb depends on what my legs wish to do that day. Even with my knee rebellion at the thought of tackling steps I have a fascination with stairways. They are necessity, art, architecture, and for me, a short breath intake of regal. When I manage to reach to top of a staircase and look down, I feel a gasping moment of accomplishment, (short lived, but oh so good for my ego).

Stairway to Heaven
by Led Zeppelin

There's a lady who's sure

All that glitters is gold

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

When she gets there she knows

If the stores are all closed

With a word she can get what she came for

Oh oh oh oh and she's buying a stairway to heaven

There's a sign on the wall

But she wants to be sure

'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings

In a tree by the brook

There's a songbird who sings

Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiving

(The link in the title will take you to the complete lyrics for the song)

(As a side note, the story of how the song Stairway to Heaven was written is very interesting. You can listen to it here.)

"The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs." Vance Havner

"You shall find out how salt is the taste of another man's bread, and how hard is the way up and down another man's stairs." Dante Alighieri

So, the challenge for today is to write about stairways. You can take inspiration from Zeppelin, the quotes and photos I shared, experience, etc. Make sure it is a new poem for this challenge, post it on Mr. Linky, and please visit your fellow poets to read where their steps led them.

Bits of Inspiration ~ Dragonfly

First of all I must brag about my daughter, Carrie. She is Artist Relations Director at Art Colony Association Inc. and they are the producers of the Bayou City Art Festival. It is an important event in Houston. We are so proud of her. It would take pages to write all the work she puts in along with staff to bring all this talent together in our city. 



At the this year's Bayou City Arts Festival I discovered the beautiful art of Ann Byrd and purchased two prints.  One print is a dragonfly.

I really love how she describes her art. "My pieces tell a story, but not the whole story. They are windows into certain glimpses in a narrative that is already in play. Visions of things you catch out of the corner of your eye, but cannot be sure are real or merely ghosts of your imagination."  Ann Byrd

I'd like to share the totem meaning of the dragonfly and quotes with you.

The dragonfly totem carries the wisdom of transformation and adaptability in life. As spirit animal, the dragonfly is connected to the symbolism of change and light. When the dragonfly shows up in your life, it may remind you to bring a bit more lightness and joy into your life. Those who have this animal as totem may be inclined to delve deep into their emotions and shine their true colors.

"Time is for dragonflies and angels. The former live too little and the latter live too long."  ~  James Thurber

"It's very far away/It takes about a half a day to get there/ If we travel by-dragonfly." ~  Jimi Hendrix

" 

Who would deduce the dragonfly from the larva, the iris from the bud, the lawyer from the infant? ...We are all shape-shifters and magical reinventors. Life is really a plural noun, a caravan of selves." ~ Diane Ackerman

Also the painting is titled "Tipping Point." 

tip·ping point

noun

1. the point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change.

So for today's challenge I would like you to write an original poem about a  dragonfly/dragonflies. It can be in any form you choose. Please post it on Mr. Linky and visit your fellow poets to read where their wings took them.

Note: I've contacted Ann and have been given permission to use and share her  dragonfly print. If you use the dragonfly art print on your page, please credit Ann Byrd and link it to one of her art sites. The first link I used is to her Facebook page. The second is her website. 

Bits Of Inspiration ~ Keep Dancing

Wow! We are swimming in negativity from Facebook posts to news outlets. We can't climb out of the pit if we're always feeding on reasons for walls. So today Toads and visitors we're going to dance.

Photo by Adam Littman Davis on Unsplash

"Every dance is a kind of fever chart, a graph of the heart". Martha Graham

I actually love to dance. I feel a sense of freedom, joy, courage when I lose myself in movement to a favorite song. It is not about whether I'm good or bad at it. It is about letting go and celebrating who I am without my thoughts pulsing with negativity.

Pexels

"There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good." -   Edwin Denby

I enjoy watching dancers translate lyrics or story telling through their bodies. For instance Sia's videos are infused with dance. It may look like odd choreography, but no one can doubt the passion in the performance. 

And I won't let you get me down
I'll keep gettin' up when I hit the ground
Oh, never give up, no, never give up no, no, oh
I won't let you get me down
I'll keep gettin' up when I hit the ground
Oh, never give up, no, never give up no, no, oh

Photo by Saksham Gangwar on Unsplash

"Dancing is silent poetry." – Simonides

Today's challenge is to express dance through poetry. Pick a photo, a quote, video...Pick whatever inspires you.  Write a new poem...Post it on Mr. Linky and visit your fellow poets to read their poetic choreography. 

Bits Of Inspiration ~ Mixed Media Art

Happy Thursday everyone. I am intrigued by Mixed Media Art. Mixed media is a term used to describe artworks composed from a combination of different media or materials.

It is a fascinating process and there are so many different forms of it. 

Image: Photobucket

Actually as poets, writers, we really do the same thing only our art form is words. We pull from memories, surroundings, music, people, etc, and shape them into poetry.

Mixed Media

Related Poem Content Details

BY DUANE NIATUM

The stars grow lemon

in the field, spread

like tea leaves in

a cup; red-wing

blackbirds fold themselves

into the fence,

corn dreamers.

(Read the entire poem here )

   For today's challenge I want you to write a poem from your immediate surroundings. For example where I am sitting there is a vase of   flowers,  silver thermos, a mailbox nameplate from my father's mailbox, a window, a rather sickly violet, books, a clock, a tape dispenser, the whir of an air conditioner. I could go on and on.  Your poem could be a combination of what you see, hear, taste, feel, just pull from the spot where you are writing. 

      

Thirst, I can drink from silver.

It is a thermos as close as my fingertips,

but neglect hasn't brought rain

to a parched violet five steps from my chair.

    As always write a new poem for the challenge, add it to Mr. Linky and then visit your fellow poets to read their poems.

Bits Of Imagination ~ Perfume

Happy March dear poets. I am sure there is much to say about the month's wind, kites, lions and lambs, but today I hope to inspire your writing with the scent of perfume.

The New Perfume ~ John William Godward

I am sure even reading the word perfume will take your thoughts to a favorite scent, be it from a bottle or the scented air of nature. Of course, there are also scents that evoke not so pleasant memories, either way perfume has power. 

"Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass."   John Steinbeck

"A woman's perfume tells more about her than her handwriting."  Christian Dior

 "Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air." George Bernanos

Blue Amber

Perfume is heat. Perfume below

the ice of sleep. As from one

shore to another, dreams, rivulet,

molecules of citrus and musk

floating above our sheets, when you toss

not quite awake, your pillow burns

lily spice, clove and river grass

Ilyse Kusnetz

(You can read the entire poem here )

Today's challenge is simple: Write about perfume. Please share an original poem based on the challenge and please take time to read the perfume inspired poetry of your fellow poets.

Bits Of Inspiration ~ Shoes

Hello poets! It is chilly as I sit at my computer contemplating shoes. Yes, shoes. I think I inherited my mother's passion for them. We lived in a small house with tiny closets, but my mom managed to find all sorts of creative ways to make room for her shoes.

The Empty Dance Shoes

By Cornelius Eady

My friends, 

As it has been proven in the laboratory,   

An empty pair of dance shoes 

Will sit on the floor like a wart 

Until it is given a reason to move. 

There are many reasons why we choose our shoes, athletics, dress, work, vanity. I bet if you looked at your collection of shoes you could remember where and why you bought each pair. 

My Shoes

By Charles Simic 

Shoes, secret face of my inner life:   

Two gaping toothless mouths, 

Two partly decomposed animal skins   

Smelling of mice nests. 

My brother and sister who died at birth   

Continuing their existence in you, 

Guiding my life 

Toward their incomprehensible innocence. 

Today's challenge is to write about shoes. It could be a favorite pair, hated pair, your father's shoes, mother's shoes. Just go wherever your shoes take you. 

As always make your poem a new one, post it on Mr. Linky, and read the work of your fellow poets.

Bits Of Inspiration ~ If Death Were A Woman

Hello dear Toads and visitors. Today I would like to introduce you to Ellen Kort.
She was Wisconsin's first Poet Laureate, serving from 2001-2004. She was the author of eleven books and eight collections of poetry. Ms. Kort's poetry has been performed by the New York City Dance Theatre and recorded on audio by Ellen Burstyn, Ed Asner and Alfre Woodard.

While reading some of her poetry I came across the poem, If Death Were A Woman. I was intrigued by the concept and delighted by her approach to something we often coin as bleak. Below is an excerpt from the poem.

If Death Were A Woman

I'd want her to come for me

smelling of cinnamon  wearing

bright cotton purple maybe  hot

pink a red bandana in her hair

She'd bring good coffee papaya juice

bouquet of sea grass  saltine crackers

and a lottery ticket  We'd dip

our fingers into moist pouches

of lady's slippers crouch down to see

how cabbages feel when wind bumps

against them in the garden

Who would the woman named death look like, Helen Mirren?

She actually portrays death in the upcoming movie, Collateral Beauty.

Or beautiful strength

Or sassy

Whatever Lady death is I want you to write about her. You can approach the topic in whatever manner you choose. It could be physical death, death to eating your favorite food. ( I can no longer eat chocolate. There was much moaning as I parted ways with one of my favorite sweets.) It could be the death of a summer garden, a cherished pet, your favorite television show. 

As always write and share an original poem. Drop it into Mr. Linky. Take time to visit your fellow poets to read their responses to the challenge.

I will be gone when this is posted. I am attending  Indie Vengeance Day (an independent publisher/author event) in Frisco, Texas. I will read and comment when I return. Thanks everyone for participating!!

Bits Of Inspiration ~ Amber Rose Tamblyn

Happy Thursday poets. I have found a very talented celebrity poet I feel will bring inspiration to the garden. Her name is Amber Tamblyn.

Amber Rose Tamblyn (born May 14, 1983) is an American actress, author, poet, and film director. She first came to national attention in her role on the soap opera General Hospital as Emily Quartermaine, followed by a starring role on the prime-time series Joan of Arcadia, portraying the title character. Her feature film work includes roles in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Grudge 2, The Ring, and 127 Hours; she had an extended arc as Martha M. Masters on the main cast of the medical drama series House. She also had a starring role on season eleven of the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men. (You can read more about Amber Tamblyn here.)

Amber is quite an accomplished young lady. I knew of her from different acting rolls, but never knew she was a poet until I googled her name. Her poetry is uniquely descriptive. Here are some excerpts from her poem Laurel Gene.

LaurelGene

Shave off the sheets of my songless childhood success,
expose the rotted age of me now―
My toothless breasts, my hips like a cracked Texas cow skull
hanging crooked on the butcher’s wall.
I was his dark sparkler. A tarantula on fire.

An innocent with apple juice eyes and a brain

full of famished birds.

Here is an excerpt from Amber's poem Thelma Todd.

In the background Debby Harry croons

for a terrace of people titillated for the songs

of incoming messages.

I’m in some charcoal hallway, cornered

by an actress in a bandaged dress,

burned one too many times,

whose cocktail is doing all the healing.

Both poems can be found in her poetry book Dark Sparkler. 

Amber has the ability to create visuals by using unexpected descriptions, a tarantula on fire, apple juice eyes, a brain full of famished birds. For this challenge I want you to experiment with description. It may be a yellow moon night, but a heroine tweaked, piss stained moon takes it to a whole new place.

Please write, share a new poem on Mr Linky, and visit you fellow poets to "see" what their imaginations have created.

Bits of Inspiration ~ Bracelet ~ NaPoWriMo 2016 ~ Day 7

Hello everyone! It is day 7 of April poetry. It is a wonderful/chaotic time. I will keep today's prompt simple. Write a poem about a bracelet. My quotes are for inspiration, but you aren't limited to them. Let your muse lead. Please write a new poem, share it on Mr. Linky, and then visit your fellow poets.

Issac's servant trying the bracelet on Rebecca's arm

Benjamin West ~ 1775

I curl up, make myself smaller, try to disappear entirely. Wrapped in silence, I slide my bracelet that reads 'mentally disoriented' around and around my wrist. Suzzane Collins

Procrastination is the best action against putting an ankle bracelet on future. Mehmet Murat lldan

She was so evidently the victim of the civilization which had produced her, that the links of her bracelet seemed like manacles chaining her to her fate.

Edith Wharton

Our domestic Napoleons, too many of them, give flattery, bonnets and bracelets to women, and everything else but - justice ... Fanny Fern

Good memories are like charms...Each is special. You collect them, one by one, until one day you look back and discover they make a long, colorful bracelet. James Patterson

Bits of Inspiration ~ Keyhole

Hello talented poets! Today we will contemplate the view through a keyhole.

“Time is a keyhole, he thought as he looked up at the stars. Yes, I think so. We sometimes bend and peer through it. And the wind we feel on our cheeks when we do – the wind that blows through the keyhole – is the breath of all the living universe.”

– Stephen King, The Wind Through the Keyhole

Longing by KingaBritschgi on DeviantArt

"No decent man ought to read Shakespeare's sonnets because it was like listening at keyholes." Author: Virginia Woolf

Hans Zatzka (Austrian, 1859-1945) «Through The Keyhole»

 "Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in." Author: Billy Sunday

So my talented poets today's challenge is to write from a keyhole perspective. It can be a glimpse on the inside or looking to the outside. You have complete freedom with only the usual restrictions...new poem, share...read the work of your fellow poets. Happy writing!!

Bits of Inspiration ~ Capturing Thoughts

Good morning dear poets. Recently I have become fascinated by the paintings of John Everett Millais (June 8 1829 – August 13, 1896). He was an English painter and one of the wealthiest painters of his day.

While looking through his portrait paintings, I began to wonder what his subjects were thinking as he captured their images in brush strokes. I can barely sit still for a photograph. Where does a mind go when someone has to sit for hours under the keen observation of an artist translating what he sees through paint onto a canvas?

Today's challenge is to choose one of the following paintings and give voice to the subject's thoughts. Is there joy, boredom, worry? Are there any hints in the painting itself? Once you've penned your poem add it to Mr. Linky and then visit your fellow poets and discover what they "heard" from the image they chose.

Portia (Kate Dolan)

The Violet's Message

The Bridesmaid 

Bits Of Inspiration ~ Floral Explosion

Hello from the wetlands of Texas. Today I want to talk about flower petals, millions of them. In 2013 an international advertising company, McCann, flooded an area near the Irazú Volcano in Costa Rica with 3.5 tons of petals in an advertising campaign for Sony's 4K Ultra HD TV.

Photos: McCann

In case you are wondering I am not endorsing or selling Sony TV's. I am providing inspiration. The sheer visual beauty of the images is breathtaking, but just imagine addressing the sense of smell or touch as well. Can you imagine surfing through velvet brilliance or the sky smelling of orchids? Interpretation is wide open on this. I have also included some quotes about flowers to assist your muse.

“By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.”                                                                                             Rabindranath Tagore

“If our destiny stems from our name, then I weep for the flower named Wilt.”                                                                                                   Jarod Kintz, 

“If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for a moment.”  ― Georgia O'Keeffe

“I morphed from a fly to a flower to a butterfly, which is like a combination flower and fly. I thought I was in love, but I was merely asleep.” 

― Jarod Kintz, Xazaqazax

 Please create a new piece for the challenge, add it to Mr. Linky, and visit your fellow poets to read what grew from floral inspiration.