Display signs were made in the stockroom
on a hand set type, ink, and press.
In one high school the school newspaper was
set and printed on a similar printing press.
Reading the set type was something I found
was “natural” for me to do.
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prompt: upside down (Robert Johnston image and poem)
by Katabela Wilson
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Whatever else I had in mind for a prompt today
got washed away when I saw this.
The wonderful upside down picture
of the questioning silver eye.
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How have you felt, been, seen things “upside down”
in your own experience
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over a wall
a silvereye among quince flowers
upside down
Bruce Kenneth and Sigrid (Gerstner) Butler … November 7, 1964.
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Bella, chihuahua guardian puppy. photo (c) Barbara Kelly, Austin, Tx, USA
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prompt: lions, snow lions, foo dogs, guardian creatures
by Kathabella Wilson
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This enchanting creature (see photo at end)
greeted us at the S&G canal border
of Chesapeake Bay and Delaware on our recent trip
– – feet from the canal at the harbor restaurant.
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We’ve all known many lions in our lives,
and guardian creatures.
How do we “handle them”?
You can just barely see I was feeding this one flowers.
I’ve known many museum lions.
I love this description of “snow lions” in Tibet,
and their similarity to “Chinese snow lions” also called “foo dogs”
from the USC Pacific Asia Museum website:
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“Snow lions are not like other lions,
or even like the snow leopards of central Asia.
Instead, they are said to be
pure white with a bright turquoise mane.
Snow lions are full of energy,
leaping from mountain top to mountain top,
not quite flying but also not quite touching the ground.
They are said to be smart, always cheerful and delighted by life.
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With all these good qualities,
it is not a surprise that snow lions are a symbol of Tibetan culture!
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Pairs of snow lion statues sometime protect important buildings.
In this way, they have a lot in common with the Chinese Foo Lions,
sometimes translated as “Foo Dogs”, that protect this building.
You can see three pairs of Foo lions
as you walk through the museum doors
and courtyard, plus one more pair is up on the roof.”
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What have been the lions of your life,
where do you find them,
and how do they act in your tanka ?
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My Response to the prompt:
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open stock photo:
picture curtains blowing
like this with the window closed
and locked tight There were
air leaks in the outer walls too…
masking tape did the trick.
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Tanka prompt: “three bedrooms” or one or two or more?
We all remember the bedrooms childhood and beyond.
Write a tanka that has space for your bedroom.
by Kathabela Wilson
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Kathabela says: The picture below is the view from our bed, in our Santa Barbara bedroom.
A sign in Maine of real towns named after countries.
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by Kathabela Wilson
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How do you feel, how have you felt, getting home from trips,
,
adventures, of all kinds in your life?
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The feelings are often complex and multi-layered…
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how you place them in your tanka?
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ride to cousins farm
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by Kathabela Wilson
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How do you feel, how have you felt, getting home from trips,
,
adventures, of all kinds in your life?
.
The feelings are often complex and multi-layered…
.
how you place them in your tanka?
.
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counting railroad cars
stopped at crossing ~ engine seen
count from one
try to top highest number
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Tanka Poets on Site prompt:
the ships that sail through your mind
by Kathabela Wilson
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Today we went to the old canal at Chesapeake Bay,
a stunning spot, and lunched there
while the ships sailed through our minds.
Not only those, of every variety,
one giant sailed through,
it’s such a deep passageway,
but others,
in memory
and experience that we have known.
Ships and especially those of the Chesapeake
are close to our tanka hearts.
I thought very much of a different kind of ship,
the ones that have held the work of M. Kei
and his “historic ‘wooden sail’ vessels,
as a crew member with the Kalmar Nyckel,
the tall ship of Delaware.”
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I also thought of his love for the sea
and his wonderful
“Slow Motion The Log of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack”
that I hold in my hand from him right now.
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It is definitely time to read it again!
I think of imaginary ships and childhood replicas,
how my favorite childhood ride at the amusement park
was a small ship that went in circles
and I lett my hand down into the waters while it moved,
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And our ride out into the South China Sea,
and going out in Lake Tai
near Suzhou, China in a tourist boat…
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I think of our friend Dalton Perry who loves to sail as well,
and our sailing tanka sequence in Bright Stars 2.
You can see and order many of the amazing seafaring books
by M. Kei here: http://www.amazon.com/M.-Kei/e/B001JRXGX6
(including his Skipjack Log and Bright Stars,
and much more aboard ships of the imagination.
What are the ships that sail through your mind
and into your tanka?
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My response to the prompt:
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St Louis thrill
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Mississippi Riverboat
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first adult treat
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back in time ~ dressed to nines
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river travel ~ breath of fresh air
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Note…
I was sixteen, in the late -1950s,
visiting my cousin who was two years older.
We toured the boat to see what ever there
was to do ..and then settled and enjoyed
the trip in deck chairs.
Photo by Kathabela Wilson (c) 2014
July 15, 2014 prompt blowing in the wind – seeds leaves and pollen (Gary)
Bob Dylan wrote in his iconic song,
” The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.´
It is, friend – only in our case is with blowing with
thistle and dandelion seeds, leaves, feathers, pollen
and even dust.
Some of what blow’s in the wind is bothersome
to a great many (dandelions and dust) –
but some of us it’s part of the great cycle.
Dust doesn’t blow through Phoenix
because the city is located in a dust bowl –
but because we changed the ecosystem
to allow the storms we see today.
Some is pleasing –
the sound of migrating geese,
drops of surf on an ocean breeze.
What blows in your winds?
What is pleasant?
What will blow through your tanka?
(A kiss from the girl on the other end of the teeter totter.)
The answer, my friend…
.deviant art..www.
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July 15, 2014
prompt blowing in the wind – seeds leaves and pollen (Gary)
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Bob Dylan wrote in his iconic song,
” The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind
.
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.´
It is, friend – only in our case is with blowing with
thistle and dandelion seeds, leaves, feathers, pollen
and even dust.
Some of what blow’s in the wind is bothersome
to a great many (dandelions and dust) –
but some of us it’s part of the great cycle.
.
Dust doesn’t blow through Phoenix
because the city is located in a dust bowl –
but because we changed the ecosystem
to allow the storms we see today.
.
Some is pleasing –
the sound of migrating geese,
drops of surf on an ocean breeze.
What blows in your winds?
What is pleasant?
What will blow through your tanka?
(A kiss from the girl on the other end of the teeter totter.)
The answer, my friend…
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MY RESPONSE TO THE PROMPT
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There is the old saying, I know. “the grass is greener…”
it is an interesting one,
and sometimes literally true,
as well as metaphorically,
and can have to do with appearances and perceptions
as well as “reality” of course.
We ambled on the Ambler grounds here,
around the Wilson house,
and came to a place where the grass was distinctly greener,
in a small valley where water must have been.
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It reminded me that from the air,
flying into Philadelphia,
I noticed shades of green
that seemed to come from my Northeast childhood,
and my “forest heart” responded.
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Where have you felt,
or seen a greener green,
and how does it,
how has it affected you?
prompt: grass is greener
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grass is greener
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city on water rationing
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mystery to all
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grass is greener ~ flowers too
underground spring back yard
siggiofmaine 