pedal pushers

I push down
on the pedal
and my bike
moves forward

it ticks
as I coast
and breeze
down the hill

the damp
of the morning air
is fresh
from a midnight rain

and the cicada
starts to buzz

would you like a drink of water? 8_26_08

Making progress, but coloring is going slow. I feel I'm rounding the bend and should be able to move to the next drawing next week sometime. I can't wait. I just want to be done with the tedious part of this one. the coloring, the coloring, the coloring. But hopefully it will come around.
(click on the image to see it larger...)
(click on the title of this post to hear a fun song)

margins

being the source of my inspiration,
you may not know what a gift you have given me.

but be assured you have lit a new star in my dim night.
and I thank you.

and all the fire flies thank you.

and every part of me stuck along the margins
and caught in the creases,
thanks you.

improv class

haiku

shining waters wave
portage over ancient mounds
reeds speak in whispers

CerVantes

... and with you,
I need restraint,
more than anything...
because you
tilt at windmills
and joust
with bulldozers.

you enjoy
a bout,
a contest,
a sport.

but oh,
you are tender!
like an exposed nerve
not to be touched!
so hurt,
in such pain,
so much rain...
a monsoon.

you hide in
your armor,
so thick, spiny,
barbed and poisonous.

only your eyes
look out
from deep within

they ask
for something,
I fear,
I cannot give.

so the giants
whose arms
spin in the wind,
and the crumbling lives
in the tread
pressed trenches,
are your
sanctuary
from the pain
of wounds
and of scars
too deep to mend.

I can't pretend
to conquer those beasts,
that howl and moan
for your blood.

but your eyes
have pierced
my very heart.
it is burnt,
and branded
with two dark,
sorrowful,
inky and
indelible stains.

there's no forgetting you.

so, if I chase you,
you'll run
like a cat in the yard,
but if I stand still
and just let you be,
you might come
and warm up to me.



(Illustration by Vladimir Kush)

crust and crumble

Inside
the collar
there is a tag
with an embroidered
inscription

but it's not
legible
or it's
in the wrong
tongue

but somehow
the message
is implied
by the use
of the font
and the
erratic
punctuation

it must be
a warning
of sorts

maybe to
stay away
or
back off

but it just
makes
me want
to put it on
and wear it
all the more

my 50th B-day present from johnny

Simon as a pepper

a certain plumber

I've got
an old house
and it's got
old pipes

they're rusty
they leak
and clog

my friend
is a plumber
he comes
in his
red step van
with his pipe wrench
and snake

he reams out
my pipes
so they will
flow again

(aplomb)

More air formations

More on "Would you like a glass of water?"

Here are some updated images on the progress of the first of four new drawings.
Official title...

"Would you like a glass of water?" "No, thanks. I think I'll just rest for a little while."



(this first one is newer, from 8-18-08)

admission included, admonition omitted

"…I certainly love you…
…but I am afraid…
…butterflies and bulldozers…"




http://www.butterfliesandbulldozers.com

on being ignored

fast approaching storms
under brilliant sunset sky
clouds are gathering
kiting on the updrafts

yearning for light
over many dark nights
under overcast skies



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v60-qRvmzKA&feature=related

which one the moon?

further,
each light
mystifies,
enchanting

a stitch
of light,
a beam
per say -
cast blue
or golden

phases bloom
and gone
too soon
the other,
burns and dims.

two shadows cast
through one another
where they cross
it's hard to tell…
which one
the light,
which one
the moon.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_BsIiBGFw4

forgetting to love

I’m burying you beneath
the day-to-day

you are fading
no longer invading
my ever waking
eye

no longer willing
to go on killing
my heart
over love

if I deaden that eye
I can again fly
and forgive you
for forgetting me
or never even
noticing
or understanding

my grief I’m laying
down by the curb
letting the trash man
take it to the landfill
and bury it

cause I’ve had my fill
of meaning nothing
to anyone and everyone
who makes my heart really beat

I’m old
and incomplete
and will remain
just as I am
until I finally
fall asleep
forever

so what.

the intricacies of the peaches

the intricacies of the peaches
wash upon my senses
like a blush to my check
warming when our eyes meet

tender skin, feels fragile
beneath loving fingertips
so soft
connected directly
to my swelling heart
where sweetest nectar drips
like tears of silent joy
tasting just like
contentment

fractured kinetic jungle head kiss woman

continually tumbling
in frustration and fear
self-doubt careening
to crash in destruction
piles of mangled bones and blood…
time after time…

will I ever land safe in you arms?

I keep searching ‘til I get something back
looking for a reply...

maybe you’ll teach me restraint.
____

maybe you will lie calmly
in my head and heart
maybe you will lie down
and stop that kinetic reparteé
that is mashing my me

maybe you’ll
slow down to honey
crystallize into sugar
so I can stir you into my cereal
and enjoy the sweetness,
one-more-time.
____

oh but my head keeps refilling
as soon as I feel my feet under me again
as soon as I’m back on earth
as soon as I manage
to relax and feel confident
that down is down
and up is up…
you start dancing again!

relinquish this domain!
lie down!
let go of me!
let go of my psyche!
let go!
____

but no…!
come back —
please? come back!

let me drown in your sweat.
let me kiss you until all
the tension is released,
‘til we have our own gravity,
and our own atmosphere —
‘til our every molecule
mingles and sings.

Unison

I dreamt I had
your hand in mine

and we could stroll
through golden ochre fields
amid exotic bliss of
beautiful Indian Summer days

We lay together silent
in tall grass crib
with clear expanding azure
canopy over our heads

we fit together close
we breathe in unison
we steer our souls
quietly toward one another

we smell earth's musk
beneath us, terra firma --
a force to ground

then ascension into space --
firmament at light speed
finding our hearts embrace
we combine and descend
and dream together again.

soft

exterior
interior
in between

your tounge
my mouth

the skin
in between
the two of us

the blankets
underneath

a cushion
to penetrate
another world
unfocused
and sublime

Backyard Arbor

I've got the arbor done... except for the floor... but the grapes can grow to their hearts content now!
AND when I get the deck in we will have kiddy plays in there!
yeay!

Cowboy Wonderful

air formations over Madison

Would You Like a Drink of Water?

This is a new drawing I'm working on. It's hard to get a good shot of it. This top shot is a close up. There are longer shots of it below, but they turned out very dark.

It is called: "Would you like a drink of water?" "No thanks, I think I'll just rest for a little while."

What is it about?

Well, I was thinking about the inevitability of death and our futile attempts to hang on to life at all costs. The nurse's shirt/smock needs to have some wacky images all over it, and I'm thinking of making little stamp pad images to put on it. I'm trying to decide what icons to make, because I think they might overwhelm the larger image if they are too powerful of symbols or they could tend to trivialize it further if they are too stupid or inane.

I think I've decided to make the shapes on the nurse's smock hearts. Maybe a little on the trivial side, but If I do it right it might not be too disgustingly stupid. I want to represent the role love plays in our lives and deaths. The redemptive role of love, and the hope it brings, and the joy it brings, but it doesn't necessarily change the physical realm...

So the shape in the bed represents death and the side of the pillow is a vulva and represents birth.

The little "control/call" thing is an homage to the scream. I thought as I was making it that it started looking that way and it made me laugh so I thought I'd go with it... It was originally just a button on a wire, but now they have the TV controls built into them and I didn't want to miss the opportunity to comment on how TV kills us from the head down.

I went a little further on the coloring this morning, so maybe I'll have an updated image next week. I hope to finish this soon. The outer edges will be much darker and the "pain chart" on the wall will have a scale and the phases of the moon under it. I'm not sure what will be on the plate at this point. I'm thinking it should be untouched food. But that may change. I want some more symbolic imagery and I thought the food might be a good vehicle for that.

This is a lot of momento morte stuff about my mom's frequent stays in the hospital and finally the hospice stay too. So I'm not sure how this thing will evolve. It didn't start that way, but that's the direction it is headed.

Stay tuned.

me





































http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLLPIQGkC80&feature=related

My Favorite Park

This fountain is so cool. It is in such disrepair that the city never runs water in it. But it is so weird and wonderful, just to be in its presence is fun. I wonder what it was like when it actually had water.