Sunday Morning June 27, 2010 I Heard Your Call

I heard your call,
First thing this morning,
I had not opened my eyes,
...just yet.
I know you called your Mother,
for worms and bugs,
But I swear,
I heard you say,
"Come into the world,
The sun rises in the East,
There isn't a moment to spare!"

It's all about communication. My desire to "hear" you speak, and my desire to "speak" to you. I love the opportunity to write about what I am doing. I usually write a statement early on in a series, as soon as I know myself what I am up to, and then I rewrite often. I either add and take away what doesn't really work. It is a way to help the view to "see" what I am trying to say.

POEMS OF THE DESERT SERIES - ANNELL LIVINGSTON- STATEMENT 2010

"There is no separation between poetry, the stories and events that link them, or the music that holds all together, just as there is no separation between human, animal, plant, sky, and earth....The land is a poem of ochre and burnt sand I could never write (paint) unless the paper were the sacrament of sky, and ink the broken line of wild horses staggering the horizon several miles away. Even then, does anything written (painted) ever matter to the earth, wind, and sky?"--Joy Harjo

THE LAND IS A POEM.

The artist is excited. New ideas flash through her mind, and her step is lighter. As she works through her ideas, the light dims, and her interest lags. When the work is complete, the light goes out.

IN THE BEGINNING EVERYTHING IS BRIGHT

She discovers that the experience of coming to the end of a series is similar to the feelings she has about the desert where the colors are subtle, the spectrum is narrow, and the optical illusions are disconcerting. It is like a wasteland, a wilderness--a personal desert--and she has properly lost her way.

AT THE END OF A SERIES OF WORK, IT IS LIKE A DESERT

Since the grid is the basis for most maps, she returns to her exploration of the grid. She creates her own map or visual poem to help her find her way. She adds personal signs and symbols similar to the petroglyphs and pictographs often found in the desert. She calls her visual poems, Poems of the Desert. They are based on landscape of the imagination, where nothing is as it appears. Desert--as actual place or as a metaphor a stage in the creative process.

THE VISUAL POEMS BECOME THIS NEW SERIES CALLED, POEMS OF THE DESERT

As Joy Harjo says, "A story leads to a dream leads to a poem leads to a song,(leads to a painting) and so on."

ANYTHING IS THINKABLE IN THE DESERT

*Joy Harjo is an internationally known poet, performer, writer, and saxophone player of the Myskoke/Creek Nation. She is one of my most favorites!