Looking, Walking, Being
“The World is not something to
look at, it is something to be in.” -Mark Rudman
I look and look.
Looking’s a way of being: one becomes,
sometimes, a pair of eyes walking.
Walking wherever looking takes one.
The eyes
dig and burrow into the world.
They touch
fanfare, howl, madrigal, clamor.
World and the past of it,
not only
visible present, solid and [...]

Posted in Photos | 4 Comments »

I have spent most of today getting the last details done on my newest art journal.  Its on Callings and like the previous issue Praying With the Elements (available for sale also) it is filled with my photography, art, and writing.  The photo above is the cover and below are some of the pages.  The [...]

Posted in zine journal | 3 Comments »

Thanks to everyone who has submitted their poems already for the Poetry Party!  11 participants on the very first day is a great showing.  Make sure to scroll down or click here to see the fun.  And make sure to check out Annie Thorndike’s wonderful poem, I think our youngest ever participant at the age [...]

Posted in Abbey Bookshelf | 2 Comments »

This is our 8th Poetry Party!  These are posted every other Monday.  I select an image and suggest a title and invite you to respond with your poems, words, reflections, quotes, song lyrics, etc.  Leave them in the comments and I’ll add them to the body of the post as they come in along with a link [...]

Posted in Poetry Party Invitation | 29 Comments »

Advent begins a week from today and it is one of my favorite liturgical seasons in the Christian tradition.  Advent begins the new church year and is a season about waiting, preparing, and birthing.  It also occurs at one of my favorite times of year, this slow descent toward winter and the solstice.  This autumn was [...]

Posted in Abbey Bookshelf | 15 Comments »

Remember to come back on Monday for our next Poetry Party!

 
(Leaves discovered on the ground outside my hermitage this morning.)
May your weekend bring you the still gifts of winter’s release and rest.
-Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts

Posted in Cycles and Seasons, Photos | 13 Comments »

Elaine at The Edible Balcony Garden reminds us that while today is Buy Nothing Day (and I’m all for breaking the consumerist cycle), you might consider a little shopping subversiveness and make a pledge to buy handmade this holiday season.
I’d be especially grateful if you’d consider some of my offerings:
My Praying With the Elements zine makes [...]

Posted in Fun | 1 Comment »

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water looking out
in different directions
back from a series of hospitals back from [...]

Posted in Poetry | 3 Comments »

I don’t want you to just sit down at the table.
I don’t want you to just eat and be content.
I want you to walk out into the fields
Where the water is shining and the rice has risen.
I want you to stand there far from this white tablecloth.
I want you to fill your hands with mud, [...]

Posted in Poetry | 6 Comments »

 
11 a.m. late November shadows
  

(photos from a late autumn walk through my Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle)
-Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts

Posted in Photos | 4 Comments »