Emerald Friday and my Father's 83rd Birthday

I have a new photo blog hop called Emerald Friday. Share a photo featuring the color green, if you like.

Today would have been my father's 83rd birthday. This memorial bench honors him.

~Cie~

Tan Renga Challenge 2019: Day 18: Lightning Flash

Lightning flash above Athens, Greece

lightning flash–

what I thought were faces

are plumes of pampas grass

what is real, I ask myself

you or I or anything?

~Basho & Cie~

Notes:

The Hokku stanza of this Tan Renga was written by Matsuo Basho (1644 - 1694). The Akegu stanza was created by me.

Tan Renga Challenge 2019: Day 17: LIfetimes Ago

Image Source

evening sea fog

descending into sun-dried grass

sweaty lovers

So long ago, my dearest

But like it was yesterday

You sent me away

Across the silent starfield

Told me to forget

Many lifetimes come and go

But you never left my heart

Jane & Cie

Notes:

I can't help myself. I go where the muse takes me.

The simple explanation is as follows:

The initial Hokku stanza was created by Jane Reichhold (1937 - 2016). The remaining stanzas were written by me. And if that's all the more you need to know, thanks for stopping by!

However, if you are feeling brave or bored and want to follow me down a rabbit hole...

The remaining stanzas were written in the voice of Serab, one of the incarnations of the male protagonist in my current longest-running WIP, Fetch, which was created at the end of 2014.

Serab was a small, elf-like humanoid whose people had been all but wiped out by the brutal ruling class of West Zecor. He was a thief who had suffered many losses in a life which he often questioned the purpose of. 

Although Serab was extremely agile and clever, one day he became careless and was captured by the sadistic King Qweh and his merry band of thugs. Fortunately for Serab, Qweh thought it would be an extremely funny joke to present the diminutive thief to his sister, Princess Ondina, as a replacement for her bodyguard, whom Qweh had slain the previous night in a fit of drunken rage.

To Qweh's dismay, Ondina did not have the hoped-for reaction of dismay to Qweh's little joke. She accepted Serab as her bodyguard and assistant, stating that he looked to be capable of anything he might set his mind to.

This was the start of the powerful though ultimately tragic undying love between Serab and Ondina.

Tan Renga Challenge 2019: Day 16: White Crane

White Crane (Japanese Woodblock Print)

How I wish to call

A white crane from Fukei,

But for this cold rain.

I am happy when it rains

That is when I feel at home

Kikaku & Cie

Notes:

The Hokku stanza was written by Kikaku, an apprentice and close friend of Basho. He created this work as a gift when Basho was ailing.

The Akegu stanza was created by me.

Tan Renga Challenge 2019 + The Tuesday Platform: Offshore Breeze

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

coming to sea cliffs

the off-shore breeze raises

a flower fragrance

this place is not what it seems

will I find nightmares or dreams

Jane & Cie

Notes:

The Hokku stanza was created by Jane Reichhold (1937 - 2016.) The Akegu stanza was written by me.

If you're interested in the story which inspired my part in the poem, read on. If you really could not GAF, this is your cue to exit!

Among my many WIP projects is a tale called The Legend of Seacliffe, which is set in England in the mid-1800s. As the story begins, a man named Randal Messana takes his team of horses on a desperate ride on a dark and stormy night to get his badly injured mother away from the decidedly unhallowed halls of Lambswood, where the brutal Diamantina Lamb has beaten poor old Guinevere Messana nearly to death.

Randal sees a light burning in a barn near a darkened house and makes his way there to plead for help. There he finds a unique cast of characters: a tall, gaunt, will-o-the-wisp of a grumpy, middle-aged Swede, said grumpy, middle-aged Swede's kindly sister Ragna, and Ragna's husband, a hunchbacked Scot named Charlie, who is playing the piano when Randal arrives.

The trio of misfits in the barn are more than happy to assist Randal but warn him to approach the occupants of the main house with caution. As Jorn, the curmudgeonly Swedish will-o-the-wisp warns: "The masters of Seacliffe are no better than the mistress of Lambswood. To their credit, they have beat no-one to death, at least none of which I know. But they are a foul and inbred line, sticking to their own kind as they believe themselves to be far superior to peasants such as ourselves."

I have numerous WIPs, and sometimes I keep my hand in them by writing poems as placeholders. The above image made me think of Randal walking down to the shoreline and looking out over the bay. Yes, I know that I said the story was set in the mid-1800s. Let us imagine that Randal's clothes are drying and he has borrowed a set of Jorn's long johns to take his morning stroll. After all, Seacliffe House is in a remote area, and it isn't likely that he'd encounter many fellow travelers who might chide him for wandering about in his long johns.

Blue Monday + Inspire Me Monday + Macro Monday + Through My Lens

Click to enlarge the images. Here we have a nice diorama of some prehistoric wild pigs with an eye-catching blue sign in the forefront and a well-preserved fossil of a small prehistoric mammal. 

These images were taken 7 January 2017 at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Images are copyright Cara Hartley/The Real Cie. You are welcome to use them, but please credit me.

Tan Renga Challenge 2019 #14 + Poetry Pantry #481: Hibiscus Red

Image by Josch13 from Pixabay

unable

to get hibiscus red

the artist eats the flower

flower becomes the artist

artist becomes the flower

Fr. Raymond & Cie

Notes:

The Hokku (Haiku) stanza was created by Father Raymond Roselip (1917 - 1983), a Catholic priest who has been rightfully recognized as a twentieth-century master of English Haiku.

The Akegu (two-line closing stanza) was created by yours truly.

Shadow Shot Sunday + Silent Sunday + Sunday Selections: Chinese Water Deer Skull

Click to enlarge.

This photo was taken 7 January 2017 at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Photo copyright Cara Hartley/The Real Cie. You are welcome to use it, but please credit me.

Yes, I know I'm breaking the strict Silent Sunday rules, but I need to tell this story.

Once upon a time, there was a fierce vampire deer with scary sharp teeth.

The only problem was, it was so tiny and cute that nobody was scared of it.

The end.

I also created a graphic for the Sunday Selections blog hop. You don't have to credit me for it. I got the image from Pixabay, and it is free to use. The original artist is Jonas Svidras.

I have a Mister Linky for Silent Sunday, if you would like to share your photos there as well.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #86 + Weekend Mini Challenge: A Portrait of Dystopia

Dystopian Portrait

Photoshop Manipulation by The Real Cie

Utopia was

Only ever a sad lie

Flawless fallacy

Pretty cars, pretty people

Not a place for those like me

~Cie~

Notes:

Today I found a couple of great prompts and flipped them upside down. 

The Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation prompt asks us to examine the concept of utopia in a Haiku or Tanka. Mine is more a Senryu than a Haiku. I do not question the existence of Utopia, but I postulate that it is more like Metropolis. It exists for a very small percentage of people. Most people are on the outside looking in, and some are completely crushed beneath the boots of the beautiful and careless dwellers of Utopia.

So, what portrait did I paint?

That of one of the people crushed beneath unrealistic expectations of beauty and brilliance and casually cast aside, not worthy of any sort of rescue because they do not adhere to society's standards of prettiness.

The person in the portrait is me. I chose it because I was sitting at a rather dismal-looking bus stop on the day of the 2017 Women's March. I would learn that day that not only had my health deteriorated more than I previously realized, but people are utterly self-absorbed, even the ones who claim to be "progressive" in their approach.

I managed to get through the entire march, which is a miracle in itself considering that I almost stopped several times along the way because I was becoming weak, but I had also become confused enough that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find my way back to the bus stop. 

When the bus stopped, everyone else shoved on board and the bus driver told me he wouldn't be able to take me. I said I understood, and I understood his position, but I kind of thought all those other people were assholes. I started feeling that wouldn't have happened to me if I was young and pretty.

 I was ravenously hungry. I had a Snickers bar, but I was trying to conserve it for "the right moment." With a lifetime living with ED (stands for Eating Disorder), I had learned to deny myself food up until things became critical. They were critical, but not critical enough.

I got on the next bus about a half hour later and had to stand. I was wobbling all over and my eyes were rolling back in my head. Exactly nobody gave any fucks. In fact, one spectacular dudebro about my age chortled and said: "I had to stand all the way there, now it's your turn."

Despite the fact that my eyes were glazed over, I managed a withering glare and said in a steely if somewhat shaky voice: "Buddy, I had to stand the whole way there too. Don't even try to pull that crap on me!"

He turned away and noticed a confused-looking young woman holding a bus schedule. He grinned and invited her to sit down in his seat. She didn't speak much English. He leaned in close to her in order to better "help" her, I suppose, because he was just a helpful kind of guy, at least if the person in need of help was a pretty young woman.

When a seat finally opened up, I scooted my ass into it as quickly as I could and scarfed the Snickers bar as if I hadn't eaten in a year. By the time I got off the bus, my feet were swollen and aching so badly I could hardly walk. This time, however, an angel appeared in the form of a very sweet Latina lady in her late 30's or early 40's who offered me a ride. I thanked her profusely. After the callousness I'd just experienced, her generosity brought tears to my eyes.

I knew at that point that I could no longer take part in events such as marches because I was no longer strong enough to do so physically.

I lost my job a couple months later because I became extremely ill and was pushed to keep working by my supervisor in spite of having a serious respiratory infection. I had a small stroke while working one night and ended up getting fired. Once my savings were gone, which happened reasonably quickly, I ended up living in poverty and have been there ever since. If it weren't for my son allowing me to couch-surf, I'd be sleeping in my car.

Utopia exists for a very small percentage of people. I used to dream of being something wonderful, of being a star, but over the years I've come to see that often those dreams end as nightmares.

So, you have a portrait of the kind of person that society doesn't want to acknowledge even though there are a lot more of us than most people care to think, and my skepticism that Utopia exists for anyone but the well-heeled in anyplace but dreams.

Wordless Wednesday + Picture Perfect Party 22 May 2019

Mammof Toof! Click image to enlarge.

Photo taken 7 January 2017 at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Photo copyright Cara Hartley/The Real Cie. You are welcome to use it, but please credit me.

Ruby Tuesday: More Odd Prehistoric Skulls

Click the image to enlarge. In this photo, we have a narwhal tusk and the lower jaw of a prehistoric elephant-like creature with a mouth like a scoop. The photo was taken 7 January 2017 at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Image copyright Cara Hartley/The Real Cie. You are welcome to use it, but please credit me.

Blue Monday + Macro Monday + Through My Lens + Inspire Me Monday: Fish and Seahorse Cutout

Image taken May 2017 at the Denver Aquarium for Mother's Day and my son's birthday lunch. Image copyright Cara Hartley/The Real Cie. As always, you are welcome to use the image, but please credit me.

I often have a tendency to get long-winded on my Inspire Me Monday posts. This time I decided to take my own advice and chug a nice, steaming hot cup of STFU.

~Cie~

Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge #254: Sweet & Heart

Image by 849356 from Pixabay

Our home sweet home Earth

Used up, broken, drained of life

By those with no heart

~Cie~

Haikai Challenge #86: Blue Flower Moon Blues

Image by Myriam Zilles from Pixabay

Don't know the science

Of why the blue moon occurs

I only know that

The moon doesn't bring flowers

And its light makes me miss you

~Cie~

Prompt Used:

Haikai Poetry Matters

Shadow Shot Sunday + Silent Sunday + Sunday Selections 19 May 2019

photo taken 7 January 2017 at Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Reconstruction of a prehistoric mammal

Image copyright Cara Hartley/The Real Cie

Feel free to use it, but please credit me.

Sunday Selections

Silent Sunday

I made the above image using a stock photo and about five minutes of playing with text art options. Feel free to use it.

I am unsure where the Silent Sunday meme originated, but I felt it would be nice to host a Silent Sunday blog hop. I should have a Mr. Linky next week. This week, you are welcome to leave your link in the comments. Apologies to those who don't have a Google account and don't want to create one. I had a lot of trouble with trolls at one point and don't wish to open myself up to the problems that allowing anonymous comments allow for. I wish I were made of sterner stuff, but I'm not always.

I'm not big on rules, so there are only three. The photo has to be yours, and it can't be mean-spirited or pornographic. I welcome links to art nudes but not XXX material. This isn't that kind of party. ;-)

Other than that, just have fun. I don't care if you decide to write multiple paragraphs explaining your "silent" photo. That's up to you!

~Cie~

Weekend Meditation #85: Photoshopping Haiku: Cherry Blossoms

Cherry Blossoms at Lake Biwa

even an old man

sees the beauty in the new

spring cherry blossoms

~Kobayashi Issa & Cie~

Notes:

Here is the original Haiku by Kobayashi Issa:

even an old man

has New Year's eyes...

cherry blossoms

In this exercise, we make a subtle change to the original Haiku. In Western society in the Northern Hemisphere, the New Year falls in Winter. I applied my Western sensibilities to the poem and turned the cherry blossoms into a reference for the change from Winter to Spring.

Tan Renga Challenge 2019: Day 13: Prayer Beads

Image Source

prayer beads dangling

a harvest moon prayer...

mountain home

to pray for understanding

the universe shall approve

Kobayashi Issa & Cie

Notes:

The Hokku stanza of this Tan Renga was created by Kobayashi Issa. The Akegu (second stanza) was created by me.