Earlier this week I posted a quote from Joyce Sidman over at Smack Dab in the Middle about poetry's power to bring us epiphanies. Don't miss it...it's a good one!
I'm excited about this year's word. "Beauty" has been on my shortlist many years. It was reading the passage on beauty from Consolations: the Solace, Nourishment and Underlying meaning of Everyday Words by David Whyte that pushed it from bridesmaid to bride status. Here are some excerpts:
When I Ride my Bike in Spring
World spins by—
a happy
tide of green.
Wind blows me
open. I
smile so wide.
My feet pump,
my wheels whirr—
I'm alive!
This is my 17th year to choose One Little Word to guide and inspire my year. It's a spiritual practice I'm quite devoted to.
My One Little Word list (so far):
2008 joy
2009 listen
2010 celebrate
2011 deeper
2012 fierce
2013 sky
2014 mystery
2015 wild
2016 delight
2017 abundance
2018 behold
2019 happy
2020 red
2021 bewilderment
2022 whimsy
2008 joy
2009 listen
2010 celebrate
2011 deeper
2012 fierce
2013 sky
2014 mystery
2015 wild
2016 delight
2017 abundance
2018 behold
2019 happy
2020 red
2021 bewilderment
2022 whimsy
2023 space
Last year I created a quilt out of blocks I made for each of the first fifteen years. Now I've got a new project going: DIY garden word bricks!
"Beauty is the harvest of presence"
"Beauty is an achieved state of both deep attention and self-forgetting"
"Beauty especially occurs in the meeting of time with the timeless"
"Beauty invites us, through entrancement, to that fearful frontier between what we think makes us; and what we think makes the world."
*So many thanks to joyous and wise poet-friend Jan Annino for recommending this book!
For this year's ArtSpeak theme, I've selected another many-times-contender: FOLK ART.
I love folk art, outsider art, primitive art. Art created from everyday objects. Art created by those who create not from formal training, but from life. Art made for the sake of art, for fulfillment (not for money or fame).
And, a few years back, when my Poetic Forever Friend Charles Waters was living in New York City, he gifted me a postcard book from the American Folk Art Museum. It contains 30 postcards, so voila!, right away I've got a nice selection of art to choose from.
Thank you, Charles!
I'll also be showcasing some southern folk artists, especially from my home state of Alabama...starting with Lois Wilson. Lois pulled items from the trash and turned them into art. I love that! (I have written a picture book manuscript about Lois. I hope to find a publisher for it someday!)
Here's a tricube for you after one of her joyous pieces created on a piece of wood. Many of her pieces are on wood...you can view her (2500!) pieces at the Fayette Museum of Art in Fayette, Alabama.
World spins by—
a happy
tide of green.
Wind blows me
open. I
smile so wide.
My feet pump,
my wheels whirr—
I'm alive!
- Irene Latham
So much to love about this post. Beauty is a perfect word for you. You show beauty in all you do. Your art, your music, your poetry, and just you. I'm a fan of folk art. I wish I could show you my neighbor's house. They are over-the-top collectors and their home is a museum of folk art. They even have an art car! The bike poem is whimsical and happy. I admire how you keep your Artspeak projects going.
ReplyDeleteI love how "Wind blows me open" fits so well with the art. I'm looking forward to more from "beauty" and ArtSpeak.
ReplyDeleteIrene, I am so excited to see your folk art collection and poetry this year! I am also eyeing your garden bricks and thinking that I might do something similar with rock painting. : ) You are always an inspiration!
ReplyDeleteIsn't she?!?
DeleteI began reading some of David Whyte's work this past year after falling upon "Truelove" - I will have to check out this book (thank you, Jan for the gift that keeps on giving!). I love how your last line circles so nicely back to your title.
ReplyDeleteIt seems too obvious, doesn't it--and then you come across something or someone who turns it inside out and fresh--""Beauty especially occurs in the meeting of time with the timeless"--and there it is. Combining folk art with beauty will require a very open-ended idea of beauty. Have you ever been to the Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore? If you go, let me know--I'd love to join you and visit again! Happy New Year, Irene.
ReplyDeleteIrene, I feel like beauty is pretty much inherent in all your OLWs. It's what you do and who you are. I'm excited to read your ArtSpeak poems. I'm not an "art" person and am not very knowledgeable about it, but I love being exposed to different works through your ArtSpeak projects :>)
ReplyDeleteSo much exuberance in your poem that meets up with the art–a perfect match. Ah Beauty–lots of depth there, I've written about it in both poems and in my visual art. Congrats on Charles and your forthcoming anthology on Mistakes–I'm looking forward to reading It!
ReplyDeleteYes, beauty. Beauty fits snuggly in the line up. And, what a beautiful inspiration book. I spy with my little eye, world in one of those quotations. Hooray for Folk Art! I love that you will highlight folk art of your region. There is so much joy in folk art. Happy New Year, Irene. I gain so much from reading your poems. Thanks for setting up a new year of writing, reading and learning.
ReplyDeleteWhat a perfect word for you! And I can't wait to read the poems that Folk Art inspires.
ReplyDeleteOh I love that my calendar has a home. :)
ReplyDeleteI love that you chose BEAUTY for your word and FOLK ART for your ArtSpeak poems this year. I can't wait to enjoy them alongside you!
Beauty is the perfect word for you, Irene! I love your word bricks and look forward to seeing more!
ReplyDeleteBeauty is an excellent word and your posts always offer beauty. I loved your bike poem, too, having just this week got back on my bike for the first time since 2022.
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ReplyDelete"Beauty is the harvest of presence"...oh, my. Why didn't I pair beauty and presence before?
ReplyDeleteThank you, Irene, for spreading happiness in all that you do. That, is beauty.🌿
Your posts are always so inspiring, Irene. I love both of these choices — beauty, folk art — and can't wait to see what you do with them. I'm toying with cheating and using an initialism in order to incorporate a few words into my one word. :) I love the line "Wind blows me open." And the final line makes me think of Douglas in Dandelion Wine: "I mustn't forget, I'm alive, I know I'm alive, I mustn't forget it tonight or tomorrow or the day after that."
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