>>>>Jane Through The Seasons

The 7th month has come and it is hours away from being done. There will never be a July 2013 again...or perhaps it has always been and remains for eternity? Anyway, if you live in New York and take the subway, you would have noticed the poems on the trains; Poetry in Motion is what they are calling them. Poems are posted for a couple of weeks at a time before they are replaced. The new one is here and Namra saw it before I did so he sent me a copy. I love it so much I am sharing it with you! On the #7 to Flushing on Monday, I saw it for myself and it was just as beautiful as reading it off of my phone. I would like to remember it for August, for September, for December, forever. 

The Good Life
by Tracy K. Smith

When some people talk about money
They speak as if it were a mysterious lover
Who went out to buy milk and never
Came back, and it makes me nostalgic
For the years I lived on coffee and bread,
Hungry all the time, walking to work on payday
Like a woman journeying for water
Fro…

"Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as covering"
1 Corinthians 11: 14-15. NIV.

Is it proven that Jesus had long hair? I will take time to research into this matter on a day when I actually find myself caring about the length of hair on anybody's head.  Growing up, we all got haircuts. Both boys and girls. The "nature" of our hair is such that it cannot grow long without intense care and nobody had time for that. Not even my mother who is very much into the long hair deceit. The hair of a significant amount of people of African origin do not seem to understand that it ought to grow downwards, straighter, and smoother.  This type of hair is not considered beautiful because it is often very thick, coarse, kinky, and needs a great deal of help to lengthen. In Ghana, as was and still is the case for several West African countr…

"Make it new," said Ezra Pound.  It is the answer to the excuse that everything has already been done. One can add to what has been done, or subtract from it, or divide it, or multiply it by something to create another perspective of it, and in so doing create something new.

In everything that I do, it is often my intention to be myself, whatever it is that this self is, I hope to reveal it to me through my actions, through my work. Though I am not always successful, I have known success in this goal and I am addicted to the feel of it.  I have been accused of "trying too hard to be different" when in truth, I only try hard to stay true to this self that I am eager to get to know; and not to sway to whichever way the wind blows. So in my work, I aim for newness. Yes, certain aspects of what I create has been done before, but what it is molded into is often a reflection of my imagination, my interpretation, and therefore, I would like to believe, different from wha…

A little about yourself

Hello my name is Gudrun – from goodrun design. I’m living in Altenberg  - together with my husband and two sons - a very small town,in Austria/Europe. It is a joy living here – indeed, a great place for the kids to grow up, and the untouched nature around inspires my work and life!
What is your Craft story?

Nearly from the beginning of my life I've been crafting - as a young child I used to sit under the table and crochet clothes for my little dolls. This passion never left me so I studied fashion & design in Munich/Germany – but after finishing I preferred to make it back home. Unfortunately it wasn’t too easy to get a job as fashion designer so I started working as a media-designer; it was a very creative and fun work and I still do it occasionally.
After I gave birth to my first son I tried to go back to my passion: creating with my own hands. So I began making jewelry. My first pieces were made out of polymer clay – a fantastic material which comes in so…

One of the things I tell people I am meeting for the first time is that I have a ton of issues. Despite it seeming that I am trying to scare them off, it is not the case. I just want us to start on a good footing. If this declaration is good enough reason for that individual to not want to get to know me any better, then I suppose it saves us both from wasting our time. Or perhaps not.

It seems to me that sooner or later one realizes that one is just really full of oneself. For instance, on what basis do we judge our friends and others? I believe we are ourselves, often, the perfect model by which those who we associate with must reflect.  Some of us do understand that others are good the way they are, despite the fact that they annoy the heck out us with their foolish habits of wearing mismatching socks. We know that there are people out there who actually love them for the same reason that we want to dig an early grave for them. We tolerate them, nonetheless, because we love their …

You know this one, but I am sharing it all the same, and perchance reminding you of it as I, too, was reminded.  I stumbled upon a photocopied version while I was trying to get rid of some books for some  much needed space. It was tucked in one of my English notebooks from high school. I hoard books; notebooks included. It is pathetic, really, but it is a habit that I'm rather proud of. To the poem then:

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I sh…

I am über late posting today. Blame Mawusi. I have become a slave to what I love. I am working on taming the madness. School will start soon, I really do not want to start a new year all stressed out. I probably will go more into this on another day, but today I will share a good poem that I 'chance' upon yesterday. I wanted to play that game where one opens a book and it falls on a page and lo and behold there is the poem for you! I, of course, had to try a couple of times before I found my poem.

The Old Poets of China
by Mary Oliver
Wherever I am, the world comes after me.  It offers me its busyness.  It does not believe that I do not want it.  Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far and high  into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist. ---
JAO

You came alone and you will go alone. I don't know who said it, yet, these are words that are often on repeat inside my head. I tell people that I believe I'm likely to die alone. They laugh. But I do believe it. I believe that no matter how many people we come to know and love, no matter how many beautiful people we form attachments with, we are always alone, in regard to other human beings and things.  In the sense that it is always our point of view -- despite the several influences, it is still our take on things. It is our 'feelings,' it is our thoughts. There is always 'I' attached to these emotions that create these bonds. This 'I' is always singular. In we, there is two or more I's united by a common idea or feeling or whatever. But are they ever one? In a we where there are only two I's, for instance, without one I, it equal's I. Hence 'we' is only possible when there is a "plus sign" to join the I's. It is nev…