a fallow time

 

Summer has come around again; a few people have asked if I'm going to do a summer solstice blog. All I can say is, for me this is a fallow time. A time to heal, reassess my goals – If I have goals anymore. 

So in observance of Summer Solstice 2025 I'm re-posting one of my favorite poems:

the game of life 

We dive, most of us head first

into this confusing mass of energy and

try following the many conflicting instructions

We study and debate the ancient, obscure rules

There are games of physical endurance 

games of chance and games of skill -

physical skill and mental skill - 

most games require teamwork

others are pure chance

one toss of the dice might 

end our game in disaster

Maybe the game is one where we excel 

maybe not - the deck was stacked either way

But it's said we have free choice and 

it's all so very confusing, oft-times not even knowing 

what game we're in, nor how it's scored

Perhaps it's best just to sit on the sidelines 

try to ignore it all, some of us practice not seeing,

or become a serial player of many games.

My only goal is to enjoy the roller coaster ride  -

Win or lose, we're all equal at the finish line

And my current favorite picture

(favorite because it is the last one I've completed)

Untitled (double haiku)

 Ruth Ann Howden 

9" x 16"

Mixed Media painting / collage 

************************************

Emily Dickinson knew about so much,

and she communicated her thoughts so well,

from her isolation she wrote — 

“Let us strive together to part with time more reluctantly, to watch the pinions of the fleeting moment until they are dim in the distance and the new coming moment claims our attention.”

ALOHA 

I now give my attention to 

the rare gift of another day.

End of a Series

 Of life and art I've had my say quarterly for 12 years. I've given myself permission not to do a spring solstice blog this year. I'm re-prioritizing how I spend my days and energy.

ALOHA 

I now give my attention to 

the rare gift of another day.

Index 2012 - 2024

 Index

Updated March 2025

Paintings: 

Untitled double haiku - Winter 2024

Visual haiku - fall 2024

Life Time artists book - summer 2024

Feral Wise Woman - spring 2024

Components for Explosive Words- winter 2023

Painting Time - fall 2023

Between A Rock and A Hard Place — summer 2023

Entanglement Doubled – spring 2023 

Untitled – winter 2022 

Hula II – fall 2022 

Entangled series – fall 2022 

Entanglement – summer 2022 

Two untitled black & white — winter 2021 

Falling Out of Touch — fall 2021 

Chaos — summer 2021 

Hula -- winter 2020 

Mo‘o — summer 2020 

the good enough life — fall 2019 

intersection — fall 2018 

aporia — fall 2018 

Kupeke fish pond — summer 2018 

abstract palm — August 2016 

clementine — winter 2015 

sea turtle — summer 2014 

yin/yang Lino print — spring 2014 

five palm paintings — April 2013 

proposed palm poster — winter 2012 

haiku: 

5 new haiku - winter 2024

Group of six - fall 2024

Stuck - summer 2024

Custodian - spring 2024

Regressive Reality of Old Age - spring 2024

Words - winter 2023

Course Correction- winter 2023

Earth/Sky - winter 2023

Mandatory Overtime (two haiku) winter 2023

Fire - fall 2023

Transgendered — summer 2023

Reflection – winter 2022 

A Gift – winter 2022 

Gifts – fall 2022 

Hopeful — winter 2021 

Timefullness — fall 2021 

(past/future) — fall 2021 

Chaos — summer 2021 

October -- Winter 2020 

Expectations — Fall 2020 

COVID-19, plus three more — summer 2020 

change — spring 2020 

harvest — winter 2019 

connect — winter 2019 

my good enough life — fall 2019 

bonus — summer 2019 

new year, plus ten more — spring 2018 

1000 year old friend, plus eight more — fall 2016 

whales — summer 2016 

winter — winter 2015 

paradise — winter 2014 

what if — winter 2014 

poems: 

Custodian of Liberty on Strike - Winter 2024

Sip of Respair - fall 2024

Queen of Good Intentions - fall 2024

Custodian of Yellow - summer 2024

Respair - summer 2024

Game of Life - spring 2024

Overtime reconsidered - fall 2023

Paying Attention — summer 2023

Spider Woman — summer 2023

What My Library Means To Me — summer 2023

Allowing Another Overtime — summer 2023

hand moving – spring 2023 

overtime – spring 2023 t

two friends – spring 2023 

ode to my pain – fall 2022 

kamakou – fall 2022 

word salad – summer 2022 

breaking bread – summer 2022 

Watching the Mountain – summer 2022 

maybe ruth ann — spring 2022 

Abundance — spring 2022 

Third Fig — winter 2021 

Words — winter 2021 

Awkward, awkwardly, awkwardness— fall 2021 

Eclipse of Flower Moon — Summer 2021 

Writer Aerobics — Spring 2021 

Arrival — Spring 2021 

Today — Spring 2021 (With eight sunrise photos taken off Kaunakakai Wharf) 

Epistemic Poetry 101 — Spring 2021 

Emily Dickinson & Joy Harjo -- Winter 2020 

Expectations— Fall 2020 

Poet’s Job Description — summer 2020 

AOD (Adventure of the Day) — summer 2020 

May — spring 2020 

No Way — spring 2020 

madness — fall 2019 

head is colorful cocoon — summer 2019 

consistent c —spring 2019 

moving nouns — spring 2019 

artist of intent — winter 2018 

vertigo — winter 2018 

binary paths — winter 2018 

fragile — fall 2018 

vast — summer 2018 

O 2 K — summer 2018 

return to central pacific — fall 2017 

perpetual summer — summer 2017 

ode to central pacific —spring 2017 

persistence— January 2017 

stories: 

S.G. — fall 2019 

world on a whim — summer 2015 

travel blog — 2012 - 2013 

art work from 1990’s and first decade of this century: 

Old webpage

email:

rahowden@gmail.com