Spring Equinox 2023

 

Untitled (Quantum Connection)

Mixed Media on Paper

10” x 12” Ruth Ann Howden

(I’m thinking of this as an extension of the Entanglement Series I did last year)

hand moving across paper

searching for the mark

vivid in my mind’s eye 

to express the dance I reel inside 

while standing still

Overtime

On my cake this year: 81 candles. 

I'll blow all two of them out – 

while that Victory Song is sung again. 

If this were a ball game, I'm in overtime 

and curiosity holds me here. 

A nun in France just died at 118 years. 

What? Wait, a possible 30 years more? I’m appalled, yet fascinated.

Time enough to see the climate crisis unfolding. 

But will I still know anyone so I can say, 

" See, I told you.” 

or more hopefully, 

“Oh, I’m wrong again." 

Perhaps the tools that got us into this mess

will be enough to get us out. 

But, I truly doubt it.

Over time, of course I've been wrong, but as I see it, 

mostly I got life right. Guided by that inner-seed holding both the past & future.

Over time, I've changed my mind and 

changed direction and 

changed location. 

But not because I was wrong.

It was just time, the need to be transplanted.

If I'm around another 30 years 

I'll probably have to do that all again. 

Changing my mind over time, 

changing my direction and changing my location. 

My mind continues, as always, 

working overtime.

TWO FRIENDS _ ONE PERFECT DAY

an orchid bouquet 

shedding petals like starlight 

flagrant disarray

~

a friend is one 

who remembers the name 

of a local bookstore after fifty-odd years 

and then sends me a bookmark from it

In memory of Roz Casad: June 27, 1947 - February 14, 2023

She charmed with her fantastic imagination, always a delight, sorely missed

(Roz is seated at left front, at Moloka'i Red Dirt Writers meeting Pre-Covid)

Winter Solstice 2022

 Winter Solstice - - - appropriated by Christians,

cashed-in by Hallmark, 

now wholly owned by Amazon

Untitled Mixed Media on Paper

6” x 4” Ruth Ann Howden

Reflection distorts -

The story I tell may or 

may not, still be true

My poems are just lines on paper that spill out like water from a jug, watering young shoots that grow roots to secure the fragile space I occupy. Like Guan Yin at frail edge of lake or river or ocean, contemplating the moon reflecting in water. She risks being present, being focused, being witness.

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“ The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment and not the other way around.” 

Gaylord Nelson 

For those of us who were in the streets in the 60s and 70s there is now an online group - the Third Act, Seniors working together on climate action. Here is a link to a four minute PBS NewsHour piece on the Third Act: PBS News link to 3rd Act

And check out their website: www.thirdact.org. They are making plans for a day of action on 32123

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This is my question, and yes, I’d like an answer:

All federal contractors are required to provide paid sick time for their employees, but the railroad companies are exempt. Why is that? 

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Because I believe there is magic in all books, even the most scientific / dry texts; the magic is in readers making connections to ideas, sparks of imagination, the sharing of  hope that if these words are put out into the world somehow it makes a difference for the better. The following is a list of some of the books I’ve read in 2022, because they somehow changed my life or just because  

But first, here is a list of online newsletters that have inspired me and often lead me to the 

books I’ve read:

The Marginalian  — Marginalian

Hyperallergic           —  Hyperallergic

Zocalo Square          —  Zocalo Square

The Drift             — The Drift

Dame                       —   Dame

Book Lists

Fiction:

The Return of Faraz Ali by Amina Ahmad

2022,

All Our Missing Hearts

2022

Neruda on the Park by Cleyvis Natera

2022

After Lives by Abdulrazak Gurnah

2022

The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara

2022

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford

2022

Horse by Gwendolyn Brooks

2020

Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig

2015

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

2021

The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

2021

Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday

2018

The map of the salt and stars by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar

2018

The Pages by Hugo Hamilton

2022

The Corpse Flower by Anne Mette Hancock

2021

The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

2020

Recitatif by Toni Morrison 

2022 — reissued with introduction by Zadie Smith

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich 

2021

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

2021

A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles

2016

Sula by Toni Morrison

1973

Hell of A Book by Jason Mott

2021

Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka

2010/2021 translation

The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman 

1970

City of Thieves by David Benioff

2008

Non Fiction

The Monk and the Philosopher by Jean François Revel and Matthieu Ricard

1998

Shelf life by Nadia Wassef 

2022

Catching the Light by Joy Harjo

2022

The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee

2021

How To Do Nothing by Jenny Odell

2019

In My Mother’s House by Kim Chernin

1983

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

2013

These Precious Days by Anne Patchett

2021

Call Them by Their True Names by Rebecca Solnit

2018

The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow new history of humanity

2020

James Baldwin Nothing Personal, foreword by Imani Perry, afterword by Eddie S. Glaube Jr.

2021 — “Talking to Americans is usually extremely uphill work. We are afraid to reveal ourselves 

because we trust ourselves so little.”

Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit

2005

Don’t Forget Us Here by Mansoor Adafi

2021

Other Reads:

The Moon In the Water by Kathy J. Phillips

2008 — inspiration for my haiku and thoughts on my poetry at the beginning of this blog post

Book of Questions by Pablo Neruda

2022, 3 — new translation by Sara Lisa Paulson, illustrated by Paloma Valdivia

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury, illustrated by Joseph Mugnaini

1972

The Van Gogh Cafe by Cynthia Rylant

1995

Motionless Journey by Matthieu Ricard

2007

Chlorine Sky by Mahogany L. Brown

2021

Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit

2021 “The imagination, like certain wild animals, will not breed in captivity.”

You can’t keep a good woman down by Alice Walker

1971,— first in a short story collection: fantasy of reparation, what Elvis owes for 

appropriating black culture. It’s funny and sad. I read it three times in a row, favorite 

sentence: ‘ you need an honest audience‘

Da Small Pitot Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

Translated from French to Hawai’i pidgin by Keao NeSmith

2018

Holding Space by Aminata Cairo, PHD

2021

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

2006

Water by the Spoonful, a Pulitzer Prize winning play by Quiana Alegría Hudes

2012

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad — graphic interpretation by Peter Kuper 

2020, — captured the story using Conrad’s words, but mainly through illustration / layout. 

This would be excellent textbook for a class in graphic-novel writing.

                  My wish for you in the coming year:

Roam wide in your library. Spend time with poetry. Discover graphic novels, 

don’t skip over books marked as young adult, nor miss the children’s 

section with its abundant, fanciful illustrations, and wisdom in a few words . . .

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A gift she gave us

after so many hellos

chance to say goodbye

In memory of

Mary Grace Kekalia

January 7, 1941 — September 19, 2022

And also to honor one of my heroes - artist and underground cartoonist:

Aline Kominsky-Crumb — 1948-2022

ReplyForward

Fall Equinox 2022

 

Untitled (Hula II)
Mixed Media on Paper -- 11" X 14"
Ruth Ann Howden

          Gifts

Softly my room fills

gentle with breeze, generous

caress from the sea

Entangled Series
linen paper, pen, ink, pencil, collage, tape, bamboo
7" X 12" each
Ruth Ann Howden

Ode To My Pain

I just want to lie down

give up now, why even start.

My body aches from inside to out 

and all the joints in between.

How can my head suddenly be 

too heavy for my neck to hold? 

That constant balancing trick seems impossible 

down to my fingers and toes chanting twenty times NO. 

I’ve got to lie down.

I’m trying to make lite of the grief of growing old — 

the counting of people and things let go

my playful side all played out.

These scars are my medals, 

the lines on my face, rewards.

Another birthday, another victory

as still I put one foot in front of the other. 

And not just me, my friends and 

sisters return my gaze, all old.

We still achieve, playing our part —

a helping hand here, a donation there.

Presenting continual challenge for

doctors to puzzle out the pains

and daily supporting Big Pharma’s pills.

What is left? 

Memories yes, 

satisfaction of my decisions

joy of questioning/solving problems

gratitude for chosen home

surprise of new ideas, especially my own, 

but

this too will pass. 

All we can do, according to Ram Dass, is

‘walk each other home’

Slowly moving now in smaller circles

with the aid of our wheeled walkers —

Reciting poems.

Kamakou 

        (4970’ — highest point on Molokai, 

as seen from my front door)

My mountain sits 

in royal repose

accepting all —

shadows and sun

pleas and gratitude 

Displaying patience of centuries

pulling us backwards and forwards in time

balanced in constant change