What goes up...

Andrew and I take a sort-of involuntary break from our usual workdays and enter into the realm of painting projects (again) with the usual not-so-hilarious results. When is a black hole a lesson about the unpredictability of life? When you're on a deadline and the ceiling you are painting begins to cave in upon you. Words and images to help you laugh instead of running and hiding, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info -- keep clicking those ads, folks!

Private I-don't-know

Sometimes things,
they just be that way --
you get no explanation
from the hole that suddenly yawns
from the ceiling you roll,
or from your trouser pocket.
But any black hole gaping wide
the words "I don't know"
makes you pause, and in effect
takes the fullness from your day;
where order and meaning locked wills
to keep you wary, chaos sneaks in
and pokes a finger under your ribs.
You have to laugh --
it's that or run and hide.
Copyright (c) 2012 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 3371, 3365, 3367, 3368, 3366, 3370, and 3369 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Color of spring

The forsythia are in bloom here in upstate New York: a mild winter and some warm early spring weather have coaxed out the blooms, and everything is bursting with bright yellow and gold. Why is yellow the color of the season? A few thoughts and meditations, plus a shoutout to my birthday sister, Paula -- more, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Not just a drop in the bucket

Ever see those buckets and taps hanging off the trees this time of year, in upstate New York or Vermont? Yes, it's sugar-maple time, and the trick is to outsmart the early thaw that comes earlier every year as the maple trees experience the effects of climate change. More in words and images on the process of syrup salvage, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Maple time

The slightest bit of crunch
still on the ground
reminds us that when snow
coats maple -- oh
the delicious frost abounds;
children and creatures alike
know it well, but then
we have to wait for the silver taps
to tell of their fortunes,
their steady ping-ping echoing
from the drive -- the surety
of golden-pure sugar sap.
It seems that all the woodland
thrives and strives to hear
that sound, come the early
of the first sugar time,
the weather of March
and of our first prime --
it reminds us up and down,
the indelicacy of winter,
the gentleness of spring.
Copyright (c) 2012 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 20120317_59, 20120317_62, 20120317_60, and 20120317_58  from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

You've got WHAT in a jar?

As fascinating as it may seem to look at ancient Egyptian artifacts like mummies and shawabtis and canopic jars, and to wonder about their provenance, I'll do you one better: we can also wonder about the mysteries of ebola virus and the unpredictability of the pain scale as we have come to know it, courtesy of a fellow blogger at hyperboleandahalf.blogspot. For more musings on life and death, go to blog.amynelsonhahn.info if you dare...

Figuratively

In a manner of speaking,
it would somehow seem
the little dummies won:
they conquered time,
and rendered themselves
indispensable,
perhaps even a little bit positive
this side of the divine and knowing.
How much dignitaries prize
their reputations over art;
they staked a heritage on the very
survival of art -- pure genius
left to the craftsmen,
left to the people
only to have followed
ever so closely
however figuratively.
Copyright (c) 2012 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 3351, 3352, 3349, 3350, and 3348  from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Father figure

A new exhibit at the Albany Institute of History and Art features images and heirlooms of our first President, George Washington, as he was depicted in popular culture over the last more than two-hundred years. We take a closer look, and examine the impact of Washington -- the man and the myth. More reflections, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info...keep clicking those ads, folks!

Washington -- at ease

To this very day,
your image creates us
as a nation, as a people;
you rose so tall,
one of the first gentlemen
among us, and fought the first best fight.
All these semblances surround us,
all these homages that merely aspire,
merely hope in some casting way
to pay an immortal debt --
a critical, monumental urging
we suffer to sting us at heart
when the cause of your careful sacrifice
presents itself to our understanding.
Copyright (c) 2012 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 3344, 3346, and 3347  from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Indian warfare

Erastus Dow Palmer created a marble sculpture of an Indian princess in 1856 -- her hand outstretched, holding a crucifix, symbolic of her acceptance of the Christian world. He titled it, "The Dawn of Christianity." What do we think about such images today? Have Native Americans changed the way we look at this kind of art? More thoughts on these words and images from the Albany Institute of History and Art, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Forlorn

Was it your fate
indeed to look so modestly,
flung with deerskin drape
your princess' shape all but
shriving fools who told you,
look on this -- and learn --
when all around you nature burned
with wisdom purely and conspired
to teach you better?
How could you not have wondered --
is this a dagger I see,
a jewel? What matter
of metal, what art?
Copyright (c) 2012 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 3331 and 3343  from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Toy story

What do the toys we give to our children tell us about ourselves? As women and men? As builders of our childrens' dreams for the future? These are the kinds of things we think about as we discuss images from a wonderful interactive exhibit at the Albany Institute Of History and Art called "Kid Stuff", displaying popular toys from the last hundred years. Words, photos, and thoughts, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

At play

It seems an easy enough idea
at first --
as they say, a stick and hoop,
a spring and loop,
anything will amuse --
but somehow along the way
we grownups build a picture
of our lesser selves
as we utmost wish to be.
Sometimes it's safer when
the minds of children
make the rules, and everyone
can fuse a new dream,
and fuel it with such love.
Copyright (c) 2012 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images 3336, 3334, 3335, 3337, 3338, 3333, 3339, 3332, 3340, 3341, and 3342  from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Whose woods indeed

Stumbled upon during a recent outing in the snow: a stack of lovely logs, with annular rings emanating, just prior to being placed in the fire. What warms our hearts the most? A winter fire? Or the thought of ancient trees, their majesty and grace purveying over centuries? Words and images, with a little help from Robert Frost, at blog.amynelsonhahn.info  Keep clicking those ads, folkses!

Woods -- remembering

The rage of the grain
could not dissemble,
and stretched itself
in an open grin
of warning to those who
dwelt within and passed
their days in vain --
like hands upon a massive
inward dial,
the circles were evoked
and heaped up, stroke
upon blasted stroke
until none cried out,
none wept in the wind
and all could simply
remember.
Copyright (c) 2012 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images P3010048, P3010046, P3010047, P3010050, and P3010045 from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Snow bunnies

You can take the snow out of the winter but you just can't take the snow out of the spring...or something like that. At any rate, here it is, March, and the month of Easter, and we have inches of the white stuff. Oh, well. It sure is pretty. Photos, haiku, and commentary, all at blog.amynelsonhahn.info

Snow in march

Puffed and placed
tenuously
like peaceful time bombs,
perched between the throngs
of latticed branchlings,
shivered snowdrops long
and linger momentarily,
melting in suspension --
a vision of transition,
gently blurring the lines
between harshest ice
and warmest sun.
They cling for now, escape,
and are reborn as flowers.
Copyright (c) 2012 Amy Nelson Hahn

view with images P3010042, P3010043, P3010041, and P3010038  from photos.amynelsonhahn.info or visit blog.amynelsonhahn.info