the future like an animal

what makes me happy- Tuesday morning edition

playing with paint and words.

what makes me happy today, friday edition

typewriter + deli paper + blackout poems,

a morning spent clacking away on my manual typewriter,

my favorite lines from recent blackout poems,

and the first page of my new inspiration journal. Happy Friday!

what makes me happy today

I’ve spent the last year painting, painting, painting. In the process, I neglected my blog- as previously, and somewhat guiltily, acknowledged- and other than my daily journaling practice, I haven’t written anything in the last year. Which is sad because I love language. I love words- the sound of words, the shapes of words on paper, and the way they can express meaning so differently depending on how they are used. When I was a teenager, I wrote bad poetry and it gave me such a thrill just to see my own words on the page. The fact that it was bad poetry though meant that I gave it up by age 20, rather than trying to make it into something better. As a worshipper of talent, the idea that practice could have any impact on skill never crossed my mind.

So fast forward to yesterday, when Ivy Newport‘s and Petra Hrziwnatzki‘s art class Poetic Plaster + Wax started and I let myself play with words again. I’d never tried blackout poetry before and I could hardly tear myself away from the paint and words to go to bed. I was back at it as soon as I woke up. Here’s my favorite: