Here are a few of my artworks made into postcards. Being a poet and writer has challenged my creativity and forced me to expand as an artist. Some of my artwork has made the cover of some of my books and chapbooks. The challenges of creativity never seems to end if you are a poet and writer and must also promote and help make your books marketable and beautiful. Postcard 1 art by Arya F. Jenkins Postcard 2 art by Arya F. Jenkins ...
Years ago, after my first divorce, my friend Peter took me aside and showed me a list he'd written up for me of affirmations he suggested I repeat before the mirror on a daily basis. The idea seemed kind of foolish and desperate to me at the time. I couldn't relate to the words, which didn't make sense to me. I felt overwhelmed with feelings, and language felt like little more than an intrusion on the process of letting those feelings go. Grateful to Peter for his thoughtfulness, I folded up the piece of paper he'd given me on which his positive sayings were written and put it aside. A few years after that, while getting ready for a move, I found the piece of paper with Peter's affirmations and re-read them. They were simple--phrases like, "I am worthy." "Today will be a good day." "I believe good things will come to me." By then these daily affirmations were a part of me as they are common to the 12-step AA program to which I and many ...
California is burning. The world is on fire, with wars and suffering everywhere, and one wonders, has it ever been so bad, and what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do is a question I ask myself daily as a concerned human being on the planet and as a poet and writer. The current status of Mother Earth and of the nation feel virtually paralyzing. We are undergoing a big fire of change. So, what to do. As an American Red Cross volunteer disaster caseworker, I am mulling the possibilities of "deploying" to L.A., even as the situation there worsens with winds picking up, more homes being decimated and more human and animal bodies being uncovered even as I type this. Trauma abounds among those who have lost loves ones and homes and among helpers too, whose empathy in the midst of this chaos can feel like a perpetual shared wound. On top of that, some of us always feel we can never do enough. One side of me tells myself, helping Californians in this instance will b...
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