Category Archives: drawing

works of either original visual poetry drawn by hand or original drawings on paper

:: all drawings by Janice Sandeen

Sacred Seed Sacred Song

Sacred Seed Sacred Song clear:drawings

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Sacred Seed with this poem, SACRED SEED SACRED SONG, which the title of my first poetry book came from. This poem was written 21 years ago and first self-published 20 years ago by Wild Fig Tree Press.

 

flesh and bones chill and rejoice

chill and rejoice

duet of northwesterly lapping waves

skins of ancient water and stone

meeting along the chorus line of ocean shore

 

a deep quartet rises in tones

of amber, heather, ruby, and ice

folding into a quintet of pounding heart chambers

opening, releasing to the verses

of the whole heart womb

 

alive

 

lay down in the circle of visions yet told

the mapping emerges in traces

of salt, ash, sand, and root hairs

veins of crimson and cobalt,

silver and gold

 

a calling, leading raptor release on high

as ruby-throated friends hover and feed

hover and feed

on honey blood nectar

 

the coiling, spiraling, glistening core

double strands of earth and sky

earth and sky

moonlight, sunlight, starlight, home

 

earthly seeds sing sweetly of winter rains

tentacled threads tying fast

fluid colors richly layering ebb and flood

ebb and flood

 

tide lines becoming score lines

faceted voices touch and hold

touch and hold

 

Marshall, California ~ 6 November 1996

SACRED SEED ~ originally self-published in December 1997 ~ Wild Fig Tree Press

It is the 20th Anniversary of my first book of poetry, Sacred Seed. Here is an image of the original cover art for this limited edition, hand published poetry book or chapbook. I include the table of contents below, as well. I will share some of the poems from this book in following blogposts. Feel free to request a poem via a comment to this post after reading the titles on the contents page below.

Blessings and thank you for helping me celebrate this 20 year marker for Sacred Seed and the sharing of my poetry more widely, starting back in 1997 while I lived in Marshall, California on Tomales Bay. 🙂

Sacred Seed original artwork 1997

Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Sacred Seed ~ poems from 21 October 1996 to 1 May 1997 ~ poetry and original artwork by Janice Sandeen; Wild Fig Tree Press

img_20171129_122242769983666.jpg

Book launch this week ~ 15 March 2016

I have special news this week to share with you all. Please join in my excitement as I announce that two works of my poetry, a visual poem and a collaborative poem, are included in One Way to Ask, an unusually delightful and innovative book of poetry and art by poet Daniel Ari and his 67 artist collaborators. (Norfolk Press, San Francisco 2016)

One Way To Ask book cover

The innovation in this book is many things, but a prominent and specific one is a new form of poetry created by Daniel called the queron. What is queron, you might ask?

Queron is a form that emerged from my poetry practice to match the way my creativity dances, curiously and deliberately, with my experience. Querons have seventeen lines grouped into three quintets and a final couplet. The rhyme scheme is ababa bcbca cdcdb dd. I prefer subtle rhyme.” ~ an excerpt on queron from the book

• • •

My collaborative poem (with Daniel Ari) is called “What Experiences” and the “artwork” that accompanies this penned collaboration is a visual poem in its own (w)right: “Where is the line drawn?” Daniel included these works as the end piece, as we delved into a unique level of collaboration, for this book, inspired by our years of writing together on a group blog of Daniel’s called IMUNURI. (I have posted/published many innovative poems on that blog, some of which I have linked to here on Contemplative Fire.)

Kudos, Daniel Ari!

And congrats to all the artists/illustrators included in this unique book of #poetry!

• MORE •

See a preview of the book or purchase a copy of this cool book for yourself, both on the Norfolk Press website.

Check out One Way to Ask on Facebook to see posts about the launch.

Check out Daniel Ari’s blog: Fights With Poems.

Or if you’d like a special author signed copy, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with Daniel.

• • •

“Reading Daniel Ari‘s poems, juxtaposed with artwork by an impressive roster of talented graphisticators, is like entering a cultural Whirlpool washer. Set to the final spin cycle. Everything comes out clean at the end, but your underwear and your socks may have switched identities.”  -Bill Griffith, creator of Zippy the Pinhead

 

Mapping the Material World

[written & drawn as an opening to a creative collaboration w/Daniel Ari in some way, shape,
or form for a book of Daniel’s querons* & drawings/art/illustrations of 58 artists – titled ‘One Way to Ask” to be published later in 2014.] 
 
*a poetic form of his design, although this poem is not a queron
 
.
We map our existence
with the oddest of things
And yet is it any surprise
really? We being the creatures
Of comforts, habits, all the controls
strung out barely discernible
Yet everywhere we go ~ handling
this, setting that just so,
Hot, hotter, quiet, quieter even still.
Beauty, fragrance, order, mess.
Taste, timing, listening ~ all experience
awaits and awaits, yet also
Passing us by, pondering us like
the creatures we are.
Experience having us, we are
possessed by that which dawns on us,
possessed in measure, great and small.

.

IMG_0236Mapping the Material World