Musings on a Golden Eagle

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Unique 4 wheels in a Rosebud carpark, Mornington Peninsula
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Cafe Writing ~ Option #3 ~ air + burning + craft + eagle + sanctity + space + surly + trespass
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A golden eagle
Tawny brown power in space
Lonely great hunter
~
Imposing winged craft
Essence of surly drama
Air of royalty
~
Burning sense of will
Eyries high on rocky crags
Trespass if you dare
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Mexican symbol
Roman and Persian icon
Ancient sanctity
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To rain or not to rain...

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ To rain or not to rain at Dromana Hills, Mornington Peninsula
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Cafe Writing March/April 2009 Project: In the Garden
Option One Poetry
Weather means more when you have a garden. There’s nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans.
~Marcelene Cox
Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about weather meaning more
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Weather
In a garden
Nutritional diet
Healthy balance of sun and rain
Eden
~
Living
This century
Odd cluttered smorgasbord
Humanity needs images
Plastic
~
Meaning
Nature's future
Rich feast or starvation
We hold the pattern of weather
Loosely
~
Our hope
Our tomorrow
Rests with Mother Nature
She holds rights to eternity
Tightly
~

Unseen and Unseeable Wonders

Collage by Gemma Wiseman ~ Arthurs Seat skies and my favourite tree ~ the willow ~ at Balnarring, Mornington Peninsula
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Cafe Writing ~ 2008 Holiday Project ~ Option 6 ~ Timed Writing ~ Unseen and Unseeable Wonders
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The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
~Francis P. Church, “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus”
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Behind the veil
Mountains wing weary walkers to the skies
Clouds bring sunny rains in midnights
Seas cradle sailors to many homes
Any homes
~
Above the veil
Earthy ochres paint pyramids for starred dreams
The moon tumbles joyfully down
A romantic waterfall
~
Beneath the veil
The song of a willow smiling
A rose weeping
~
Around the veil
An endless
Fairy ring
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Like Second-Hand Diamonds

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Sunday afternoon Spring light at Dromana, Mornington Peninsula
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Cafe Writing ~ November/December project ~ Jewels
Option Three: Poetry

Let us not be too particular. It is better to have old second-hand diamonds than none at all.
~Mark Twain

Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about second-hand diamonds.
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Restless waters
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Tumbling whirls of cloudy thoughts
Steady linear wings
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Lights on restless waters
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Folded wings
Grounded in earthy sands
Nonchalantly being
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Trembling lights on restless waters
~
Feeling a sense of wings
A sense of trembling light on restless waters
Desperately being
~
Like second-hand diamonds
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Brittle Yesterdays

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Nepean Historical Society Museum and Heritage Gallery housed in the Mechanics' Institute of 1876-77 ~ Sorrento, Mornington Peninsula
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Cafe Writing prompt ~ Option 1 Pick 3 ~ Fewer and fewer Americans possess objects that have a patina, old furniture, grandparents’ pots and pans, the used things, warm with generations of human touch, essential to a human landscape. Instead, we have our paper phantoms, transistorized landscapes. A featherweight portable museum. ~ Susan Sontag
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Pick at least three of the following words, and build a piece of writing around them. The form is up to us: poem, scene, flash-fic, essay, or general blog entry.
~
essential, furniture, landscape, museum, paper, patina, possess, touch, warm
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The peeling furniture of old memories
The brittle paper of yesterday's ideas
Become
A musty, clinical landscape
Locked in some recycled building
Open only for
Selective viewing at
Selected times
(Perhaps a weekend fill-in
Often closed on Mondays)
~
Little wonder
This break neck world
Prefers the essential
Instant touch of
A warm keyboard
(Open 24 hours)
Linking the unknown landscape to
A transisterised
Ephemeral
Portable museum of
Past
Present and
Maybe
Future
Realities
~
And perhaps
All we really possess
Is the chance opportunity
To peer through a smeary window at
The patina
The curiosity of
What was
~

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Windows on the Sorrento Museum
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A hint of possible sound

Pics by Gemma Wiseman ~ Windchimes in my dining room window + fragment of a print on my hall wall.
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Cafe Writing Prompt ~ arouse, morning, nerve, women, men, beauty, admire, nowhere
Two for Tuesdays Prompt - race, own
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In some worlds
Women are still stifled
In strait jacket
Role plays ~
Their inner beauty
Locked
In deathly caskets ~
Cursed to act out
Pre-meditated
Moves
And shapes
~
In some worlds
Men admire
Routine and ritual
Frozen
In old wisdoms ~
Fearing
To break
Moves
And shapes ~
Fearing
To own
New shadows ~
Blind
Non-starters
In the race to
New light
~
In some worlds
Morning
Is the nerve centre
Of nowhere
And windchimes
Sidling
Before rainy glass
Arouse only a hint
Of possible
Sound
~

Sacred Circles

Pic by Linnie Stepping Stone ~ Southern Thailand

Pic by David J. Bookbinder ~ Flower Mandalas

A circle orbits our cosmic space
Weaving a still, sacred cocoon
~
The essence of this holy place
Fuses evolving times and landscapes
~
Like Spring becomes Spring again
Like a child becomes the joy of wonder
~
Like refreshed happiness in a sun shower
Like a reflowering of the whispering soul
~
Just a little sand, a lowly twig
And a yearning to circle the stars
~
FOOTNOTE: MANDALAS have been used the world over as symbolic representations of the Cosmos as it relates to the Self.The word "mandala" comes from a sanskrit root meaning "enclosing the essence" - and therefore "sacred circle". Indeed mandalas are round in shape and they provide us with a magic circle, a circular and holy ground, a cocoon where we can safely and efficiently perform self-transformation and cosmic fusion.C. G. Jung observed that, towards the end of a successful therapy, mandala-like images would appear in dreams & in artwork as if to express an experience of completion: the patient had become "rounded up", whole and the psyche was unified, balanced. Is it a coincidence if "circle" and "cycle" are close linguistic parents ? Being circles, mandalas are displaying the reoccurring cycles of evolution and they always tend to appear at the end / beginning of a cycle, be it individual or collective. As symbols of the psyche, mandalas continuously speak a language of Self-Centeredness within the personal wheel of life and of Self-Integration within the grand scheme of transpersonal realities.
"The power of the world always work in circles and everything tends to be round"...Starwheels by Aya
Tibetan monks create beautiful sand mandalas and then, part of the celebration, is to erase them when they are complete, so they may be done again. And a simple mandala may be created in the sand with just a twig.
Mandalas are the essence of turning full circle.

Butterfly Delight ~~~ for Cafe Writing ~~~ Option 5

Option Five: Can You Picture That?
Use the following photo to inspire an entry in any form - fiction, essay, poetry. Please copy the photo to your own server if you want to include it in your post.
If you respond to this prompt, please copy the image to your own server, and credit the photographer Therese Chase. Her web page is here: http://velma-dacron.livejournal.com/.

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Nature's sweet shop

Celebrates

A seasonal birthday

Today!

And over in the pink corner ~

Of strawberry delights

And cherry truffles ~

I found a sticky

Black and white humbug

Masquerading

As

A butterfly

~

Autumn is the Bridesmaid of Spring ~~~ Option 4 for Cafe Writing

Spring cherry blossom in Korea.












Autumn in Victoria, Australia.














Option Four: Pick Three
The first day of spring was once the time for taking the young virgins into the fields, there in dalliance to set an example in fertility for nature to follow. Now we just set the clocks an hour ahead and change the oil in the crankcase.– E.B. White
Pick at least three of the following eight words, and write a paragraph, scene, flash-fic, essay, blog entry or poem using them. It’s fine to change tenses, or pluralize if you want to, but please bold the words you choose.
spring, change, virgin, dalliance, fertile, nature, oil, crank
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The colours of Autumn are warm
For a little while ~
Like a dalliance
A sigh
A moment of
Wimpering delight
Trying to crank out
Mystic memories ~
But these last chimes of summer
Are destined to
Tumble
Forlorn
Tolling
The melancholic wisdom
Of aging
Ageless
Seers
Nature's seers
Breathing
The Cycles of Time
~
But this Fall becomes
A Phoenix rising ~
Change is when
A Bridesmaid becomes
A Bride
~
A lingering sleep
In a white world of ice
And then
The oil of
Sunlight
Works
Its magic innocence ~
Fragmenting
A white wonderland
Into budding
Blossoms
Of Virgin Spring
~

Gilded Conclusion ~ Response to Option 3 ~ Cafe Writing

PROMPT FOR #OPTION 3Dreaming time has reversed,
I watch drowned snow
Appear to lift up from the lake;
Reshaping magnified, each risen flake
Looms in the air, deliberate and slow,
Allowing me to let your picture form and wake
Astonished that you have returned to go
To watch me watch drowned snow lift from the lake.
Dreaming time has reversed—and you,
Your red cheeks radiant against the wind,
Are gliding toward me on the ice into
A frame of glided twilight—I
Again awaken from your being gone to find
Your gloved hands covering your lips’ good-bye
So you can watch me watch uplifted snow
As if your absence now concluded long ago.
- Robert Pack ~ "Snow Rise"Pick at least three of the following eight words, and write a paragraph, scene, flash-fic, essay, blog entry or poem using them. It’s fine to change tenses, or pluralize if you want to, but please bold the words you choose.astonished, conclusion, drown, gilded, hands, magnify, snow, time
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GILDED CONCLUSION
Hands wave
Astonished in silent protest
This is not how it should be at all
This is not how it should be
~
Hands magnify
The yawning abyss of neglect
Shaping the awe of horror
With simple white smoky etchings
In the sky
~
Hands close in prayer
Hoping for some snow whiteness
Nature's whiteness
Nature's forgiveness
Blanketing the crimes of a wayward child
~
Time has become a gilded conclusion
Gilded with fool's gold
~
Hands drown helpless
In the memory of the celestine signs
The eyes were too blind to see

I Walk in Your Footprints ~ Response to Option 4 ~ Can you picture that? ~ Cafe Writing

February Project: In the Northern Hemisphere, February is the month of hearts and flowers, groundhogs, candles, and hope for the coming spring. In other parts of the world, of course, it comes with different meanings and traditions. Rather than making the theme for this month specific to Valentine’s Day, then, it will be a celebration of love, with a bit of hope for spring tossed into the mix.
Comment: In the Southern Hemisphere, February is the month of hearts and flowers, dancing dolphins in fading summer waters, candles, and a memory of summer play. It is a time to celebrate the bond of love that asks no questions and needs no answers. It simply is.
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Option Four: Can You Picture That?
Use the following photo to inspire an entry in any form - fiction, essay, poetry. Please copy the photo to your own server if you want to include it in your post.
If you respond to this prompt, please copy the image to your own server, and credit the photographer Beverly Lussier.

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I WALK IN YOUR FOOTPRINTS
I feel what you know
And you know what I feel
We love from the depths
Of our hearts
~
I see with your eyes

You see with mine

We sing in the beauty

Of our minds

~

I walk in your footprints

You walk in mine

We are happy in the souls

Of our shoes

~

Ticking off the Week Days - (or is that "weak" days?) - Option 1 - for Cafe Writing

Option One: Seven Things ~ In improvisation, one of our exercises is a game called “Seven Things,” in which we go around in a circle giving each other the challenge, “Give me seven things that [whatever].” We are not going to go around in a circle here, but if you’re drawn to lists, this prompt is for you.
List seven resolutions that you’ve made - for the New Year, or just for yourself - that you’ve actually kept. (They don’t have to all be from the same year, either.)
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Resolutions for me are those rushes in some swampy backwater. Sometimes I see them. Sometimes I don't. It all depends on the mood and the moment. But always, I know, like it or not, there is some little voice reminding me that there will be washing up to do eternally.
Wash the dishes,
dry the dishes,
turn the dishes
OVER...
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1. Moon~day ~ This is shock day. The moon snickers quite unromantically as I try yet again to spring out of bed when the alarm goes off! Week-end seems so far away! One day, I'm going to beat that alarm and turn it off before it starts! One day!
~I resolve to bond with this day in a more friendly tone!
2. Mars~day ~ The heat is on! It's war! This is the day for getting the act together. Often, this is the day I organise my work schedule.
~I resolve to always improve on this day!
3. Mercury~day ~ Colloquially known as "hump day". More romantically, it is the time for the winged messenger to sprinkle some love dust. It's a day when a new surge of energy flows through the body! For me, I suddenly crave to write. So this day becomes a juggling act of work commitments and writing dreams.
~I resolve to practise tai chi more dilgently on this day.
4. Jupiter~day ~ Ahhhh!!! Day of thunder and lightning! New weathers! It's jolt day! When I just may see those rushes in the swamp.
~I resolve to give more time to my inner, higher spirit on this day.
5. Venus~day ~ Love is a beautiful song! But pity this day has sunk to P.O.E.T.S. day! Well, at least the anagram looks pretty! It's a funny day. It could be a melt-down, trying to complete work demands. But it also could be procrastination day. There's always Moon-day!
~I resolve to work on my shyness and eat lunch in the staffroom more regularly.
6. Saturn~day ~ The day of Father Time. It's the day I try to hide from his stony stare, willing me to face the weekly ritual of grocery shopping. Strangely, this is the day I have my best poetic impulses!
~I resolve to do the shopping first ~ sometimes!
7. Sun~day ~ Beautiful Sun~day! There is a freedom in Sun~day. A "to be or not to be"!
~I resolve to let Sun~day be Sun~day!
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I keep these resolutions turning over and over...
A little like cycles in a washing machine...
Yes! I am a victim to the weak impulses of the week!
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All my week's a circle
Sunrise and sundown
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Procrastination - "a Clayton's resolution" - Option 6 -Timed Writing - for Cafe Writing

Option Six: Timed Writing
Take nine minutes (you have to use all nine, you can’t go over), and interpret the topic Resolution.
Any format (fiction, essay, verse) is acceptable; and it’s expected that your writing will be raw, so don’t stress about editing.
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Procrastination is a wonderful gift. It is far from wasting time but re-allocating time to incredible activities. Its a Clayton's resolution! The resolution you have when you're not having a resolution!
~ Isn't it far better to suddenly notice the cobweb in the corner of the room than open those study books?
~ Isn't it far better to put on some nail polish - on long neglected toes - than face the mountain of washing leering behind the laundry door?
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And the ultimate! I loathe grocery shopping! I should have braved the Australia Day hordes yesterday! But it was too hot! Too many flies! I wanna write! And now, here it is nearly midday on a Sunday! I am writing pink notes in preference to dancing the grocery halls. I keep telling myself, the supermarket is air-conditioned! That should be enticing! But I only succeed in cringing about moving from my writer's throne. I love sitting here - blaise - bare feet propped on a paper loaded chair and still thinking about dressing for the new day! Nah! Not thinking about that at all! All part of the procrastination routine!
~ Sudden thought - pink jottings may be a little nauseous for the males.
~ CHANGE ~ Procrastination is the best way to make time stand still that I know. It is a luxury best tasted on the side roads. You know! The ones that seem to lead to some airy blind alley. It could be littered by garbage bins, waiting to be collected. But there could be some lucky dip, where someone discarded a winning lottery ticket without realising!
Woops! 9 mins of procrastinating trivia has flown!

Clockwork Orange - Option 2 - for Cafe Writing

Cafe Writing - Option Two: Pick Three ~ Pick at least three of the following eight words, and write a paragraph, scene, flash-fic, essay, blog entry or poem using them. It’s fine to change tenses, or pluralize if you want to, but please bold the words you choose.
breathless, change, elusive, pensive, reflect, surge, tide, vibrant

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Elusive

Clockwork Orange ~

Lunar cogs gyrating

Synching

~

The 21st aeon

Loads

A new

Vibrant

Corroboree

~

Earth time

Cached ~

Breathless

In the Big Ben

Towers

Of an Olympian

Aboriginal

Cosmos

~

Change

Is a vampire

Spilling

Lunar

Blood~

When

Screaming

Silent

Frozen

Fears

Surge

~

No tide

Waits

For

No man

~

Pensive cynics

Smile

(They think ~

Knowingly)

But how many

Have

Quietly booked

A trip to

Mongolian landscapes

(In August 2008)

To wonder

To reflect

The eclipse

Of solar power.

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"In silence and movement you can show the reflection of people" - Marcel Marceau ~ for Cafe Writing

It may be

In the silence

Of mystical blue

Veils
Where just one tree Bends
To catch

The whispers of the Wind
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It may be

In the swirling cycles

Of starry nights

Where just the eyes

Lift

To hear

The music

Of legends

Of dreamings

~

It may be

In the longing

To travel

A cosmic

Silk road

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It may be in the still breath of an earthly landscape
Or in the whirling, creative spirit of the endless skies ~

There you will find

The inner

Reflective light of

Namaste

~

The soul song

Of people

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