Walking through the cold on the streets of New York one might wish for a fire.
Personally, it ignites a of remembrance of other short days, an act of reckoning with the years that have come before as well as imaginations of the future.

You cannot put a Fire out—
A Thing that can ignite
Can go, itself, without a Fan—
Upon the slowest Night—

You cannot fold a Flood—
And put it in a Drawer—
Because the Winds would find it out—
And tell your Cedar Floor—

—Emily Dickinson (#530)

Images of shapes, and many conversations about ideas, memory, and learning keep ringing in my ears long after the moments have passed.

The temple bell stops—
but the sound keeps coming
out of the flowers.

—Matsuo Basho translated by Robert Bly

As we leave the pottery exhibit tonight we say thank you to all the volunteers who help make it possible and well run. We thank everyone who comes and carefully looks. We are grateful for the conversations, for the support, and for the reinforced friendships. We step out into the world where night is falling and we say thank you yet again.

Thanks

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it
standing by the windows looking out
in our directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks we are saying thank you
in the faces of the officials and the rich
and of all who will never change
we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
taking our feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
thank you we are saying and waving
dark though it is

—W. S.Merwin, in Migration: New and Selected Poems, Copper Canyon Press, 2005

The day was short and the night was long. So many conversations about how I make and fire my work in a show of many potters, each of whom has their own ideas for their rules of expression.

Like Snow

Suppose we did our work
like the snow, quietly, quietly
leaving nothing out.

—Wendell Berry, in Leavings, 2009

Over the years of doing this image series, I have learned to pay more attention to the moon. I find myself anticipating the rise of the full moon and am in awe of its setting. But I am also intrigued by knowing that one of my brothers is most grounded by seeing the waxing crescent moon. I read today that the Egyptian god Thoth was the god of the moon. He was also credited with inventing writing and creating languages. I find it beguiling that the god of the moon is also connected to writing. We give the moon so many names like the cold moon or winter maker moon. Tonight’s is the super moon or long night moon. For me, the movement across the dark becomes an asemic poem in the night sky.

Barn’s burnt down —
now
I can see the moon.

—Mizura Masahide, a 17th-century Japanese poet

This morning the sun was startlingly brilliant especially when reflected off our pond. As I headed out on my dog walk two swans flew off. In this micro season part of the pond is frozen and the diving ducks have arrived to eat pond weeds. I give the pond a wide berth as they are skittish and fly off at the mere hint of our company. As I circled back to the house a flock of geese came squawking, flapping their rusty hinges to land with the ducks, gliding in over the pasture to find shelter among the crowds on the open water.

Sometimes, I Am Startled Out of Myself,

like this morning, when the wild geese came squawking,
flapping their rusty hinges, and something about their trek
across the sky made me think about my life, the places
of brokenness, the places of sorrow, the places where grief
has strung me out to dry. And then the geese come calling,
the leader falling back when tired, another taking her place.
Hope is borne on wings. Look at the trees. They turn to gold
for a brief while, then lose it all each November.
Through the cold months, they stand, take the worst
weather has to offer. And still, they put out shy green leaves
come April, come May. The geese glide over the cornfields,
land on the pond with its sedges and reeds.
You do not have to be wise. Even a goose knows how to find
shelter, where the corn still lies in the stubble and dried stalks.
All we do is pass through here, the best way we can.
They stitch up the sky, and it is whole again.

—Barbara Crooker, from Radiance, Word Press, 2005

At sundown, after many trips back and forth, from house to studio in the damp landscape, it feels like all my words have gathered at the foot of the trees in silence.

To a Leaf Falling in Winter

At sundown when a day’s words
have gathered at the feet of the trees
lining up in silence
to enter the long corridors
of the roots into which they
pass one by one thinking
that they remember the place
as they feel themselves climbing
away from their only sound
while they are being forgotten
by their bright circumstances
they rise through all of the rings
listening again
afterward as they
listened once and they come
to where the leaves used to live
during their lives but have gone now
and they too take the next step
beyond the reach of meaning

—W.S. Merwin, in “Present Company,” Copper Canyon Press, 2005

On the heels of Thanksgiving, December 1st has arrived. We have been sharing the kitchen with more cooks than is usual and cooking more pies than is typical. Obviously, we happily used lots more pottery as well. There is always an inherent pressure to do something special—experiment with a new recipe while ensuring there is more than enough. At the same time, there is the preference that pulls us to repeat what has become tradition. My daughter takes after her dad—she reads instructions carefully and creatively follows directions well. I am someone who believes in the paradoxical repetition of rituals to achieve transformation.

The practice of sharing the house with lots of family, a dog, and an extra cat can be tiring but also grounding. In our lives these days we can measure so many things. But we can’t measure the importance of rubbing shoulders, watching hundreds of ducks fly off the pond, the fictions our four-year-old grandson spins and the dances he creates. There are the frictions, hubbub, and silences of life that occur. These efforts feel both finite and infinite.

You always call it the same river, but the water’s never the same.
In a world where we can measure everything — or we think we can measure everything — how wonderful it is that you could have … poetry or music that actually makes you think you are touching infinity.

—Yo-Yo Ma in an interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air

Today, I took a photo, read a few poems, walked this morning, and worked on a graphic story. Each effort had me thinking about balance. Today is the equinox. All week I have been shifting gears from summer mode into the autumn approach. The light has shifted, but here in Virginia the temperatures are still mild. I am transitioning from being focused on painted pages to making pots.

It has taken me a long time to come to love the autumn in this part of the world. It is slow and gentle. The colors in my garden are rich, filled with dahlias, zinnias, Mexican sage, pineapple sage, and sculptural overgrown okra. I remember when we had finally lived in this house long enough that the views from our windows were filled with autumn leaves. One might think of it as wearing the leaves like curtains. Some leaves are ready to fall, but I am glad that we have a long time before the bare branches take over our view. It’s still warm, but after dark we enjoy making a cup of tea.

Between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice, Today

I read a Korean poem
with the line “Today you are the youngest
you will ever be.” Today I am the oldest
I have been. Today we drink
buckwheat tea. Today I have heat
in my apartment. Today I think
about the word chada in Korean.
It means cold. It means to be filled with.
It means to kick. To wear. Today we’re worn.
Today you wear the cold. Your chilled skin.
My heart kicks on my skin. Someone said
winter has broken his windows. The heat inside
and the cold outside sent lightning across glass.
Today my heart wears you like curtains. Today
it fills with you. The window in my room
is full of leaves ready to fall. Chada, you say. It’s tea.
We drink. It is cold outside.

—Emily Jungmin Yoon, in A Cruelty Special to Our Species, The Ecco Press (HarperCollins Publishers)

In 2019 when I was teaching a class at Penland I put together an artist talk based on a quote from the painter Miro: I work like a gardener… Things come slowly… Things follow their natural course. They grow, they ripen. I must graft. I must water… Ripening goes on in my mind. So I’m always working at a great many things at the same time. This summer I revisited that quote in a poetic graphic memoir that I made in an online class taught by Kelcey Evrick.

The images in this series are collaged, painted paper using acrylic paint, watercolor, and acrylic markers. Kelcey led a wonderful group of creative and supportive women in this class.