mAgNoLia 2

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Imaginary Caged Bird

Well, here it goes. I contemplated doing a different blog, but was struggling with an appropriate name that was still available and that I could also have as a web page (possibly in the future), a Facebook group and such so I decided that I would just include it under my All Things Sonya because after all this is my initiative to help inspire, encourage and challenge not only my own creativity, but that of other artist. Also, there is the issue of why make yet one more blog to keep up with, I mean really.
Some challenges are going to be easier and some more demanding; some will be more of a stretch than others. Once a week a challenge will be posted here on the blog with some thoughts, suggestions or whatever to hopefully help with your inspiration. Keep in mind there are no requirements other than stick to the challenge. Work as large or small, in the medium of your choice and in whatever style you chose. 

Ok, this week’s challenge is going to be a poem. This poem was first shared with me in an artist workshop taught by Marsha Staiger
If you can, have someone read this poem to you while you sit listening with your eyes closed and visualize the imagery, otherwise read through it a couple of times out loud and perhaps make some notes; then it’s off to work. Leave the poem behind. The fact is that all artwork, even realism, is imaginary because it is the artist individual visual interpretation within the confines of their perception, skill and medium. The point is to access YOUR pure impressions and only that which is within you. Again, work as large or small as you like, in the medium of your choice and in whatever style you chose. When you finish, if you like, go to the Facebook group Imaginary and post an image of your work. Please post the name of the challenge you are responding to and any other info you chose to include such as medium, size, name of the piece, etc. Please, keep your postings relevant to the groups focus. Thanks! 

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 

By Maya Angelou 

A free bird leaps on the back
Of the wind and floats downstream 
Till the current ends and dips his wing 
In the orange suns rays
And dares to claim the sky.

But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright
Lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom. 



Monday, August 15, 2011

Found Poem - Shadow of a Black Bird by Sonya Chappelear

I was of three minds, like a tree in, which there are three blackbirds. 
Then I turned toward paradises lost for the shadow of the blackbird. 
I went walking on the roads of yesteryear; 
I went walking through my childhood -
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, 
and sorry I could not travel both, 
the martyrs who do not bear witness; 
the flowers of blood that fade and scatter in the empty wind.  
And both that morning equally lay. 
In leaves no step had trodden black. 
I do not know which to prefer, 
the beauty of inflections or 
the beauty of innuendoes. 
I shall be telling this with a sigh; 
only the unloved know, 
lost in the loose leaves of the weeping cherry tree, 
a man and a woman and a blackbird are one.

Taken from: Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird By Wallace Stevens  http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/stevens-13ways.html 02/03/2011The Road Not Taken Robert Frost http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html  02/03/2011Notebook of a Return to the Native Land [excerpt] by Aimé Césaire translated by Annette Smith and Clayton Eshleman http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15976 02/03/2011Littlefoot, 19, [This is the bird hour] by Charles Wright http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19592 02/03/2011