chasing rainbows

March 18, 2020 in histories, poetry, weird world

recently I learned about a place called rainbow valley. this is a section of the northeast ridge route up mt. everest, located within the infamous “death zone” at an altitude of more than 26,000 feet. fascinated by the places that lure us, I had to write about rainbow valley. listen below to learn more about mt. everest’s “death zone” & hear my poem, chasing rainbows.

Music:
Sad Trio by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4314-sad-trio
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

green(s)

December 11, 2019 in poetry, photography, details / textures

green with
(envy)

holding on
like a breath
before
falling.

g(r)o(w)ing
toward
the light.

insagram poetics.

what's a gorgon anyway?

November 21, 2019 in photography, poetry

medusa the gorgon, fated to turn men all men who looked upon her to stone… but was it a curse? or a blessing?

medusa was one of three gorgons, daughters born to phorcys & ceto. the only mortal among her immortal sisters—sthenno & euryale—medusa was either born with her infamous serpent hair; or according to ovid, was later cursed by athena with an appearance so hideous she turned all who looked at her into stone as punishment for the crime of daring to be raped by poseidon in athena’s temple.

beheaded by perseus while she slept (the only way the supposed hero could manage to defeat her). upon her death her children, pegasus & chrysaor, sprang from her bloodied neck. perseus avoided the vengeance of medusa’s sisters by wearing the helmet of darkness, gifted to him by hades, which granted him invisibility. those ancient rapists gotta stick together right?

salt

November 15, 2019 in poetry, photography, BADWATER

diving into my latest project. thinking about death valley & what it is to be a woman living a non-traditional life. BADWATER >> read more.

red // dread

November 12, 2019 in photography, poetry

experiments in instagram poetry layout.

hope

October 29, 2019 in poetry, visual art

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

-emily dickinson, #314

wanting

October 01, 2019 in poetry, visual art

concrete poems.
explorations in
wanting—

california dreaming

July 23, 2019 in photography, poetry

keeping secrets
I’m the part of the canvas
that’s been painted over—
another image hidden behind.
someone asks:
what would it take to reveal yourself?
& I answer with laughter
like a threaded strand of lies.

like us

July 02, 2019 in poetry

the park

June 27, 2019 in poetry, diary

journal, mt. hollywood summit

if butterflies are symbols of transformation then mt. hollywood must be a place of transformation because it’s always swarming with butterflies up here. they make me nervous.

summit

I forgot

how to wear myself

comfortably draped

a swirl of cloth

tied at the elbows

& knees.

expectation of give—

I never learned

what holding firm is.

two faces

June 09, 2019 in photography, poetry

sub rosa—

a secret

kept &

carried.

ghosts

May 02, 2019 in photography, poetry

untitled (ghosts) self portrait series, 2019.

I’m skin
& bone
& maybe
more.

maybe—
I wanted to be born.
maybe—
I wanted to be a ghost?

becoming
is slow like
weeds pushing
up through
cement.

but sometimes—
I wear my skin
as a costume.

notes on the body

March 30, 2019 in photography, poetry, diary

questions:

-how does the body work?
-what does the body hold together within & without itself?
-what does the body hold?
-where in the body is the ‘self’ located?

further study:

-how can language or thought interact with the physical body?

-how does the body need language in order to exist?

s y m b i o s i s

eyes

March 27, 2019 in poetry

tiger’s eye

bringer of bright &
light to shadow places.
level headed like
a picture properly held.
solid enough to build
houses but still a kind
of breeze between trees.

2 Years

February 10, 2019 in poetry, projects

Since February 2017 I’ve been writing a new poem every single day. Recently I’ve been thinking about when & how my poem-a-day project should end & I think two years is a nice symmetrical number. 730 total poems. Today is the day. Poem-a-day is done!

The project initially began because, after I finished my MFA, I felt like I wasn’t being creative enough in my daily life, & my creative muscles were shrinking. The poems became little warm up exercises for my poet brain, just to get the juices flowing. As an avid journal keeper I’m used to processing life events through words, but the poems also gave me space to examine the things that happened to me over the past two years. Really they gave me space to think & chew on ideas.

I like to joke that 99% of the daily poems are terrible. They were more about the process of doing & practice than being any “good”. But I do still have my favourites. The poem-a-day tumblr will stay up at poemadaydoctoraway.tumblr.com if you feel inclined to explore it. I’ll continue writing poetry of course, & have reserved a highlighted instagram story for new compositions, @natalie_raymond. Below are some of my fave pieces from the project.