TBF Features for the week of May 29, 2011

Hello, friends, again. On this Memorial Day I share my features with you. I almost never find a theme, I leave that up to you, the audience. Love, Duffboy

End Of The Road by Mojca Savicki

I like you like you… by Marlana Marry

The Dancer And The Window by photoart222

 

Spirit Wings by Elspeth McLean

 

Deciduous by Adara Rosalie

 

LiveLoveLaugh by Randy Monteith

 

Perception by ShadowDancer

i want us to feel alive,
to feel the knowing,
the having been there
the feel of the burn of each breath
life is a gift
why do you waste it
like fools looking for water
in the rain
this is the time of your life
to make things, do things
no more tv and
quibbling over needless things
let us hold hands as we walk down
a path of enlightenment
let us see Egypt without the pyramids
in the tiny corners of markets where the locals stay
and children sell plastic shopping bags
for a penny
hoping to make enough to
pay the man that sends them out
in return for less abuse that day
let us open our eyes and see New York
in all her grittiness
dirty and raw and full of people screaming
from hurt and the taste of street food
under their nails
look closer at Iraq
not the place we see in the media
eating lollipops from the army and saying
“Bless the USA”
but the real people that have lost
son and uncle and husband
and every woman they know
raped by white invaders AND their own kind
stop seeing right through the little boy
whose father tortures him
fills his nights with fear and
the family that sits at night
hungry
hoping next time they
will have food to fill
the empty stomachs of their kids
be alive
to see the reality of life
the real deal
not the Beaver life Americans
choose to see instead
turn off your fucking tv
open your ignorant mind
turn to the world
see

please just for once
open and really
see

Great Wall of China Charity Walk -on behalf of Scope- (journal) by HamperRefuser

On the 22nd of October 2011 Susie, Rachel and Anna will be embarking on an epic fund raising challenge. We will be going to trek the Great Wall of China (yes we are mad!).
…
We are doing this on behalf of Scope, the charity for people with cerebral palsy. We will be walking for five long days and covering over 50 kilometres of winding paths and steep steps. We expect blisters, tears and tantrums but we have decided to take on this challenge because Scope is very close to our hearts. Rachel’s brother Daniel, 28, was born with cerebral palsy. Daniel is physically disabled, unable to talk and bound to wheelchair, needing 24 hour care. Daniel is a cheeky, smiley, fun loving guy , with huge enthusiasm and passion for life,(and girls!) but unfortunately his only means of communication is through a computer. Anna and Susie have known Rachel, Daniel and their family for a long time and have a built a strong and close relationship with them which is why this challenge is so important to us all.

Every 6 hours a child is born with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is the most commonly diagnosed physical condition in the U.K, and occurs around the time of birth when part of the brain fails to develop properly. It can happen to any child. Scope is the largest charity in the U.K working with people with cerebral palsy, their families and carers. The money raised from the Great Wall of China Trek will allow Scope to continue running their vital services which are designed to support disabled people in every aspect of their lives, from birth through to adulthood. Scope’s aim is that disabled people achieve equality in everyday life.

We have pledged to raise a total of £7000 for Scope. All we are asking is that you can donate as much or as little as you can to this worthy cause. Literally, every penny will help us reach our goal. Scope is currently only able to reach 1 in 4 people who need help. With your support, Scope will reach more people. To set the ball rolling we have donated the first £600 ourselves.

Please visit our Just Giving page to make a donation:

www.justgiving.com/SusieRachAnna

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity. Remember, if you are an individual U.K tax payer, Scope can claim Gift Aid on your donation. This is where the government reimburses Scope with the tax you have already paid on your gift-at no extra cost to you. In order for Gift Aid to be added to your donation, please tick the box on the website.

We will also be arranging exciting fundrasing events to help reach our total! We will let you know when we have decided on dates etc.

Thank you so much for sponsoring us. We will update you all regularly to keep you up to date with our training, fundraising and after the trip to let you know how we got on, if we survived and more importantly, how much we raised!

Thank you again, your sponsorship means a lot to us.

Love Susie, Rachel and Anna

 

We are holy in our own skin first by misfit1965

We are holy in our own skin first.
Not just when we get dressed to go to church
Our homes are houses of prayer
Our homes are houses of praise
Our houses are cathedrals to God
before they are anything else
Our houses are temples
we give them to Jesus to drive
out whatever needs to be driven out
whatever unclean thing sits on a shelf
collecting dust,
idols we used to pant and run after
GOD IS A JEALOUS GOD
If He has our hearts,
it will be totally surrendered
We are vessels to God’s Glory
to His Sanctifying Grace
We model Heaven here first
in our own bodies
Temples to His Holiness
His Holy Spirit is inside of the walls
of human flesh
so much He gave of Himself
never must we defile
or use Grace to sin
Our houses are shrines to His Glory
though our tents are weak vessels
God houses the beginning of Heaven
within these falling walls He considered
so precious He chose to die
chose to become a curse
for the objects of His Affection
We are holy in our own skin first
to be vessels of Mercy and Love,
We are holy in our own skin first
the beams of our own self-righteousness
the thorns of our efforts must be ripped
When God rips out the thorns from flesh
so pale and weak
it is so we can die
so we can die
so we can die
when He buries the gangrene from our fallen flesh
it is so we can live
it is so we can live
He must pull out the visions
of our own corruptions
The Holy Spirit beckons us
to come die
to lay down and be slain
be slain from this world

 

My Dorothy Parker Moment (I) by mss3

When a woman provides a feast
Her man may always banquet
Might be best to throw her a carat
And take her off the market

 

Evergreen by MaryMac

All good girls stay home
awaiting
sitting at home she gets a call
he said,
“I dig you baby, ”
she said.
“Well, I don’t know.”

Honey.put that black dress on
the one I see you wearin’
the one with the buttons
all up and down the back
like the verse in …MaryMac.

Okay you play your guitar
and sing me a song

doves flying overhead
Lookin’ up as he…enters
time to kill the pain
oh why the acid rain…

you alright baby
I’am not hurting you, am i
No, darlin’ please talk to me…
Whisper in my ear, okay?

All good girls stay home
Evergreens
standing the test of time
Colour
growth each year
morning glory and midnight sun
time will tell if we’ve learned to sail above
a thousand words
a picture paints
The words NEVER show
ME the one I’ve come to know.
My love for life is open and tolerant
“The Holies” read my heart
I simply fly away from hate
hummingbird I’am
in Indian folklore…

Kiss my neck darlin’
play your guitar
I’ll sit… a spill working
A muse begins to bubble
I love you.

05/16/2011
marymac

 

Tear me open by redolentquill

The lampshade quivers
Shadows push the walls
Lumps seep down my voice
Your toes twitch, head sinks
In my heart warms a
Throbbing emptiness
What is there to do
What is there to want
In the now of things

Knotted tangles
Tightening on themselves
Helpless attempts, rushing
Moths, into their end
Eternally drawn
No thoughts I have

Only words
Hung in the room of
My being
Wafts of fumes
From blown off flames
Which way out

Perhaps just rattle
Heart doors
Till walls crumble down

Seamless, fuse
be window and sight
open over no walls

Features 3-13-11

I have to admit that I often pick art to be featured and then try to find writing that fits into some theme with the art. Today I went into the writing first and was a little spooked by all the poetry with the same theme. I am guessing it was the earthquake in Japan that roused peoples emotions. There were many poems on the theme of the earth and our treatment of her. Also Spring is beginning in the Northern hemisphere and it is almost as if you can feel the Earth awakening from her winter sleep. So these are the themes for the features today. The art all shows Earth energies through color and theme and lots of birds because they are returning now. The writing all seems to speak for the Earth herself. Enjoy!

Great Egret by Rosalin

Mother Earth by LisaMeryl

Mother Earth is…

Paint by number
heaven and Earth
swimming in colour

Drowning in tears
consumed and raped
destruction for years

Beauty with grace
land and water
our sacred place

Full of rage
neglected and abused
confined by cage

The human race
past, present, future
time and space

Choking on pollution
blind and helpless
without a solution

Every living creature
great and small
our bountiful teacher

Looking for blame
man and war
a crying shame

Blossoming Tree of Life by Elspeth McLean

There is an earth attached to my feet by Kristin Reynolds

Even when
I lift them up,
there are still invisible roots—
like gum on a shoe
on a day when the sun
is most high

like diamond
elastic violin strings playing
the sweetest song.

Ask the earth,
she will tell you the same:

how we are all long hearts
through the soles of her feet,
eternally bound
and in love,

A love
more precious than fruit

on a planet
full of starving men

who have never
even felt
the sun.

We are dancing,
each day we are
dancing!

at opposite ends
of the same
diorama,

in the space
between a butterfly’s wings
flying in the face
of heaven.

The Robin by Selina Ryles

Fledgling by Hollyann

sing
little thing
your supper’s
on it’s way
from the mouth
of your mother
grubs and snails
to feed your song
and your growing wings

From the (insert color here) sky by Lenny La Rue

It’s Time by cosimopiro

I have roamed this shaking Earth
but for a little while,
walked upon her skin
like scattered dust
and saw the scars
of what we’ve done
and tried to console
Her anguished pain,
but my touch alone
had small reach,
and those I encountered
who felt the same
was not enough
to embrace Her girth.
So in my helplessness
I withdrew
to a cave of my making
and found little comfort
in solitude
and lost my way.
So,
I awake now
with pleading words,
reach out
to those who care
and feel the same,
let’s take each other’s timid hands
and link
in one purpose,
to cradle this living world
in love’s ultimate light
for the One who has given
more than She can bear.

The Three Graces by Cynthia Lund Torrell

The Flaming Hosts of Gaia by Blake Steele

We are all part of a wild, flaming company
holding the Earth
like a pearl in our translucent hands,
in our radiantly loving hearts.
We are dreamers within the Dream
of the Wide Awake One,
the Wide Open One,
in whose eyes of beauty
we roam through unseen beauty
created by the Beauty
in the act of seeing Beauty.
These truths are alive
just beyond time and space
— right now, right here —
in the tiny spaces
between bird feathers
between atoms,
between quarks,
down in the high
open empty space
of Pure Singing Light
flooding everything.

Black eyed angel by Scott Black

The Angel Blue by Mohawk Man

3-11-10 @11:23am

the angel blue
for whom does she weep
for souls lost to
eternal sleep
or for the homeless
without a bed
or the poor mother’s
children that go unfed
do her tears wash the blood
caused by mans lust and greed
from the hands
of the monsters
that created this need
or will they cleanse humanity
of all of it’s ills
like crack, and dope,
and meth and pills
perhaps she cries
because the damage is done
and the battle is over
and evil has won

Features 10-17-10

Personally all I paint is people. I wonder all the time why I don’t do landscapes, and often I tell myself it is because there is no emotion in landscapes. With these features today, I hope to prove myself wrong. Today’s features are all about the landscapes, and how an artist can paint or capture emotion in them. The poetry selected today somehow uses imagery of land or sky to capture emotion.

Pure Gold by RoseMarie747

The Rising by hollyann
wake up day
your horizon
is glowing with new promise
the pale lavender edge
gives way
to a magnificent dark blue
further up
is nothing
is everything
we breathe in

the morning sky
is bidding us rise
take haste
take heed
and make your day
today
count
for the beauty
of this world is
changing
ever changing
and we
are grains of sand
filling it up
and shifting
at the shore
we still exist
but not
forever
never waste
an earthly dawn
fuelled by last night’s
sleep
dream treasure
digging deep

now rise
and find your feet

Autumn Illuminated Tree by Elspeth McLean

Painted in Sunlight by Guy Hoffman

Painted in Sunlight

A delicate shape
Defined by the glow
Of the early Sunrise

If I were an artist
I would paint you using
Only a brush of sunlight

For only the most beautiful
Of golden light
Would be worthy of you

Only the Mountain and I by Angela Burman

Yin-Yang-Wilderness by AnniG

This is our untamed wilderness
the yin yang of our landscape
our day sighs while evening creeps
sunny warmth turns dark and cold
dim shades and chilly grimness grows
eating away joy’s hues in autumn glow

this is us in a rich vivid display
a truthful rendition in color of
emotions in contradiction
mere puzzlement of intent
a quagmire of uncertainty
a paradox of intentions

consider, contemplate
this picture complete
so precisely balanced
flawlessly composed
impeccably captured
magnificence defined

black night is fast approaching
will reap the day, bury us soon
and I ponder the cycle of love
yin so worthless without yang
is it just me or does all of this
still deliver a spectacular image?

The Forest Floor by secretplanet

The Ministry of Trees by Blake Steele

Trees gift a shimmering voice
to the free blow of wind.
From rough roots dark water oozes,
flooding thickened trunks,
branches, twigs and stems,
bleeding flat to brighten
translucent leaves.
And as wind-blown twigs tremble,
leaves shimmy and clatter,
spewing oxygen bursting
mist into air,
freshening sky-birthed breath
to soak into bodily cells,
until brains dimple and dazzle
with bright Light of Life.

Gates’ Keepers by Hotshots

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Breaks by imagineation

I dreamed that I was carried,
I dreamed that I was dropped.
I dreamed I had one red balloon,
And then I dreamed it popped.

I dreamed a thousand toothless smiles
Sang see-through lullabies.
I dreamed an antique white haired crow
Ate poison butterflies.

Dream strangled by a spider’s web
Dream laughed at by a fox
Dream drowning in a pool of grass
Dream swallowing sharp rocks.

I dreamed the yell of “WALK THE PLANK”
And dancing off the edge.
You caught me as the sharks did snap
Your palm, to me a ledge.

I dreamed you drew a candle.
Dream nailed it to my wall.
It came to life and burned for real
Through the red smoke I crawl.

I dreamed I had a backwards clock
Tick-tocking in reverse.
But none the less you’ll arrive late
My daydream mind I curse.

Tonight I know I’ll dream again,
But now I know what matters.
When I dream, my dream’s a wish
It breaks my heart, it shatters.

Trail Blazer by Penny V-P

Salud por el fuego y la lluvia (joy in fire and rain) by BiographyofRed8

at the end of the day there is no one other than you
i would come home to. the mirrors of the shop windows
bend to break the shattered illusions and rejoice
in the simple art of breathing. the witche’s cauldron
of gentle fire rushes and brushes past the crowds moving
on and off the platforms,
as we shed our skin to the grey slanting rain
your fingers slide into my fingers
as the glove of heart’s contentment.

tomorrow is passion, where hot bread with a soft centre
and crunchy on the crust, is cut up into squares to drop into
vegetable soup. a cat will purr in delight at the fresh kill
of a wood spider

and when the rain stops, change will dry up the muddy puddles that only the day before
soaked our socks right down to the heel.
with whiskey dry hands we retire to our thirsty
exchanging of keys in the lock
before switching off front- porch lights. at the end of the day
I only want to be awoken at night to your sharp coughing
and the sound of embers emitting joy, as it is here
in all that you are.