Patti Edmon Artist

changing seasons old friends consider another morning, same says one, the other nods... I've been writing haiku since summer, for the first time in years (and years?). I wrote one for a challenge in Life is a Verb and it hit a nerve. I wrote a few more after completing the exercise and then a few more and the floodgates opened. I've been scribbling them in church (after the sermon of course), at traffic lights, the grocery store, in meditation and prayer for friends whose deep, troubling needs fill me with anguish. So neat, so compact, like an ATC, a small collage, a photograph... an entire story conveyed in a glance. Or, in 17 syllables. Probably for the same reason that, when I wrote fiction, I focused on the short story. Not because it's easier; anyone familiar with the mechanics of a good short story knows that it has to do the job of an entire novel in a fraction of the space. In my teens and early twenties I spent a great deal of time writing poetry and it was deepl...

The following two posts were originally published in 2008; in order to participate in  Seth  Apter's  Buried Treasure project, I read through the archives searching for a post or two that I liked enough to publish again. I write for myself, to stay sane, to express thoughts that  pile up in my head, and, because I've always been a writer (thanks Patti Digh and David Robinson:). But it's my fondest wish that the words I share will inspire, touch, cause a moment's consideration, a twinge or a laugh...  So, if you decide to read them, thanks a million; if you read them when they were originally posted, thanks a million more! 

I photographed my new copy of Life is a Verb on the stool where my butt should be. On Patti Digh's site, 37 days , there are photos of people with the book in various settings, all demonstrating how the book is having an impact on their lives. I agree that life is a verb, must be a verb; I have always said love is a verb - didn't I have a post with that title? And, in reading the introductory pages and deeper, into the aptly titled, "Inhabit Your Story," which is  Part One,  I think that this book may indeed possess the motivation factor.  Not that motivation is missing, more like time, well, energy time  when I can create. But it's more than just time. Yesterday, when I sat and looked at what I was working on, and compared it to the projects I most want to tackle, there was a gulf, a wide yawning space between the hands functioning, pasting, cutting, painting, and the heart that wants to scream, make itself known. I love my art groups and every swap in which I...

I've long been a fan of the Quotable product line. I have a journal that says: Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over it became a butterfly.  I have a magnet with a Churchill quote: When you're going through hell, keep going. The folks there find some pretty darned compelling quotes, to be sure.  I was in a fabulously cute boutique/gallery in Louisville this past weekend and walked by the card rack and this one stopped me in my tracks. Fear of failure is the number one wrench thrown into my works all my life. And I don't think I'm alone... to some degree most all of us fear failure, or worse, fear success. So, I wonder how many of know the heart-answer to this question? And how many of us are actually living / doing whatever it is, regardless of the potential for failure? Of course there is no guarantee. Ever. But, if I'm totally honest, the ideas that float along on the fringes of my mind are going to change my life view - hopefully the way I spend my...