Ripples from the Center

Sharing a Little Poetry, Art, Beauty & Heart

a little wit, wisdom & whimsy to enlighten you on your way...

Copyright 2012. Original poetry, art, writing & photography by Julie SuZaNNe BröKKeN

Monday, October 22, 2012

FLAXEN POETIC


Hair today, grass tomorrow... LOL!  I'm in a playful mood... hope you enjoy my photos.  I oft think of the similarities between hair and grass...  connections everywhere.  I posted this and had gone to bed, picked up the book I'm reading, American Indian Myths and Legends, selected and edited by R. Erdoes and A. Ortiz.  I read the story, Creation of the Animal People, an Okanogan creation story, and found yet another connection to include here... thus adding the sacred to the silly!  (...everything is sacred, even the silly)

And this is the part that applies.  It begins:

The earth was once a human being: Old One made her out of a woman.  "You will be the mother of all people," he said.   

Earth is alive yet, but she has changed.  The soil is her flesh, the rocks are her bones, the wind is her breath, trees and grass are her hair.  She lives spread out, and we live on her...

I advise caution though, once you get past the lovely photopoetic meditation... if you dare to read the 'FLAXEN' remainder of my stream-of-consciousness, hair-brained, free-fall-association-sunday's mental meanderings... I shall not be responsible for any levity you may experience!   

xoxo!  julie 
   





















Hair today, grass tomorrow?    In a playful mood casita-sitting down here in Corrales, NM enjoying autumn... watchin' the grass grow flaxen and red and purple, watchin' the cottonwood leaves turn into yellow gold. 

CAUTION:  oh, the many fun directions this  wordplay may go... (Rated R)  oh, the skills I learned as a reference librarian!... and Googling... 

flax·en [flak-suhn]  1. made of flax. 2. pertaining to flax. 3. resembling flax. 4. of the pale yellowish color of dressed flax.  Origin: 1510–20.

Google "flaxen hair" and the first entry is:

blond [blɒnd] adj 1. hair of a light colour; fair  2. (of a person, people or a race) having fair hair, a light complexion, and, typically, blue or grey eyes... [from Old French blond, probably of Germanic origin; related to Late Latin blundus yellow, Italian biondo, Spanish blondo]

synonyms:
albino, auricomous, bleached, blond,champagne, fair, fair-haired, flaxen , golden-haired, leucous, light, pale, platinum, sallow,sandy-haired, snowy, stramineous, straw, strawberry, towheaded, washed-out, yellow-haired

But FLAX is not a GRASS ~ accept that there is a grass called Flax Grass or Wind Grass "a handsome grass forming a large weeping clump"... OOOOOOOOOOH!  POOR THING!

Either way they both have ROOTS, as does HAIR, whether it is flaxen, brunette, black, white, red, gray, purple, green, gold, blue, teal... et al, which brings us to:

1766, literally; figurative use from 1901 in sense "FUNdamental level;" U.S. political sense of "the rank and file of the electorate" is attested from 1912.

You see how my mind works?  Silliness!  I like GRASS!

But if FLAX is not a GRASS as I had previously thought, what is it?  We know flax seed.  Flax, or linseed, Linum usitatissimum... member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae.   Hmmmm... more ROOTS, as in family history...  (which I've also been researching today... everything is connected somehow, ain't it?!)  So as I read WIKIPEDIA I find a whole lot flax goin' on... LOL!... so here's the Wiki'd Reader's Digest Condensed Version: 

...native eastern Mediterranean to India... domesticated in the Fertile Crescent... cultivated in ancient Ethiopia and ancient Egypt... discovery of spun, dyed, and knotted wild flax fibers in a prehistoric cave... an erect annual plant... OH, THOSE CAVE BOYS! 

with slender stems.... SOUNDS LIKE GRASS TO ME!... use... for the production of linen... ancient Egyptian... Pictures on tombs and temple walls at Thebes depict flowering flax plants... Europe... Neolithic...  North America... flax the Puritans... KNOW THERE'S A STATEMENT THAT'S NEVER BEEN SAID BEFORE! 

edible oil, nutritional... ingredient in wood finishing products...  I CAN HEAR WHAT Y'ALL ARE THINKIN' HERE... JULIE MUST BE SNIFFING WOOD FINISHING PRODUCTS OUT THERE IN CORRALES... 

an ornamental plant in gardens... Flax seeds... omega-3 fatty acids... solin... linseed oil... of the oldest commercial oils, and solvent-processed flax seed oil has been used for centuries as a drying oil in painting and varnishing...  THERE Y'ALL GO A THINKIN' AGAIN... fibers... Heckling Shops... DON'T I KNOW IT?!... bast... I'M SO BASTED...  

soft, lustrous and flexible; bundles of fiber have the appearance of blonde hair, hence the description "flaxen"... SEE, THERE'S THE CONNECTION! ...damaskslace and sheeting... OH THE FINENESS, THE LUXURY!...  Coarser grades are used for the manufacturing of twine and rope... high-quality paper industry for the use of printed banknotes and rolling paper for cigarettes and tea bags...  THIS JUST KEEPS GETTIN' BETTER!...   

Cultivation... harvesting... AHHH, AUTUMN, MY FAVORITE SEASON...  TAKES ME BACK TO YE OLE FAMILIA FARM!... manual... maximizing the fiber length... Mechanical... mowing... similar to hay harvesting... raked into windrows... STILL BACK ON THE FARM!... combine then harvests... harvesting... OH THE MEMORIES!... weeds in the straw... market prices... burned... MAS CONNECTIONS... 

Minnesota...straw bale stacks... as tall as a two-story house... pulled up with the roots... then retted... RETTED?  WELL THAT'S A NEW ONE... evenly rett the stalks... RETT?  WHERE?... GONE WITH THE WIND (GRASS) FOOLISH SCARLET!... 

rolled up... stored by farmers before scutching... SOUNDS COZY?...  threshing... HMMM... SOUNDS LIKE A BAD DREAM... tool for threshing... OK... KINKY!... broken straw... thrash out...  I'M READY TO LASH OUT!... for the very finest purposes... lacecambricdamask, and very fine linen... OH THAT'S NICE... SHE SAID SARCASTICALLY... WHAT ABOUT THE CHEESEMAKERS AND ALL THE OTHER FARMER TYPES?... 

small bundles... holding it in the left hand... between the threshing machine and the bed or block... against which... to strike; backward and forward... until all threshed out... end above... between the beater... gently till the three or four inches... appear to be soft...  remove ... little finger... WHAT?... block... flax... flat upon the block as possible.[citation needed]... I'D SAY!  SOMEBODY CALL THE FLAXEN POLICE!... 

spinning... retting... dressing...YES!  PUT YOUR CLOTHES BACK ON!... rotting away... "broken," left unharmed, then "scutched,"... scraped... pulled through "hackles"... retted in a pond, stream, field or a tank...  WHAT'S WRONG WITH A BED, MAN?!... soft and slimy, and... standing out...  OH, I SEE... 

wrapped around a finger the inner woody part springs away... Pond retting is the fastest... WAM-BAM-THANK-YOU-MAM!... evaporate... in shallow pool... warm up... in the sun; the process may take... only a couple days to a couple weeks... OH, YOU DON'T SAY?  LET ME RETHINK THIS!... retting also produces quite an odor... scum will collect... NEVERMIND!.

Dressing... breaking, scutching, and heckling... genetically modified flax contamination... WHAT'S NEXT?... a zero tolerance policy regarding GMOs... GOOD!...

As a symbolic image... AND AS A SYMBOLIC GESTURE OF LITERARY GOOD WILL... I SHALL COME TO A CLOSE HERE... 

In early tellings of the Sleeping Beauty tale, such as Sun, Moon, and Talia by Giambattista Basile, the princess pricks her finger not on a spindle but on a sliver of flax, which is later sucked out by her children conceived as she sleeps... WHAT?  WELL MAMMA SURE DIDN'T TELL ME THAT VERSION!  WICKED WIKIPEDIA! NAUGHTY NAUGHTY ZUET!  FLAXEN POETIC HAIR & GRASS... & 

WHAT KINDA CIGARETTES HAVE YOU BEEN SMOKIN' WITH YOUR TEA, YOU ASK?  ME?  I'M JUST A GIRL WITH FLAXEN GOLDEN HAIR SPINNING, RHETTING, Dressing... breaking, scutching, & heckling A GOOD YARN! ... A SLIVER OF A SILLY IDEA INTO GOLD... IF NOT A LITTLE FOOLISHLY!  AND ALWAYS FOR GRINS & GIGGLES!   

SO IF YOU MADE IT ALL THE WAY TO THE END OF THIS SILLINESS YOU DESERVE A PRIZE!   E-MAIL ME AND I'LL SEE WHAT KINDA HAIR I CAN PULL OUT BY THE ROOTS OF MY MAD GRASS HATTER!   ✿ 

Monday, October 1, 2012

THE MOON IS WATCHING...



0 Lady Moon, your horns point toward the east;
          Shine, be increased:

0 Lady Moon, your horns point toward the west;
          Wane, be at rest.


from Sing-Song by Christina Rossetti 



REPORTING FROM THE MOON, or rather, WAXING & WANING:

It's been six weeks since my last confession post.  And I must confess that I have missed y'all!  I know some of you have grown to count on these RIPPLES FROM THE CENTER.  No worries.  I'm back... and never ceased sending out ripples of the invisible kindnesses... or thinking of y'all as I took these pics... 




HIGHLIGHTS SINCE LAST I WROTE:

Shelley Morningsong & Fabian Fontanelle's concert at The Lodge at Sante Fe with Larry Mitchell on guitar!  CHECK 'EM OUT!




Final recording of 17 BREATHS: INHALE.EXHALE with music by Larry Mitchell for my first spoken word-photography-music DVD 




ROAD TRIP & CAMPING north of Santa Fe in the Sangre de Cristos afterward... then up to Taos to the miracle of camping right beside Columbine Creek... took about 2000 pics! Did the full Enchanted Circle loop back around to Taos.



SEED Institute's WISDOM FROM THE ANCIENTS Conference... Autumn Equinox celebration... Harvest Moon & 100 Thousand Poets for Change!




NEXT TUESDAY!  I'm the featured poet @ Adobe Walls Open Mic @ Page One Books, Tuesday, Oct. 9th, 7-9pm.


IDEAS GROWING: Premiere of 17 BREATHS:INHALE.EXHALE at a venue or a home near you!

The Moon is Watching FUNdraiser & online photography exhibit/sale to raise capital for a collaborative art installation and full-length DVD project via Kickstarter, IndioGoGo, or CrowdFunding Project and ETSY.com 



INSPIRED TO RIPPLE A LOVE OFFERING or PURCHASE ART/PHOTOGRAPHS (juliebrokken@yahoo.com for prices)

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Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States