Caller ID

Like a beacon in the night,
Like some faint, remote lighthouse
          pulsing,
My caller ID flashes,
          alerting me to the phone call
          of a human.

-John Bauman

Imaginatist Manifesto

1. Art is the manifestation of the imagination.

a. Imagination is a function of the mind which arranges and combines known elements to create new things.

b. Imagination is something everybody has.

2. Expression of imagination is more important than any particular way or form it is expressed in. So we are not primarily painters, or poets, or even artists, but imaginatists.

a. Set forms and mediums can distract and limit the imagination, which is much more fluid than those forms or mediums.

3. Expression of imagination is more important than mimicking reality. It certainly takes skill and is interesting to mimic reality, but it doesn't necessarily require imagination.

4. Expression of imagination is more important than the skill with which it is expressed. Even an un-artistically trained person, if they focus on imagination and its expression, can be a master imaginatist.

5. Imagination, when truly manifest, bridges the gap between minds, and helps people realize there are other thinking, imagining entities in the universe.

a. Art is a conduit for love.

Become an imaginatist today!

Red Stripes with plant

From a recent series of experiments.

Untitled Short #1

Standing beneath an apple tree,
I catch the cheerful song of a bird,
and tuck it in my pocket
to bring home for you.

- April-lyn Caouette

Because There are Rainbows

I want you to understand:
     we are all specks on this earth
     which is circling in its orbit
     in a galaxy
     that is speeding through the universe
     which spirals through the fields
     of infinity

and maybe
nothing we do here matters
in the end

we are all specks
     but our atoms are specks, too
     spinning and pulsing in the
     galaxies of our cells
     and mitochondria
     (dear mitochondria)


and all those specks
     add up
     to make our breathing
     smiling selves


maybe nothing we do here
matters in the end
     but while we are here
     we must make meaning
     from the breathing
     and the spiraling
   
because there are rainbows
and because the seas are stormy
and because the spring will return once more
to warm our skin

-April-Lyn Caouette

Introducing: April-lyn Caouette

I met April-lyn at least a couple of years ago, at a Lindy-Hop dance. She is a person I have gotten to know very slowly over the years. Now I have learned that in addition to dancing, she likes to play board games, write and knit. We have had fun playing board games together. I also find her to be an easy person to talk to.

I have read her blog, and enjoyed her poems, so I asked if I could post some here. She said yes.

Link:
Her blog

Snake Swimming

Because it was elegant.

-Jim DuBois