31 May 2011

Time for Two Lines!

May: a month. A busy month for me. This has called for curtailing, pruning or, rather, selective choosing: just two lines a day.

This idea comes from Mari Messer's book Pencil Dancing: New Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit. Here's Mari on The Two-Line Journal:

This is my favourite. I've been keeping one for over seven years [...] While it takes just a few minutes to write your thought, you search all day long for that one thing that deserves saving in your journal. It keeps your creative antennae tuned [...]  You can use the two-line journal to hold:
·     brilliant ideas you'd otherwise forget
·     short quotes and observations
·     thumbnail sketches
·     happenings of the day
·     a short rhyme [...]
·     a crisp descriptive phrase or two
[...] Knowing you'll need a line or two at the end of the day makes you more observant. Limited space makes you more succinct.*

This project has been a lot of fun. Very simple. Here's my month of May, two lines at a time:

 

1st
I travel back to shiny times and wish upon the stars there,
pick up the path, and from the heart, I ask the stars: Where?

2nd
Centre, better. Sea, re-see.

3rd
Arms reach up, break the surface of the day
How strange it is to move between two worlds

4th
I called up Love today.
And love made all the difference.

5th
Each day a journey to the end that is the start
Without within begins.

6th
Concrete. Walk among daisies.

7th
Coming home to yoga
Sleep sleep sleep

8th
Bitter ginger on the tongue
Overheard: And I shall say to Mary, ‘Why dunt she talk t’us?’

9th
Meditation:
The power of Creation is in the act of creating.

10th
Sellotape, Sellotape, Sellotape,
Are these really my last words?

11th
Cakes for mistake
After, empty case, all I have is my word.

12th
Dealing out smiles
And we all play Snap!

13th
Mermaid tale: tin foil scales
siren singing to chip-fingers

14th
Cough cough cardigan time,
Throat is more honest than mouth.

15th
Bathtime reminds: embryonic state
global yolk: universal union

16th
Green Bug, Eight Legs,
so small with much to do.
Thank you for taking time to come and visit me.

17th
Candles throw shadows
but I would ride my Story Horse

18th
Dolphins! Amazing!

19th
The Dance of Drowsy Woozyness,
Loose-limbed we spin and flop.

20th
Spellingis thair to be plaid wiθ

21st
Today.
Hard to encapsulate.

22nd
Grateful: I am not comatose and
I can feel my toes.

23rd
All bedecked, a ribboned room
alive with what will come.

24th
Light plays on the ceiling,
inviting imagination to join in.

 25th

26th
I forgot last night, but it remembered
to turn into today

Silliness is best shared

27th
Chipfritter
Familytimes

28th
The metaphorical overflows into simile like wine at a wedding
 
29th
Eye of pine
all-seeing tree,
we squirrel away
our memories.

30th
Dolphin Boy – the human spirit:
delicately indestructible.

31st
This time, next month, yesterday.

 ...

*Messer, Mari, pp. 29-30, Pencil Dancing: New Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit, Walking Stick Press: 2001.