For the Tasmanian Basket Gathering ending this weekend.
I bought this small stitched textile, yellow with three Easter-colored bands, to use in the Gathering Book. And since they were meeting this weekend, i pulled it forward and tried to work on it. The colors put me off, my graphite drawing of plant materials they could be using put me off, my stitching put me off, but I added it anyway. I like being with them in spirit when they gather to make baskets and stitch.
Then earlier this week another philosophical consideration occurred to me. It made me snort with its truthfulness.
Anyway with the stitching of cloth and paper, I realized how much I miss doing work like these in another book…..
And speaking of stitching, this is the poem I took to the Poetry reading this week.
End of a Long Thread S. Webster
One end of a long thread struggles its way
through my needle and is dragged down
past its own tail to have a spit-filled knot
tied at the bottom.
Holding together two pieces of cloth,
or both sides of a tear, I pierce them
coming up from behind.
Then back down and through
a short distance away.
In the up and down, out and in,
I find a rhythm, let my mind wander
to all the tears I never mended,
and pieces I should have held together.
Yesterday while looking for something else, I found this unfinished little journal that I taught in Australia several years ago. It had to do with marking our personal explorations on the pages and on a complex fold map. The map had sixteen spaces on each side and folded down to fit in the back of the leather journal. I miss the kind of self-exploration that my students were willing to dig into. I miss my own, but think it is more in the writing of poems and short stories now. But this book does call to be handled and drawn into.
As you turn each page over, there is a type of code to remind you of what used to be. All that is left is the fragment that may or may not let you recall. Like the waters that were drunk from the River Lethe in Greek mythology, time causes forgetfulness. And I really like this book. To mark the pages in some way and then fold it over to be wrapped and tied and held makes us think about the comfort taken in just those actions.
There are so many blank pages left to fill and I don’t think it should be left that way….so I am going to thread a needle today and get on with what needs to be remembered.
Til later…..