Life Poiesis Collection: An Evening Sweater

“Rhododendrons, Stephanart Studio” DS

[The philosopher] Heidegger referred to poiesis as a “bringing-forth”, or physis as emergence. Examples of poiesis are the blooming of the blossom, the coming-out of a butterfly from a cocoon, and the plummeting of a waterfall when the snow begins to melt; the last two analogies underline Heidegger’s example of a threshold occasion, a moment of ecstasis when something moves away from its standing as one thing to become another. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poiesis#Overview

Poetic Reflection: An Evening Sweater

Reminiscence from an opposite season

Tonight, after dinner, I am bundled up in the garden. 

It is still summer but a cool breeze pervades 

as the sun, soon to set, 

shines so strongly on my sunglasses.  I breathe deeply 

this pleasure of being in the garden.  

It is indeed one of the luxuries of life.  

I hear planes, cars and a weed eater; no birds. 

Oh, now that I say that, a crow caws in the distance. 

It is a fine interlude on this busy Labour Day Sunday 

to pray, to think, to just be.  I loosen my jaw.  

I notice the violas that have survived the drought.  

I notice the weed studded lawn.  

Orange red berries grace the mountain ash trees. 

Cotoneaster berries are bright red 

like the resilient geraniums that are

still here from last year, and will soon go inside 

to emerge in the warmth of another spring.  

Fall means study for me; always has.  

This year I take a course, and I give a course. 

I do not know which I will enjoy more.  

Over the summer I have done a clean up 

and purging in my study, garden room.  

I have brought in a lime green chair from 

which to observe this garden of mine 

when a sweater will not be enough to sit outside. 

In the past, I have been known to be 

in such a hurry for spring 

that I packed a winter picnic for the kids, 

sat on a bench with a book and 

watched them laugh and form angels in the snow.  

My children, grown now, love winter.  

They do the snowboarding, the skiing and snowshoeing 

that for me was done from an armchair, if at all. 

These children have been my true garden, 

my real landscape, 

grown by the Son, fed by the Spirit, 

planned and pruned by the Father/Mother.  

They are my seed and my offspring, 

my harvest in life.  

My nurture of the garden is but a model, 

a prototype of my care for them.  

May God bless the descendants that are 

and that are to come

As you have done for our foremothers.

Amen.

Life Poiesis Collection: Ephemera

“Birds Nest” Phone Photo DS

[The philosopher] Heidegger referred to poiesis as a “bringing-forth”, or physis as emergence. Examples of poiesis are the blooming of the blossom, the coming-out of a butterfly from a cocoon, and the plummeting of a waterfall when the snow begins to melt; the last two analogies underline Heidegger’s example of a threshold occasion, a moment of ecstasis when something moves away from its standing as one thing to become another. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poiesis#Overview

EPHEMERA

Artist Statement

We are here today and gone tomorrow 

Our lives are but a blip in history

Yet what we do lasts forever

In some way.

As one cannot watch the

Grass grow

So we go about our daily

Ablutions either thinking that

Our actions do not matter

Or that they save the world

But they are noticed

We observe.

Life is made up of ephemeral

Moments

One deed

At a time

We cook

We surf

We drive

We converse

We walk

We clean

And garden

And watch

And paint

And write

And knit

And go

To the bank

To the pharmacy

To the office

To the studio

To the seawall

To the neighbour

To the sick

To the chapel

Forgotten are

The words

The favours

The anger

The listening

The praying

The photos

The plantings

Done daily

Ephemera

Like dust

Like us

Is what the world

Is made of

And what we will return to

Until 

The day that

We rise.

I make studio work that is fleeting, that is ephemera, some never given, sold or even framed.  It is light work.  It is my work.  I write.  It grounds me in what really matters: life is abundant.  So too is the work given me to do daily.