Home Traveler
A journey’s long, a trip is short.
You trip on the stairs or tennis court,
but you journey into foreign places–
encounter unfamiliar faces.
So when I finally go to bed,
I journey far within my head,
those trips to town forgotten while
I journey mile after mile.
Eschewing trips to foreign places,
I journey into inner spaces.
A stroll down Main Street today yielded these gorgeous petunias just outside the Cowboy Cafe.
https://ceenphotography.com/2016/07/12/flower-of-the-day-july-13-2016-sunflower/
The Guest
Even though I try my best
to be the perfect sort of guest,
I fear I often foul the nest,
shedding objects east and west.
My flip flops and my cast-off vest
fall like petals as I get dressed.
I had not planned to be a pest,
with icebox leavings and the rest.
Hair brush, hairbands, toothbrush, Crest,
are left beneath the medicine chest.
And though I seem to speak in jest,
I fear that I have failed some test.
I have considered leaving, lest
this visit, started with such zest,
be ended at my host’s behest.
Like many Canadians who winter in Mexico, Christine Gribbin has learned to seize the best of both worlds. In Montreal, Quebec, she still maintains a busy life is the world of film and fashion, but when the cold winds blow, she retreats to the sleepy village of La Manzanilla 200 kilometers south of Puerto Vallarta on the Jalisco coast. There she resides in the charming upstairs casita of artist Carol Lopez and pursues her own interest in painting.
The influence of the cheerful and easy going life of her landlady and the village at large can be seen echoed in both her art and her countenance. I’ve been meaning to share her world with you for some time, but unfortunately the laid back life of the beach seems to be lost a bit in the more complicated life of interior Mexico, not to mention my trip northwards. But here, at last, is a peek into Christine’s Mexican environs and art. If I had been able to capture a more rounded view of her life there, I would have also photographed her on the dance floor or on the beach, sipping tequila with the regulars at Daniel’s sunset tequila soiree, or listening to music at one of the beachside palapa restaurants; but these views of her aerie and her paintings are what I was able to capture. I hope they will adequately portray this vivacious and talented lady.
(Please note that the sketch of the woman’s face on top of the fridge is by Christine, but the painting behind it is by Carol Lopez. You can see photos of Carol’s studio here.)
Gaillardia pulchella (firewheel,Indian blanket, Indian blanketflower, or sundance), is a North American species of short-lived perennial or annual flowering plants in the sunflower family. (From Wikipedia)
Once again, I have okcforgottenman to thank for identifying the stranger! I’ve had these in the past, but this one was photographed in the garden of my friend Patty. Thanks, Eileen O., for also correctly identifying the flower.
https://ceenphotography.com/2016/07/11/flower-of-the-day-july-12-2016-beautiful-looking-up/
Thumbscrews
At what point might your courage fall
and might you deign to tell it all?
What waterboard or thumbscrew might
cause you to give up the fight
to tell the secrets of friend and kin
just to stop the pain you’re in?
Please friend, before revealing facts
involving secrecy or pacts,
consider what I tell you here
before you choose to grace my ear.
Never would I tell your pain—
repeat your secrets e’er again—
under normal circumstance,
nor betray by eye or glance
anything once told to me
with a vow of privacy.
Until, that is, the knives come out
or waterboards? Without a doubt
gross cowardice would be revealed.
To torture I would surely yield.
In short, in matters of gross pain––
I would repeat your words again.
So if you have a secret dark
that you have a need to park
inside the conscience of another,
please tell your sister or your brother,
for a wise decision it would be
to choose a braver soul than me!
This Poor Poor Pearl is so battered that it is hard to tell what it is. I suspect a clematis, but I am very willing to be corrected. Tattered and ragged as it is, I still found it intriguing.
https://ceenphotography.com/2016/07/10/flower-of-the-day-july-11-2016-gladiolus/
With the help of okcforgottenman, I finally got the Desert poem corrected and clear for viewing. If you had trouble seeing it before, have another look at it here:
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 