Inspiring Lately

There's a crackle and hum that wasn't here last month. The skies are heavy with blue. There's a new parklet in front of Small World Coffee, jubilant with the reappearance of the Nola. Summer girls totter in gladiators and tiny dresses in every hue. Kids yell louder, skate faster, spoon up their blend-ins from Thomas Sweets. The University's iron gates stand empty except for tourists and their iPhones.

My bones feel it, too. They're awake now. I serenade them with wacky jazz murmurations from Koop and scribble funny lines like "a gray imposition in a blue composition." I chew chlorophyll gum because I never did that before. That seems right.  Here's what else is inspiring lately:

Morning, everyone.

This book: My Cool Shed by Jane Field-Lewis. I want every one of these hideaways. Maybe this is where the good words live?

This art: End of Days by Brandie Grogan, because her palette, her repetition, her words, show me that there are others out there...

This amazing tutorial on how to make a clay and rope bowl. Guess what I'm trying next? 

This dramatic and old-new glaze design by Michael Kline at Kline Pottery.

And to the butterfly that flew with me on my walk yesterday, thank you:

this butterfly,
an impossible black,
reminds me of a dark-haired boy 
who folded up my heart
into his paper thin wings
and flew away.