Gratitude wells up
like fresh water in a green pool.
Heart, be a frog!
Cat curled around stone
announcing “POETRY! in case
we had forgotten.
Canning Grats
After canning peaches, I had one
clear jar left. I put my grandmother
in there along with the apples
she was peeling. I added a sharp
handful of mint from my husband’s garden,
a tube of Opera Pink Paint
and the shadow of a summer
fern on a slate rock face.
The sound of a train,
dawn light over the Three Sisters.
I found five memories that would fit
and slipped
a whole head of garlic down the side
along with a feathery branch
of dill and something
like a song. Pressure
cooked by time,
labelled, shelved, ready
to be given away.
NOTE: In a previous post, Creating a Gratitude Art Journal, I posted a short video explaining that I am taking a Meditations on Gratitude Photography class online with Laura Valenti. She asked us to find a repository for our “grats,” or items for which we feel gratitude on a daily basis, and I began with the Gratitude Art Journal, although I’m not sure how I’ll go forward. She suggested a Gratitude Jar, which gave me the idea for the poem “Canning Grats.”
METHODS AND MATERIALS:
- I use a large Moleskine watercolor journal.
- The pages were first prepared with white gesso
- then a watercolor wash background laid down
- then a sheet of yellow tissue paper to cover most of it to add texture.
- Across the top I carefully stamped “Meditations on Gratitude; Poems N Pixs N Such.”
- I drafted the poems in my regular journal then wrote them directly on the prepared surface.
- I printed out my photographs, and they came out looking a bit sketchy, but I thought that added to the “folk art” quality of an art journal.
- I used Mod Podge (sealer, glue, and finish) to glue the images down,
- and then I covered the entire page with Mod Podge. BIG MISTAKE! And I knew better! I should have used a spray fixative first but forgot and the ink on the stamping and photos ran. I replaced the photos and started over, but the stamping was a write off. So…
- I re-did the photos
- Added strips of tissue paperand sprayed it with Windsor Newton Professional Satin Varnish
- THEN Mod Podged the whole…letting it dry between stages
- Sprayed it a few more times and called it good…
I was reminded of the value and fun of a List Poem by Natalie Goldberg in her book The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language.
Where do YOU collect gratitudes?
Tell us in the comment box directly below!
