Category: Poetry

Christmas Listless

by nicolerigets, posted in Art and Design, Books, Dreams, Food, Poetry, Writing

I have completed my shopping list, as short as it was.  Definitely less than one-third of a block long.  The reason it’s so compact is that everyone is going out-of-town to other destinations for Christmas.

2009 has been loaded with zigs and zags, hidden triggers, loops and twists, culminating in a rocky ride to a year end leaving me in a current state of listlessness. Never at a loss for new avenues to drive my interests I came upon ‘14,000 things to be happy about’ on the top shelf of my bookcase.  Published in 1990, The Happy Book by Barbara Ann Kipfer, represented in her words, “20 years of recording all the little things that make me happy”. I have always treasured this book for its author’s word-pictures – “…purchasing a yard of lavender ribbon to tie up poems…red plaid lunch boxes…renting a winter house…dart boards…color film…getting lost on purpose when you were little…”

Written as one continuous list, I tend to lose myself in the act and art of memory recall. Kipfer can make me giggle and sniffle with nostalgia, and more.  To quote the author, “Words, and the images they create, can be a great source of pleasure and inspiration”.  It is with this in mind I remember to be grateful for all that I’ve had and have. Kipfer asks that we take our time to wish, reminisce, and dream, as we read through the pages.  I’ve followed her advice and never made any attempt to rush my way through to the end. In the soon-to-be 20 years that I have held a special place in my heart for this unforgettable book I confess I still have the final page to look forward to! Reviewed as “quirky, compulsive, and irresistible,” it includes 125 little illustrations.

Copyright © 2009 Nicole Rigets

“Streets of White Paper” 10 Things You Need to Do to Write Poems

by nicolerigets, posted in Poetry, Writing
  • Never censor yourself!
  • Begin with perceptive writing.
  • Watch ‘experimental’ films in a dark theatre while writing and recording your sensations in a sketchbook:  feelings, commands, impressions, ideas, un-sense, etc.
  • Use fragments of conversation overheard in public places.
  • Write after heated disagreements.
  • Clip out issues written up in the newspapers or magazines and weld them together with your instincts.
  • Use ‘I am’ to preface your word particles. Make a list of new and zany things you are.
  • Pull words out of a hat and collage them together.
  • Use a thesaurus to trace and target words you love and fit them together randomly.
  • Take a discarded book and black-out parts and words on pages.  Use what’s left to compose a poem or a new story.

In all writing arts, and especially poetry, we make decisions, we are continually emerging; no one else can go our individual way.  How has life formed you; piece it together like a tapestry and find your source for writing: your voice, to activate your poetry.  Living in poetry helps to express emotional truths.  Yet, it doesn’t have to make sense, it has to make feeling.  Do not impose limitations on your writing.  Write about what matters to you.

Quote from:  Greek Poet George Seferis

“To say what you want to say you must create another language and nourish it for years with what you have loved, with what you have lost, with what you will never find again.”

The following is an excerpt from the poem, “The King of Asine” by George Seferis; courtesy of: greecepoetryinternationalweb.org

“And the poet lingers, looking at the stones, and asks himself
does there really exist
among these ruined lines, edges, points, hollows, and curves
does there really exist
here where one meets the path of rain, wind, and ruin
does there exist the movement of the face, shape of the
tenderness
of those who’ve shrunk so strangely in our lives,
those who remained the shadow of waves and thoughts with
the sea’s boundlessness
or perhaps no, nothing is left but the weight
the nostalgia for the weight of a living existence
there where we now remain unsubstantial, bending
like the branches of a terrible willow-tree heaped in
permanent despair
while the yellow current slowly carries down rushes up-
rooted in the mud
image of a form that the sentence to everlasting bitterness
has turned to stone:
the poet a void.”

Copyright © 2009 Nicole Rigets

Frogs, Ribbons, and Laces – A Christmas Twist!

by nicolerigets, posted in Art and Design, Books, Color, Food, Poetry, Writing

December is now glowing with goodwill and ornamentation, colored lights and laughter.

The Christmas holidays offer a time to twist tradition and venture into new avenues.

The 20 Days of Christmas have arrived and I wish for you the gift of inspiration.

Here is my list of 20 ways I want to bring joy, color, and beauty into my life throughout this magnificent season and I’d like to share it with you:

  • Gardenia Scented Powder

Place fresh gardenias into a pint container and add organic cornstarch to fill.  Shake 3 or 4 times daily.  Replace the flowers every other day until the powder reaches the scent you desire.  Use after a bath to smooth and perfume the skin.

  • Somewhere I read an old china cabinet can be used as a dollhouse.  Wouldn’t this make a fabulous focal point in a young girl’s room!
  • Read Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge’s Book:  poemcrazy and take the time to go on a ‘Poem Walk’.
  • Try Alexandra Stoddard’s interior design tip:  mix 7 different colors of towels in your bathroom.  My choice:  nomad grey, black, soft white, mint green, raspberry, lemon, and leaf green.
  • Make a donation to PADS – Pacific Assistance Dogs.  PADS raises and trains service, hearing, and facility/therapy dogs for persons who are facing the daily challenges of life with a physical disability.  Visit  them online at:  www.pads.ca   You’ll find lots of ideas to help you give someone you love the perfect “something” while giving a gift of independence at the same time.
  • Start the 1st page of your Journal and if you don’t have a journal yet ask ‘Santa’ to bring you one.  My choice: Clairefontaine – Made in France, the satiny pages are a dream to write on, and they are available in many stationary stores.  Visit them online at www.clairefontaine.com and check out the fantastic covers and colors to choose from.
  • Kiss your husband and call him a ‘Frog’.
  • Read Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way, and start doing your “Morning Pages”. This daily exercise provides a powerful habit for personal growth.
  • Weave ribbons and laces into a table runner or a wall-hanging.
  • Walk up a steep hill backwards (Chinese good therapy).
  • Purchase a harmonica and play music to your plants.
  • Pick up small sticks from the seashore and color them with pencil crayons.  Cut words from magazines and glue a word or message on the back of each stick.  I call these “Seasticks” and serve them on a saucer beside a cup of tea.
  • Take a pottery class and make beads and tiny dishes to hold them.
  • Play Greek Music and accompany it with a glass of Ouzo.  Dance like Zorba.
  • Mumble to large sweet blackberrries.
  • Read, Mauve; How One Man Invented a Color that Changed the World, by Simon Garfield.  This man’s success was in finding how to make color from coal. Search for the good in your failures and think of the times you’ve made color from coal.
  • Play at what you do from now to Christmas Day.
  • Make every day precious and worthwhile by using your unique gifts and aesthetic. Eric Booth explains how to do this in his book, The Everyday Work of Art.
  • Splurge on the weekend edition of the New York Times newspaper and spread it out all over the livingroom.  Add coffee, music, toasted bagels with butter, cream cheese and jam, your pet, a wooly cardigan and socks, and voila!  Over doing would be to light the fireplace…but, it has been done.
  • If all else fails please join me in knitting a pair of false eyelashes for New Year’s Eve.

Copyright © 2009 Nicole Rigets

“In Pluto’s Cave”

by nicolerigets, posted in Photography, Poetry

“In Pluto’s Cave”

I couldn’t stand the feel of the passage of my life.

I must be feeling the sorrows of the human engine running

and failing.

Never the chance to just be –

always something attached to that,

be kkkind

be wise,

be nice,

don’t just be!

Be attractive, be this way or that,

be smart,

be attentive,

be happy (are u kidding),

be quiet!

be good.

They never say –

be passionate,

be a bitch,

be scary,

be powerful,

be rich.

Be aloof,

be gorgeous,

be superficial,

be alert,

be alive,

be driven.

Hmmmm…

Copyright  ©  Nicole Rigets

Excerpt taken from My Journal:

February 27th, 2003.

“Dead Loved Red”

by nicolerigets, posted in Color, Fashion, Poetry

Dead Loved Red (after e.e. Cummings)

Diana Vreeland’s

dead.

Who used to

love to wear cashmere and silk

in Bazaar;

and could break onetwothreefourfivenails just like that.

Toney!

She was a New Yorker

and what I

want to know is:

who will red fashion her rooms

Mr. Death?

Copyright © 2005 Nicole Rigets

Diana Vreeland  1906 – 1989  Former Editor-in-Chief of Vogue magazine

In the days of Veruschka, Vreeland was the force behind shooting models in exotic locations throughout the 1960’s.

‘Vreeland vision’ popularized certain attitudes, objects, and ideas.

“Why don’t you………”, she would often ‘press’.

Vreeland was one of a kind:  100% Vreeland.

Quote: “People who eat white bread have no dreams.”

She never held-back!

Copyright © 2009 Nicole Rigets

Day to Day Experience is the Music of Life

Every day experience helps tell your story.

You can say it or write it.

You can sing it or paint it.

Your story can be, at best,an autobiography,

a chronicle, a poem,

and at worst,

merely the inscription on your gravestone.

Copyright © 2005 Nicole Rigets

Warning: Don’t be caught dead holding back!

“Box Camera”

by nicolerigets, posted in Color, Dreams, Photography, Poetry, Writing

"Untitled"
We all crave a little color in our lives whether it comes in the form of hues, encounters, explorations, or dreams.

From a previous dream:

…Now I took the man around the corner to point out the window with cobalt to ask him if he’d give me permission to photograph the stunning beauty of negative pattern to positive pieces captured in this window.

He gave me a box camera with a long strap with chain link clinking next to the body.  His brother didn’t agree with his generosity but he insisted I take it.

Picture your dreams.

Discarded dreams become poetry.

Night writing will lead you to the light in your soul.

Copyright © 2002 Nicole Rigets Journal

Hello world!

by nicolerigets, posted in Color, Poetry, Writing

My Journal

August 2002

There is not really that much writing in these pages.  The writing is big and spread out on a lot of it.  I wonder if there’s much worthwhile or if I’m just exercising my right hand.

An Earlier Entry:

Take Me To Your Bleeder!

Bleeding and glowing

like the underside of my half-used skin.

My luscious, lusty, rosy, inner self,

my plump and fuzzy soft parts,

my rosy golden light.

Yellow storm, rose thunder,

thin white whimpers,

black net, orchid links,

navy pooling ink.

Clear blots, dots, knots, plots

and livid scarlet hail,

nailing plastic hills and vale.

Copyright © Nicole Rigets Pre-Saturn