Forecast: Paintings & Poems

Forecast has come home!

Thanks to you, the word-art collaboration created by Tracy Weil & Drew Myron has had a great run:

• The exhibition traveled from Denver's Weilworks Gallery to Boulder's National Center for Atmospheric Research.

• Poems were read at mountain-top weddings and performed in seaside coffeehouses.

• The Special Edition Exhibition Book is featured in libraries and student classrooms nationwide.

Since its debut in Autumn 2008, you've oohed and ahhhed and asked to purchase and now we are happy to announce:

The Forecast paintings/poems are for sale!

Details here: http://weilworks.com/forecast/works.html

Many thanks for your support and appreciation. Tracy and I thrive on on creative collaboration, and your encouragement and enthusiasm fuels our art. Thank you!

Gratitude looks best in cursive

I love January, so full of fresh starts and determination. And I get giddy with the thank you notes this season requires. I love the excuse to write messages — and even full letters! — in a long, careful hand that demands pause and consideration. Because I was three steps behind this entire holiday, I'm using thank you notes as a replacement for the Christmas cards I intended to, but never did, send. Now I get to take my time and pick a card to match each recipient. Funky? Formal? Lined and structured, or scrappy and handmade?

My latest favorite card artist is Kristin Loganbill at Moontea Artwork. From her farm-studio near the Oregon Coast, she creates handsome and homey blockprints. Her art prints now adorn our walls, and her notecards are the ideal instrument to deliver gratitude and glee.

At this end

Burning the Old Year

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.

Notes friends tied to the doorknob,

transparent scarlet paper,

sizzle like moth wings,

marry the air.

So much of any year is flammable,

lists of vegetables, partial poems.

Orange swirling flame of days,

so little is a stone.

Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,

an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.

I begin again with the smallest numbers.

Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,

only the things I didn’t do

crackle after the blazing dies.

— Naomi Shihab Nye

From Words Under The Words: Selected Poems

Sent with love

to december

this is a letter

to december

its chills and surprises

its hurry

its wait

to the longest month

the shortest days

to mittens and chocolate

cookies and nog

to long lines and tired feet

pine, fir

elves, angels

and fa la la la la

this is a story

a memory

a manger

a message

a blessing

a wish

wrapped in hope

tied with peace

sent with love

- drew myron

with thanks and a nod to This is a Letter by Rebecca Dunham

Wordful creation

The best thing about Christmas may be the mindfulness it brings.

Last week the Young Writers, a group of high school-age writers and adult mentors, exchanged gifts. The rules were simple: We each drew a name, and had one week to create a word gift for that person. We could create original poems, songs, letters . . . or share published pieces, or any other wordful creation that reminded us of the name we had drawn.

When we gathered to share our gifts, gratitude and pride circled the room. One student received a love poem, another a letter. One teen was given an inspirational message printed on fancy paper and presented as a scroll. Another a handmade card. A young woman gave me an artful acrostic of my name.

It is a powerful experience to receive a gift that someone had made purposefully for you. Both the giving and receiving require thoughtful consideration and contemplation. And that, really, is the best gift of all.

For the exchange, I drew the director of Seashore Family Literacy, who started the Young Writers Group many years ago. Here's the poem I gave to her:

Lost and Found

for Senitila, who knows

This morning

the young girl

wears a face

wounded by

words

with my arms

around her

I am wounded too

Tonight you call

say

I am lost

I want to tell you

I am lost too

all of us stumbling

hurt and bruised

I want to say

pack for a long trip

plot your way

but instead

we share

a map

worn from

distance and

drift

together

we study the

roads to find

our way

home

— Drew Myron