Colorado Boulevard Poets Salon, September 2019

I was honoured to be the featured photographer in the Colorado Boulevard Poets Salon on September 4, 2019, hosted and curated by Kathabela Wilson. Grateful thanks to everyone who wrote poems in response to my photos!

Broken

(the flower will produce new blooms)

(the seed will find a new home)

(the tree will grow new leaves)

(the spider will craft a new web)

(the bird will build a new nest)

Colorado Boulevard Poets Salon, August 2019

I was delighted to be featured in the Colorado Boulevard Poets Salon (note name change from "Poetry Corner") on August 21, 2019, hosted and curated by Kathabela Wilson.

Finding Our Way Home

Broken things in nature often renew themselves with a change in seasons, much in the same way that human interactions can be mended by spending time in nature, and in deeper communication with each other, with the world, and with ourselves.

nightly news . . .

a beaver changes

our world view

refugees

cross the border

in search

of better lives . . .

we open our arms

Though we may long for home, sometimes there are physical or emotional barriers to overcome before we take that first step...

(Bridges to Cross)

(Doors to Open)

(Roads to Travel)

(Fences to Tear Down)

"And where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. The chain may lengthen, but it never parts." (Oliver Wendell Holmes)

Colorado Boulevard Poetry Corner, December 2018

I'm delighted to have two watercolours featured in the Colorado Boulevard Poetry Corner on December 12, 2018, hosted and curated by Kathabela Wilson. Please see the following link to enjoy the fine work Kathabela has selected for this week's corner:

https://coloradoboulevard.net/poetry-corner-winter-twilight/

Winter Twilight

'The wound is the place where the light enters you.' (Rumi)

deep twilight

and noctilucent clouds . . .

could there be

anything more magical

than sharing these with you

Debbie Strange

Earth: Our Common Ground - A Song of Short Songs, 2017

Colorado Boulevard Poetry Corner, December 2018

I was honoured to be the featured artist in the Colorado Boulevard Poetry Corner on December 5, 2018, hosted and curated by Kathabela Wilson. Please visit the following link to enjoy Kathabela's commentary and to read the fine work she selected to accompany my photographs:

https://coloradoboulevard.net/poetry-corner-dreamscapes/

Dreamscapes

Debbie says: 'The images in this corner explore the subtle and flamboyant nuances of light, reflection and refraction. The subjects of these photographs are mundane objects (fabric, jewellery, glasswork), but they are transformed into dreamscapes by employing various methods of lighting (natural, neon, candle) and using the techniques of illusion and diffusion. None of the work has been digitally manipulated in any way.'

'The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night.' (Jung)

Isn't that the way dreams work, shedding light on our everyday experiences, we are led magically into more questioning, transformations and resolutions.

hello

I thought

you might be lost

take my hand,

we will walk backward

until we become stars

Debbie Strange

A Cherita Lighthouse Award, The Cherita, June 2017

Colorado Boulevard Poetry Corner, November 2018

Honoured to be the featured artist in the Colorado Boulevard Poetry Corner on November 28, 2018, hosted and curated by Kathabela Wilson. Please visit the following link to enjoy Kathabela's commentary and the selected poets' fine responses to my work:

https://coloradoboulevard.net/poetry-corner-otherworldly/

Otherworldly

As a writer, photographer, and artist, I am always striving to look beyond the ordinary in search of the extraordinary!

Introducing the wonderful Otherworld of Debbie Strange (Manitoba, Canada). All the images in today's Corner are by her. A celebrated poet/artist, and dear friend, she 'makes art, tanka and haiku as a daily meditation which connects her more closely to the world and to herself, and believes a little colour and imagination can help to lift our spirits even on the darkest days!'

Inspiring us with her images she quotes Khalil Gibran: 'Let me, O let me bathe my soul in colours; let me swallow the sunset and drink the rainbow.'

Here, poets are the 'others' who respond, at high tide in their imaginations, with impressions and personal reminiscences of important life moments, looking within and beyond her mysterious images with their words.


at high tide

the call and response
of water

we are made of this,
but we are also,
other


Debbie Strange
A Cherita Lighthouse Award, The Cherita, September 2017

Colorado Boulevard Poetry Corner, July 2018

Theme: Oceans of Our Lives


Listen to the ocean's roar in our Poetry Corner today. Now in Europe, we come to the Atlantic, the ocean of my childhood, from the Pacific, where home is in California. In traveling, our view is expanded. In the small shells of each of our lives, all the oceans are contained; the past and future of all living things in concert with these waves. On July 6, 2018 I was able to present to an appreciative musical audience at our beachside Atlantic Sunset poetry program in Portugal (at the ANIMUSIC conference), the first place tanka in the Sanford Goldstein International Contest of the Tanka Society of America:


the ocean
was in a rage last night
but today,
these peace offerings
of blue mussels and kelp

Debbie Strange, Canada


We are alone and together with our gifts. Poets receiving and giving the gifts of nature, their muse.

—Kathabela Wilson

Colorado Boulevard Poetry Corner, June 2016

Theme:  Dream Come True


dreamchaser
I thought I was too old
and yet
this book of tanka
that bears my name

Amaranth