Walden

" I went to the woods, because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I wanted...to drive life into a corner and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."
- Henry David Thoreau, "Walden"

days that have passed

hermits

My fascination with the lives and choices of hermits just might one day land me in a cave or up in a tree...

Tales From the Nomadic Tree

i just keep swimming
round this ol' tree
chewing the roots
to set myself free.

i've seen many colors
way up on the tree
a place that i know
would be perfect for me.

one day i began
to swim to the top
a trip i have tried
and failed quite alot.

and looking down gently, and kindly and sweet
the tree started chanting an encouraging beat
"swim, never stop, keep your head pointed up...
swim don't give up, for there's answers up top"

so i took a deep breath
said goodbye to my sea
and started the journey
that was just meant for me.
 ~michelle 

gratuit

One day I was beckoned
to follow the brook
that was babbling under it's breath
free fee free fee free fee free fee free fee free fee free
  ~michelle

Me gusta

some words

down the dark, wet, slippery streets I drove...
it was late
underbelly late

as I turned onto the main street
I saw a man
yellow, curly hair popping and twisting in the glistening, spitting air...
on a bike no less, acting like it's nothing

>>>--->damp, stinky cigarette flapping from his bottom lip
white pillow case giggling with goodies thrown cross his shoulder
one hand on the handlebars<---<<<

this is "it"
i said aloud
this is where i always wanna be
on the underside of rocks 
  ~michelle

winterizing

settling in
my nook, cozy and warm
my surroundings please me
ready to snuggle in for the coming seasons
but
still restless...
dreams of travels fill my sleep and peek into my days.
thoughts of dirty toes, stream baths, coastal Oregon, medium format documentation,
dark circle travel eyes, timeless days, discoveries, late night car radio stations, sugary teeth and tongues, travel gut, roadside fruit finds, roadside tree climbs, contortion sleep, endless fields and farms and signs, memories of childhood travel, glove boxes overflowing with maps, sunflower seeds scattered on floorboards, stories, singalongs, greasy diners, and realizing that there are many, many, many, ways to live.

but until that there is this ...and this... is where i am and where i am content to be for now...

featherless flights

there's a stream below nomadic tree
it's a place that i love
where the ancient gift of silent listening
flows freely.
if you listen carefully
you will find me in my tree
if you listen carefully
you will hear the songs i sing.
inside stationary movements
sits a box upon the hill
and inside she locks her secrets
and damnation's of free will.
  ~michelle

new casa + night-time+grainy

mr. kentridge >>>j'aime

that now this

first i was there, now here, soon there

it is in isolation, in this special place, that the deep grooves are made...hefty pockets of eccentricities, insights, awake dreams, clear streams of thoughts, knowings, deep breaths, glow, peace, wildness, connection with self...

it is almost time. this pattern so familiar... reclusion-> digging in soil, reading books... emergence->juxtapose...solitude-> paint, write, observe, learn...contrast-> dance, laughter, connecting...wilderness->inward

it is almost time. my spirit is quieting, beginning to follow the sun.

  ~michelle

la mer

dans trois mois, je vous réunir avec

jusque-là