budget cuts

city budget cuts —
late summer dust motes float
through the library

. . . . . . .

Passing up 'boat ax,' the OED word of the day to say how sad it makes me to have Seattle libraries shut down for a week due to budget cuts.

practice

practice is the courage
To learn day by day

for an artist
Rules close off Vision

. . . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure commentary is 'palaestra/palestra.' Wrestle with it.

marshmallow hearts

a nice bright,
well-meaning Morning,
marshmallow hearts
Suddenly full

. . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'boofy.'

Scuba diving classes across the street daily. Wondering what they are seeing down there... besides the giant octopi, and the purple starfish that cling to the pier pilings at low tide.

opportune

Painting a Scene
so opportune
I could not let pass
without greeting

. . . . . .


The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'nuncio.'

Turns out you can use it without 'papal' in front of it — to mean either a messenger or a member of the Polish Diet. Not to be confused with a pierogi :)

unbounded

eternity is All at Once
& the soul is deathless suchness

the process is always unbounded

Where is it that you said we find now?


. . . . . .


The OED word of the day is ‘timesomeness.’ Frankly, in the most recent citation (from a Usenet newsgroup, no less) it looks like ‘tiresomeness’ with a typo. Apropos.

moss

covered by a layer of moss;
get over it.

the North-West

. . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure admonition is 'muskeg,' which is a swamp or bog in Canada.

No moss growing on the local yoginis.

memory

memory ...
Even the most insignificant particulars
are smile-provoking

. . . . . .

The OED word of the day is the verb 'history.' Would you have guessed it was a verb? It means to record the history of. Who knew? This sketch records the history of a kite-eating tree on Alki, in honor of my beloved Charlie Brown.

patchwork

Patchwork colors...
There is a kind of really amazing mosaic
and the design worked
. . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure commentary is 'Resht,' a type of Persian patchwork. 

Sunflowers are fading...

flux

one's own experience is an instance...
fear, joy and sorrow...

swirls of the passing flux

. . . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure commentary is 'autopathy,' excessive feeling for oneself. The sketch is an amalgamation of people coming & going in Starbucks over the course of my visit.

novice

novice…

O fond-foolish old man,
ever The learner,
ordinary in his Happy interest in the present —
his goal every day the Art & style
of getting through difficulties

. . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure poem|commentary is 'abecedarian.'

Who knows how much longer we'll be able to sketch the Space Needle with its 'galaxy orange' top?

dismay

in winter we Journal our dismay…
which usually ends in an hour or so

. . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure commentary is 'piblokto,' a kind of Arctic hysteria suffered by the Inuit (and their dogs).

Image is watercolor on sanded joss paper. There may also be some kind of hysteria that causes one to try this...

butterfly songs

Is it necessary that
every day should be comfortable?

We live
Govern'd by the Minor Drama
of holding it all together,
pretending

The Mood is passed.

I heard the Butterflies,
their songs
in the hot days of August
have short sojourns

. . . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure poem is 'dog day.'

Despite the fact that dogs reportedly outnumber children in Seattle, we are blessed with few dog days. We are also blessed with a Japanese paper store, where I found this blank journal that takes the ink & watercolor pretty well, though in the sky you can just barely see the writing on the other side of the page.

run or walk?

poet…
When caught in a shower
should you run or walk?

. . . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure commentary is 'ombrifuge.'  And I thought bumbershoot was a mouthful for an umbrella!

The Seattle Urban Sketchers revisited Georgetown today. Last time there wasn't a security dude kicking us out of the best sketching spots :(  Larger image here.

look-out

as Wit & Mirth lay watching,
Missing little in the afternoon,
old people drank a good deal

I hope you will all keep a look-out,
and not allow yourselves to be caught.

. . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure commentary is 'nap.'

I was at in Snoqualmie today for the Railroad Days plein air 'paint out.' The Arts Commission voted this one a runner-up to the winner (and next year's poster). Much better than taking a nap!

victory

poetry on occasion
was a glorious victory of
the Goddess of Nonsense

. . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure commentary is 'poet laureate.' 

Should you run into more than one, you can say either 'poets laureate' or 'poet laureates.' I know you were worried about that...

hot

Did you notice?
it is quite hot just now
. . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure weather commentary is 'thingummy.'

I prefer the also cited and more technical word: 'whatchamacallit.' And I would like to be lying in cool water just now.

Yielding

Yielding …
The most perfect flowers 
studied the Bumble-bee

. . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure poem is 'melliferous.'

Not to be confused (I did) with mellifluous, melliferous is strictly about producing honey.

wee patch

Faith in the north-west —
it will probably come
the Bold wee patch of summer

 . . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'maraud,' but my favorite new word in the citations was the "louring rain clouds." Louring is gloomy, dark and threatening, but can also be spelled 'lowering,' so nicely ambiguous when it comes to describing weather.

claim the glory

in the moment
claim the glory
of being,
of love

. . . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'femme incomprise,' a woman who is or considers herself to be misunderstood.

That one might come in useful.

The sketch is of an 1886 gem in downtown Tacoma that Peggy and I accidentally came across and HAD TO sketch on our way to prison last week.

practice

practice has
revived its power

art

. . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure commentary is 'pugilism.'

Fun with Peggy at the Victorian Day celebration to celebrate the Volunteer Park Conservatory's centennial today.  Larger image here.

loudly illuminated

Sketches as fresh as the day …
a pattern of daylight
reached the steps
leading to
a spectacular figure
loudly illuminated

. . . . . .

The OED Olympic word of the day for the erasure commentary is 'podium.'

Yes, but did you know it's also the word for a mollusk's foot and the supporting stalk of a vine?

discipline

The practice
of Exercise
peculiar to modern times
challenged the Will...

the Bed won

. . . . . .

The OED Olympic word of the day for the erasure commentary is 'pentathlon.'

naps

August —
the inexorable rise in
naps per capita

intention

intention increasing energy;
a day with others
out doing Art

. . . . . . . .

The OED Olympic word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'carbo-load.'

Sketch is from the most unique Urban Sketchers outing yet: a workshop at the Washington Corrections Center for Women. It was cool to give them some (water)color in their sea of gray, and to hear a couple of women say that, for a couple of hours, 'I wasn't here.' 

an outing

an Outing ...
the Morning edged
close to the magical

. . . . . . .

The OED Olympic word of the day for the erasure commentary is 'pole vault.'

The initial erasure commentary was:

a high close to magical
thanks to the Sixties

However, it was disallowed by the USADA.

heat advisory

heat advisory —
even the water
can barely ripple

The OED word of the day is 'jet-propelled.'

The Olympic sprinters on TV and the Blue Angels over Lake Washington are surely the only things jet-propelled in Seattle today.

beach volleyball

his huge zoom lens aimed
at women's beach volleyball —
from ten feet away

. . . . . .

Just for the record, the OED (Olympic English Dictionary?) word of the day is preterhuman.

For example, "Federer hit a preterhuman backhand." Actually, what the commentator said was, "That shot doesn't exist." You'll notice there aren't any OED lads doing TV commentary :)

sweet roar

waking up to the sweet
roar of a garbage truck —
strike's over!

garbage strike

summer garbage strike —
dumpsters ripening faster
than the tomatoes

. . . . . . .

Though I didn't use the OED word of the day for the haiku, have to tell you that it is  'pluck-buffet,' an archery contest in which the loser received a blow (buffet) from the winner. Luckily, not part of the Olympics.

The sketch is view of downtown from Hamilton Viewpoint Park in West Seattle. Drawn between two wedding party photo shoots! Larger image on Seattle Urban Sketchers site.

potential

The chief trouble about ‘potential’
lies in the want
of an effective instrument
to be original

. . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure commentary is 'ping-pong.'

I bet the Oxford lads liked this 1982 citation:  "In an era of Ping-Pong diplomacy, Band-Aid economics, and Scotch-Tape solutions..the maker of dictionaries is too often driven to ingesting Aspirins."

The "historic 1904 Fred Marino building," which houses the Georgetown Arts & Cultural Center is a mystery. The only Fred Marino I can track down was the biggest truck farmer in Seattle... but not until 1915. Hunh.