31st Pip

solitary, sorrowful
lonesome old crow

world in black-and-white
provides a panoply of greys

two-faced January
bids farewell and so do i.

Today i saw lots of pebbles, some scratchy rocks too.  I will continue writing daily and will attempt to maintain the discipline of the small stone with the help of Writing Our Way Home.  It has been a challenge, a blessing, an opportunity to share with those i know and those i don't, and i am grateful to Satya and Kaspa and to all those who have shared this journey.

30th Pip

Kites, three of them,
straining at their strings
Spiralling, soaring
then suddenly slack and plummeting

Dogs, three of them,
straining at their leashes
Spinning, racing
then suddenly stock still and sniffing

Not sure which is easier to control
nor which more beautiful to behold
but I'm always grateful to land them safely back
and give my arms a rest.

Thanks to Ray Bethell for his inspiring kite-flying which came to mind as i walked the dogs today and inspired today's Small Stone (YouTube - Ray Bethell "Romancing the Wind")

29th Pip

The door warped by winter
creaks and groans when pushed
it hesitates to welcome in
and stalls at widening far.
Sometimes I am that door.

28th Pip

Waving not drowning
(Though melting snow might flood us all)
The leafless branches thrash about
Whirling oak dervishes
Waving wildly in the wind

27th Pip

A world of black-and-white,
rich and deep and penetrating
- my tarnished screen cracks and peels,
the camera sees no frame at all,
colour floods the aperture
- a myriad of
black
and white

26th Pip

Inner world, indoors day
hearing the weather, feeling low
beyond the windows the world goes on
i stay behind, but not forgotten.

With deepest love and thanks to Tim for taking such good care of me and keeping me safe.

25th Pip

No fresh words
Just rock pools
Of salty tears
Crystallising

24th Pip

What Ruby sees:

Tall shadow
warm lap
provider of food and shelter
Always doing something
never learnt the cat-nap art

23rd Pip

the landscape is pockmarked
the breeze lifts snow from the hedgerows
and scatters the melting flakes
across the fields

22nd Pip

Snow can be manna or plague
Plaything or foe
Beauty or beast.

Give me snow to gaze upon,
snow to blanket hills and fields
but melt it when it turns to slush
make green the suffocated land
and warm my toes and nose and hands...

21st Pip

Pay attention!
Look in unlikely places -
a mundane windscreen
might host the most wonderful sculpture
created to surprise and delight

20th Pip

Sensing with nose and tongue and ear...

acrid yet welcoming
smoky but not tobacco
crackling but fat-free
 - my senses are ignited
by a freshly-lit fire
in a chilly meeting room.

19th Pip

Beauty is as beauty does
Clean floors, fresh bedding.

The satisfaction of seeing
such dirty water
emptied down the plug-hole
when the mopping is done

Beautiful.

18th Pip

Royal icing -
fine crisp layer, a thin coat enclosing sweet, fluid paste
snow in fields after a night of freezing winds -
has a crunchy skin

17th Pip

snow crystals so thick and spiky
on the bare-branched trees
backlit by the low winter sun
along the road where I cannot stop

I can only marvel
and frame in my mind
the photo I would take
through my salt-smeared,
ice-crusted windscreen.

16th Pip

Make space...
but i take too much space
need too much room

Walk in the world
in the snow, with the dogs
and my camera

Stillness today comes as a collapse
mindfulness is alien and elsewhere
i am full of spikes,
icicled and unmelting

15th Pip

Hogweed
architectural against flattened grass;
majestic
seedhead of snowflake jewels;
proud yet sapless,
petals dropped to leave umbrella skeleton
open to the elements,
naked, humble weed

14th Pip

Snow -
blanket across the field
icing sugar falling from a sieve
artist's paint outlining the trees
bringer of stillness, hushing the world

13th Pip

so blue and bleak
though loved and safe
mind in freezing fog
though heart strong and glad

black dog walks
her shadow my shelter
her cries voice my pain
and bring love pouring in

12th Pip

• Make noticing one thing and writing it down your gift to yourself.
• Disconnect for long enough to really see the world.

Step outside to see Harris hawk
and hunting dogs and ferret too - 
a gift waits for those who look
beyond the screen, the phone, the book

Behind you leave all texts and cares
out here is naught but beast and air
the smell of hay on horses' breath
the privilege of nature bare

11th Pip

notice the unseen...

her hands as soft as cashmere,
and as warm;
her veins fine threads of silk,
her nails pure ivory.
And as i rub her aching back
she almost purrs;
Sheila, woman, mother and wife,
not simply Mrs A in Bed 25

10th Pip

Old - old and wise?
old and strong?
or simply old, beaten down, worn out?

this landscape is ancient
holds stories and scars
strong in some places
forgotten elsewhere.

9th Pip

Fresh frost frames the field
fallen foliage frozen
frazzled pheasants flee the flurry
of frantic frolicking fur

8th Pip

A sea-view, a bookshop in the living room
might be enough, as once they were
for this dying, crying man
if only his lover still lived

7th Pip

Notice succinctly...
mud sucking the boots off my feet
unsettling the little dog who sinks up to his knees
mounds of soil, dug-up mud,
making mountains of molehills
patterns in the landscape
mud, mud, glorious mud

6th Pip

View through a dog's eyes

Clouds in muddy puddle
i try to lap them up
News broadcast in grass and tree
fox, rabbit, dog and stoat

5th Pip

Notice everything...

undercoat leaves no trace
when brushed against Yankee candle

daylight is only an abbreviation
for all the greys and blues
yellows and reds
which are painted across the sky

small stones are pebbles and pips
gems and gravel
polished and rough
stumbles and steps

4th Pip

First thing this morning i read the email sent by Writing our Way Home and promptly laid it aside as i got caught up in the busy-ness of the day.  This is what the email said:

"Words are gorgeous. Dapple-dawn-drawn falcon. Chevalier. Gash gold-vermilion. Taste them properly. Delicious, delicious.
 
Today, when you notice your small stone, I'd like you to try and enjoy the lusciousness of words as much as you can. Which words sound better together? What order? Read them out loud. Do they work? Do they need to be tweaked?
 
- Notice something.
- Write down your small stone.
- Read it out loud - enjoy the sounds of the words.
- Play with the words. Change them around.
- Share what you have written."

And now as midnight is announced on Radio 4 i am given a word by my partner to chew on, to roll around my mouth, to marvel at, wonder about, to enjoy...

Fanfarroon*, oh Fanfarroon!

your fanfare has no trumpet blast

your bragging is empty

your boasting absurd.

Who are you, Fanfarroon?

Why the Church of hot air!

Preaching the Gospel?

No simply fanfarrooning around...

*Fanfarroon appears in Geraldine Brooks "A Year of Wonders" and also in "Caleb's Crossing".  The word appears in Pepys' Diary, 1893 and its origins are:  Fanfaron, French, from fanfare, a sounding of trumpets; hence, a swaggerer, or empty boaster.

3rd Pip

I didn't expect the featherlight touch of the air
nor the hiatus in traffic noise from below
I thought i knew where i trod
yet i found myself somewhere other

2nd Pip

Sodden ground weighs down my boots
Canine antics lift my spirits
and the smell of coffee brewed with love
greets me on my return

1st Pip

Hawthorn berries have pips, tiny fruit stones, so each day is going to be a pip...

Today's email suggested this as a starting point:

• Look away from your computer screen.
• What do you notice? (In the room? Outside the window?)
• Write it down.

Clean blue sky

dirty paw-streaked window

spark of a bright new year

bark of impatient dogs

Introduction

I have chosen to follow the month-long mindful writing exercise offered by Writing Our Way Home.  It's called Small Stones and i will be posting daily, possibly not always polished pebbles, perhaps sometimes jagged rocks but i will faithfully post each day this month and i invite you to follow me, comment or not, and do the exercise for yourself too if you fancy.

http://www.writingourwayhome.com/