Tempest: Life Upturned--A Mind Key Anthology

Art by JoAnna Schillaci

When we notified our readers of Tempest: Life Upturned, the theme for our third Mind Key Anthology, we didn’t expect such an overwhelming amount of quality submissions.  From art sketches to poetry, short stories to personal essays, it turns out that our readers get it.  They understand life’s troubles and are quick to respond to the emotional rawness and the chaos they bring.  Life storms rage for a reason, and none of us can take cover from them all.  Those clouds can roll in at any given moment, darkening our serene sky and pouring down anguish and confusion.

But, as I sit in front of my computer culling through the many submissions we received, I can’t help but find a common thread.  Although Tempest signifies a period of chaos, an uncertain weather event that throws us into a sea of difficulties, many submissions state an enlightening fact: the human race is resilient, despite the storms  The artwork and stories shine a spotlight on how weak we can be; yet it is the thing that breaks us that also strengthens us.  

The submissions talk about grief over losing a loved one; of a love story that has crumbled to pieces; of storm clouds threatening a beautiful field of flowers; and of hearts corrupted by the storms of life.    I find myself in a state of awe, because even though there are stories of heartbreak, there is beauty layered underneath it all.  There is wisdom, understanding and acceptance that the old adage of “this too shall pass” is the ultimate truth.

Perhaps this is why life's storms are important.  It is through their squally lessons that another aspect of human nature is nurtured—hope.  For it is hope that guides us through, a steady compass we can rely on even when our life is turned upside down.

*******

Danielle:

We had hoped to have Tempest completed and out for printing during the month of October.  This is why our November issue was titled “Tempest” as well.  But as life would have it, storm after storm blew in and blew us straight off course.  The storms, however, brought us someplace amazing.  

Mind Key is growing by leaps and bounds. Support and unexpected opportunities are suddenly shining through the clouds.  Although we are still culling through the myriad of submissions at a point in time when we thought we’d be holding a finished product, we ended up more pleased with the journey than in the yet-to-be-determined end result.  Perhaps we will discover that this neverland where we’ve landed is a place that will make this third anthology more brilliant and successful than the prior two.

So, instead of feeling discouraged in our lack of progress with the book, we are feeling more hopeful for its potential with each moment. Each gust brings us somewhere new and opens up pathways that hadn’t existed.  Tempest: Life Upturned has become a symbol of the truth behind the Mind Key mission: In our quest for self-discovery, only the storm can lead us to those places we’ve always believed were possible, but never knew or dreamed we could achieve.

If you are interested in learning more about Tempest: Life Upturned, or potentially submitting a piece of art or writing, please use the upload form at www.mindkey.me/anthology. We will accept new submissions through November 15th for anyone who says they were referred via Mind Key the Blog.

NJ EVENT: St. Catherine Art Expo March 11th-13th

 St. Catherine of Bologna, Patron of the Arts Association is holding their

This is a wonderful event that encourages us to use art to stay connected,  touching those parts inside us we don't give enough attention.

Amateur and professional artists of all mediums will have their work displayed in this juried exhibition.  Live music and free hors devours each evening, and a poetry reading at 7pm Saturday.  Free admission, donations gratefully accepted.

For more information, visit www.stcatharts.org or stop by www.mindkey.me/calendar to view this and other great events.

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If you are interested in having your event, business, product, or idea highlighted on Mind Key, visit www.mindkey.me/promotion.

Getting back on the "Wheelbarrow"

so much depends 

upon 

a red wheel 

barrow 

glazed with rain 

water 

beside the white 

chickens

- William Carlos Williams 

 As a part-time professor of English, I teach this poem every semester. Keep in mind many of my students have not been in a classroom for a number of years. The wide-eyed looks of bafflement never cease to put a big smile on my face. Never mind that every time I teach this poem it’s around 7 pm on a weeknight. I am fried, and so are they. Still, this poem tends to spark a much welcomed blaze of conversation. 

 I have to make it clear in the beginning of the lesson that this is, in fact, the ENTIRE poem. Much of William’s work is obscure but widely read and taught. “The Red Wheelbarrow” has become one of his signature pieces. The poem is a lightbulb-over-the-head inducing spell once the students learn that Williams was a practicing physician who became inspired to write this weird little poem while gazing out the window in a house of a dying child. 

William Carlos Williams

Suddenly, we are transported into ponderous discussions dealing with dependency, spirituality, need, grief, healing, uselessness, and hope - diverse facets of life that must coincide in order to make us human. Not bad for a 16 word poem. Poet Wallace Stevens referred to Williams’ poems as “rubbings of reality”, and Williams indeed gives you little snippets of landscape and bits and pieces of the human experience. He leaves it to you to put the puzzle together- if you choose to take the time. 

I think what makes this poem go from baffling to enlightening is the blending of the human condition. In a short amount of time and space, you are reminded about simple necessities needed for stasis yet easily forgotten and rarely appreciated. There was this man, William Carlos Williams, who on a daily basis was slapped in the face by mortality.

Whether he knew it or not, he wrote this poem to call our attention to the balance we need to obtain in regarding our passions and obligations - two things that are rarely synonymous.

A Balance Wheel

We have all felt like the red wheelbarrow - settling into the Earth, taking in whatever falls down on us, and not always feeling appreciated or purposeful. We often fail to dry ourselves after the storm of everyday and take the time to pursue our passions. Everyone has a passion, talent, or purpose that reaches beyond work and family. The problem is many of us think we have all the time in the world to look, and we don’t. 

Sooner rather than later, those “white chickens”, which can easily be seen as something angelic or divine, are going to come take us away. “So much depends/upon” the acknowledgment and acceptance of every fragment of consciousness that makes us whole. That’s when we find balance, and that is when we are able to stay on that purposeful wagon for longer periods of time. So who says little poems like this don’t make sense?

Danielle's Note:
This week we will are delving into the "relationship with self," and what better way to understand and refine that relationship than by rediscover our passions, accept all fragments of our sub/consciousness, and to recognize that we are only whole when we are carrying in our own personal wheelbarrow only those things that bring us joy while at the same time fulfilling obligation.  Thank you for this, Tara!

Wearing and living your enchanted muse with avalove

Ms. Ava Hu

"I hope to be able to inspire others to feel good when they wear avalove, and live their dream!"

Ava Hu is a writer and artist and businesswoman who is most passionate about the moment creation happens.  She has contributed four poems to Mind Key's Yin and Yang: The Duality of Balance and is a wildly successful clothing artist in New York City.  Ava's muse, spirit, and inspiration is the moment creation happens. (Click HERE to read a review of her poetry and accompanying art in Yin and Yang).

Inspired by music and nature—by branches, bodies of water, flowers, birds and botanics, and feathers of all shapes and sizes—Ava's life has been dedicated to following the song of her heart and her soul to create wearable art that is true to her own vision and muse.

"I think it’s a fine line between poetry and art.  Art to me is a visual metaphor that can bring you to the same place as a poem or any work of art, if you let it…. I view my prints as works of art and my body of clothing as the canvas."

Avalove began while Ava was working at a magazine and completing her master's in poetry. One day she realized, "Wait, I’m an artist!"

After this ah-ha! moment, Ava started looking for a way to make a living with her creativity.  She started by taking her artwork to the streets of SoHo in New York City. Her collages turned into silkscreens, and before she knew it she had a line every weekend at her table.

"The shirts kept selling, to the point where I realized, I could make more doing this than being an editor in a magazine! So I took a giant leap!"

Like most of the Mind Key community, Ava has been blessed to work with a great team of artists and others who support her by selling in her shop, working the website and social media, and more. She is as equally passionate about helping and supporting other artists in achieving their dream as she is about creating her own art.

"Every person who helps me make avalove happen are all artists themselves, so every penny goes direct to each of us, who go home at night to work more on our own art."

Ava has been selling her art and clothing line on the streets of New York City for the past eight years and is now featured in Chelsea Market. She has a pop up shop at Artists & Fleas that she has transformed into a forest.

"The exposure and support that has come from NYC locals and visitors from all over the world has helped me change a tiny business where I was printing clothes on my living room floor, to being able to sew my own items, and expand into publishing more poetry, and collaborating with other artists."

Discover some of avalove's items with links to how to purchase these inspirational, wearable, pieces of art and poetry for yourself or a friend this holiday season. [Keep reading to discover a special offer from avalove for our readers!] 

The Fairytale Trees, one of avalove's best selling designs, are enchanted.  When you wear them, Ava says, special magic happens:
http://www.avaloveshop.com/shop/fairytale-trees-longsleeve

The trees also come as a cowl neck sweatshirt, one of Ava's own designs that are cut, sewn and printed locally in Bushwick, Brooklyn.  "It’s one of my favorites, it’s exactly what I would wear and do wear all winter long, and it is enchanted!"
http://www.avaloveshop.com/shop/cut-and-sew-fairytale-trees-cowl-neck

The Ava*Lok Reversible Bodhisattva Tee with inside Lotus Flowers is a very special limited edition piece with Tibetan Bodhisattva, avalokiteshvara, placed on both the front and the back of the shirt on the heart, and inside, are lotus flowers.  This shirt can be worn inside out or outside in, wearing the bodhisattva as a secret close to your heart.
http://www.avaloveshop.com/shop/avalok-tee-with-lotus-flowers


Tree Pose Poem was written after a particularly inspiring yoga class with Ava's favorite teacher, Dechen Thurman. The poem is Ava's own instructions for the asana, tree pose, and is printed on one of the most famous avalove shirts.

"This design has been around for at least five years because customers keep requesting it, and some own more than one version of this!"

Tree Pose Poem

If you breathe in, and lift your right leg up,

foot resting on your inner thigh, knee pulled right

perpendicular to the earth,

and balance on the left;

if you raise your hands in prayer

and take them to the heart;

if you breathe deep, as if

going beneath sea water,

if you, bow your forehead down like the willow,

if you, like the dogwood,

are brash and bawdy in bloom,

if you, are heavy with the salty and sticky

syrup of the sandal tree,

would you give birth to it:

and exhale this thousand and one suns and moons,

your mouth a temple, your body the branches and silvery bark,

is it the sun that moves you,

or is it you who moves the sun?

"The thing about art, is not all of it translates into sellable pieces, some art, is just art, for art’s sake, so avalove is a way to figure out this artist’s equation. It’s really a gorgeous equation, and I’m so proud of that.  That’s my very favorite thing about the brand."


SPECIAL OFFER:  TEXT the word “LOVE” TO 66866 to get 20% off your avalove at www.avaloveshop.com

+poems here avamhu.com
+enlightenment theenlightenmentprojects.com
+purchase  avaloveshop.com

Artists and Fleas in Chelsea Market
AVALOVE SHOP
459 W. 15th Street
New York, NY 10011
____________

The power of simple words, images, and art: Ava M. Hu in Yin and Yang

Photography by JoAnna Schillaci

Yin and Yang poet, Ava M. Hu, is an artist and poet currently residing in NYC.  She designs her own clothing line called avalove with a shop in Artists & Fleas in Chelsea Market, NYC. She creates one poem, one metaphor at a time. Ava received the Amy Award from Poets & Writers magazine as best woman poet under 30 in NYC, and Jane Hirshfield picked her poem, Varanasi, as first place for the America's Review Poetry contest.

Ava M. Hu

She has submitted a number of simple poems for inclusion in Yin and Yang: The Duality of Balance.  Ava's word choice is exquisite, eliciting raw, and often nostalgic emotion from a few short lines of descriptive language. She does this in all her pieces, whether describing the relationship nature and god, and how it reveals itself in the "Secret Mantra" of love, or representing in ten very short lines how one can achieve all they desire through observing the space, time, and poetry between the stars, between molecules of water.

As an undergrad at Sarah Lawrence College, Ava Hu studied poetry and sculpture. To Ava, there is a fine line between art and poetry, one a written metaphor, the other visual. 

"Her poetry is sparse, to the point and freeing," editor Charla Dury writes.  "Ava appreciates the lack of flowery words, the short concise thoughts and the questions that inflame your brain."

Ava is happiest when creating—whether a poem, a clothing design, or gluing glittery planets together. Since a poet's work is solitary, Ava enjoys balancing that by working with others, like with the Nesting Project, where she helped build a forest filled with artists' renditions of nests for the Jivamukti Yoga School, raising money for Habitat for Humanity.

"I’m most passionate about is the moment creation happens," Ava said.

And she has certainly transferred this passion to the page, where it has the ability to wing up and stir emotion in the reader with an unlikely image, comparison, or starkness such as that which is found in some of the most beautiful aspects of life.

Ava is inspired by music, listening to a song over and over like a meditation while writing poetry.

"[Listening to music] I can be open, and listen the most, to the inner workings of the universe, or the heart, or whatever that place is where creation springs from," Ava said.

Charla writes about Ava’s poem "Question," one of four of hers featured in Yin and Yang. Charla said is best listened to as Ava writes, with music. "In it resides a brain twister, forcing your thoughts to wrap around concepts larger than yourself.  Meditate on them."

Read more of Ava's work by pre-ordering Yin and Yang: the Duality of Balance and have it in-hand in time for holiday gift-giving. Click: Mind Key Store or visit www.mindkey.me/anthology to order.

Find Ava online at and in Artists and Fleas in Chelsea Market at Avalove shop: 459 W. 15th Street, New York, NY 10011 and at www.avaloveshop.com and www.avamhu.com.

What if God were still making up his mind? Poetry by Gene Myers

Gene Myers lives his passion as a journalist, musician and poet. He started with a deep love of music—writing lyrics in middle school, frustrating his bandmates by neglecting the melody. In high school a friend finally said, "That would be poetry, Gene!"

After that realization, Gene fell hard for poetry. Today, Gene is a columnist for the Haiku Society of America, and his poems have been published in journals such as Frogpond Journal and The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow Anthology.  Still, music never took a backseat. Gene's column, The Joy of Life, which runs in New Jersey newspapers, features celebrity music interviews that go deeper.  He always looks for melodies to accompany his poetry—even, he said, the most cerebral examples. 

And he has never stopped singing in the car or making recordings in his room.

"I realized in my day-to-day life, a torch is still burning for music and the idea of me making music. But I want to do it in the way that Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder occasionally did it," Gene said. "I can never detangle the two [music and poetry]." 

Gene's poetry is a blend of simple and eloquent arranged artfully on the page.  Editor Charla Dury reviews his work:

Photo by Charla Dury

"Gene’s poetry is a breath of fresh air. I realize the phrase is cliché, but his poetry is nothing of the kind. Gene makes you think. He brings every-day human interaction to the ethereal, describing succinctly the mood and emotion of the moment using poetry.

"In Gene’s 'A God Who Is Still Making Up His Mind' featured in Yin and Yang, the personification of God edges wonderfully on the sacrilegious and reminds me of Joan Osborne’s 'What If God Were One of Us,' bringing us all one step closer to the divine, or bringing the divine down to our level.

'A God who is still making up his mind
doesn't shave
watches a lot of TV and
Shies away from contacting his people'

"Gene’s God sounds a lot like a father who is world weary or an overworked mother hoping for a “me night.

"Gene believes the connection between art and life is everything, so why separate music from poetry?  Whether his news column, poems, or music, creating is Gene's way of relating to his surroundings, and to others more deeply. It's about communicating and sharing the real-life miracle of art."

"I only write when I think I have found something that is a worthy find, something to share with others. For me, that is the point, otherwise, why bother?"

Read Gene’s poem, “A God Who Is Still Making Up His Mind” featured in Yin and Yang: The Duality of Balance.

Click below to pre-order your copy today and have it in-hand in time for the holidays.

Celtic Poetry of Place

A total connection with the present is a difficult thing to obtain. Our worlds are shaped by our tumultuous histories, and our triumphs are often overshadowed by our worst enemies - ourselves. Daily planning and routine trumps most spontaneity.

As a result, many turn to myths, rituals, and metaphysical practices to gain a better sense of what it means to embrace the present and savor every moment in a significant place, whether that place be physical or mental. The poetry associated with the Celtic tradition offers boundless outlets for anyone seeking connectedness. Here is simply a taste of what the Irish have to offer.


The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
   And live alone in the bee loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
   And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
   I hear it in the deep heart's core.

- W. B. Yeats

Despite a barrage of criticism from his English contemporaries, Irish poet William Butler Yeats poured out his love for place onto the page. Let's face it. Most would not object to throwing their hands up and escaping to a little island in the center of an Ireland lake. With generously woven alliteration and nature sounds, Yeats takes us there. "Innisfree" is only one example of the many poems that celebrate the Irish landscape in short, rhythmical lines.

In reality, the actual Lake Isle of Innisfree (pictured here)
is not much to admire. Most large, natural lakes have little islands that sit mostly uninhabited, and Innisfree is not unlike any other lake isle. Nevertheless, to Yeats, this little island was a utopia because he saw it the way most did not, and he immortalized that connection to place in his verse. Journaling, sketching, rock collecting, collaging, and scrapbooking are outlets you can use to help you return to your favorite place at any time of day. Like Yeats and other Celts, you may obtain a healing and uplifting connection to a place that is yours and yours alone. Also by Yeats...

Song of the Wandering Aengus

I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done,                
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

Yeats and other Celtic poets thrived on using mythological allusions in their work. According to the "Celtic Fairy Poetry" page at celticfairymusic.com, this vibrant poem leads us through the story of Aengus, the Irish god of love who, oddly enough, dreamed of falling in love with a bean sidh or banshee. A banshee is a female fairy in Irish mythology who is usually seen as an omen of death or a messenger from the underworld. Regardless, Yeats' continuous use of imagery and setting stays true to another stand-out trait of Irish poetry - the love for nature and all of the sensory stimulation the natural world has to offer us. Take for example...

Undressed

Undressed trees stand shivering
as flimsy shifts blew away;
the last leaves are quivering,
till they too will drop, decay.

Under bark's rough covering
grow tiny cells in wonder-
blooms to be, still hovering,
kept safe from autumn's thunder.

Dreams of spring are flowering
in darkened nights soft caress;
lovers cuddle, showering
moist kisses on skin, undressed

-Leny Roovers

Beyond Yeats, poets continue to harness the spirit of Celtic style and form. Celtic poetry is rich in celebration of nature and elementals. Roovers' poem, published in 2004 and found on The Poets Garret uses an old Celtic form named Ae freslighe (pronounced ay-fresh-lee) -  a poem with seven syllable quatrains that begins and ends with the same word. More importantly, he closes the gap between human beings and their place in the natural world, personifying the trees and comparing human intimacy to the cyclic foliage, a popular theme in more modern Celtic poems. For more on Celtic Literature and Mythology, visit "Irish Literature, Mythology, Folklore, and Drama" at luminarium.org.

References:

"Celtic Fairy Poetry". celticfairymusic.com. 2015. 6 Jul 2015

Roovers, Leny. "Undressed". thepoetsgarret.com. 10 Feb. 2004. 6 Jul 2015

Yeats, William Butler. "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" poets.org. 1888. 6 Jul 2015

Yeats, William Butler. "Song of Wandering Aengus". celticfairymusic.com. 1899.

6 Jul 2015




            Dun Aengus, Aran Islands, Ireland

Charla's story of Mind Key - Charla Dury

I’ve been blogging off and on for nine years.  That’s right, I said 9 whole years!  I started on MySpace (can you believe that I mentioned MySpace to a younger coworker today and he had no idea what I was talking about?) and I gained a tremendous following.  Over 300 subscribers.  I blogged about  family, friends, life, politics, love, kids, poetry (and poetry games) and personal experiences. Pretty much anything.  Except fiction.  I read fiction, I don’t write much of it.  

Sadly sinking MySpace

I blogged on MySpace for a few years, making many new friends along the way.  I created Charlapalooza and Walk The Word (incredibly attended and insanely popular poetry games,) was picked up as a weekly poet on TheBlueDoodle.com and, with the friends I acquired, edited many a story.  

Then one day, MySpace sadly sprung a leak and Facebook grew in its place.

While I am on Facebook, it’s not my thing.  I much preferred the MySpace platform setup.  I loved blogging and having folks eager to see what I wrote and comment to let me know what they thought.  I loved the continuous dialogue of the MySpace blogging platform.

Last year, my friend Danielle Rose (the creator of the MindKey community,) who I had met and befriended on MySpace, approached me about becoming a member of Mind Key, her growing community of dedicated practitioners of personal health and well-being.  People following their  

passion.

www.mindkey.me

At first, I was stymied at how I could contribute.  I’m just a blogger, and at that point I wasn’t even blogging because the platforms available didn’t have the exposure I had come to expect.  OK, so I’m a bit more than a blogger.  I’m a wife, a mother, a full time office and accounting manager, an editor and the treasurer for several community programs.  I was already living a full life as it was!  How could I find time to actively contribute to something so near and dear to my friend’s heart?  

I didn’t want to let her down, though, so I agreed.  I had no idea what to expect.

The Mind Key Project, An Anthology (Cover)

How incredibly I’ve grown through this wonderful process!  Through Mind Key, I’ve begun blogging again at www.charladury.com.  Having the Mind Key Community as support, I’ve gained people who are interested in what I have to say.  I’ve been lucky enough to be part of the MindKey Anthology as both an editor and contributing member.  I’ve also been honored to be one of the first readers of Danielle Rose's Mind Key, the Novel.  Editing my way through the incredible story of Noelle Ricci and her personal growth has helped me grow as a person as well, remembering and cultivating my editorial roots.

Thanks to my membership in the Mind Key Community, I feel like a flower beginning to reopen.   Reaching up and grasping onto more of life’s experiences.