It’s up and swimming … and soaking … relaxing and renewing:

Spas Baths Hot Springs

This new tumblr site is devoted to spa culture, where ‘spa’ refers to: healing waters, therapeutic treatments, hot springs, mineral springs, health spas, etc. Thought it might be nice to gather ‘spa’ things, with like-minded individuals.

Something to share?

Feel free to submit things on this topic. Could be photos, quotes, links, videos, poetry, fiction, news, art, research, etc. If accepted, please be patient.
It could take a few days to appear.

For me, the year began in reverse …

with the re-publication of a poem in the new Reprint Poetry–a journal with a mission to
“provide an additional home to previously published poems that deserve to be read again.”

dinner for 2 in Vacation town > Reprint Poetry

The poem was originally published in BluePrintReview alongside a photo by Claire Ibarra. I blogged about the original publication here. So good to see this poem with two homes–both an urban oasis and country villa, so to speak.

There’s an interesting mystery with Reprint Poetry—the make-up of the editorial team. It’s a long shot, and for whatever reason, I’m
guessing those involved are from Vagabondage Press. Fawn Neun, perhaps?

Hmmm…based on feedback, my guess is incorrect.

This one is all about blog-hopping. Funny how it goes…

It began with three photos I’d posted over at my image gallery VisuaLiving. I later decided to feature them together in a blog post here at Living ?s. I snapped the photos on a walk I’d taken while preoccupied with planning a trip and escaping. At some point, I returned to the present and realized the beauty I was missing while daydreaming.

Meantime, Dorothee Lang was in the midst of editing a BluePrintReview issue on the topic of  ‘challenge’.  She’d stumbled across my post containing my images and musings. Apparently, the post fit well with her theme, so she published it as an issue preview in the literary and visual art journal’s blogzine.  The feature highlights my post at Living ?s, and links to the photos at VisuaLiving. From blog to blog to blog. Dizzying.

The challenge > just a moment

As for the ‘challenge’ issue of BluePrintReview, here it is.

Contributors include:

Arlene Ang, Marcia Arrieta, Jenni B. Baker, Alex Bernstein, Jessie Carty, Jeff Crouch,
Julia Davies (+1), Daniela Elza, Susan Ersinghaus, Susan M. Gibb (+1), Stephen Hastings-King (+1),
Rose Hunter, Claire Ibarra,(+1), Ron Kostar, Sherry O’Keefe, Kim McMechan (+1),
Jean Morris, Brigita Orel (+1), Ron Riekki, bl pawelek (+1), Rouchswalwe, Ray Scanlon,
Nancy Scott, Michael J. Solender, Steve Wing (+1), Mary Stone Dockery

Some folks are penny wishers, others are star wishers.
If you prefer stars, here’s a chalk star to wish upon …

~

This is a re-post from a couple of years ago. Thought I’d revisit it now–
at a time of year devoted to intentions, resolutions, success plans.
Sometimes, perhaps, it’s better to drop the effort and hope for something grand  …

The cat’s name is either Teddy or Red–not sure which.  It’s tough to tell in a close-up like this. Both cats keep company with my parents in Calgary. The folks invited them into their home when they realized they weren’t getting grandchildren.

I took this photo a couple years back. I assumed it was sitting in my archive, secure. Much to my surprise, one of the cats–Teddy or Red–escaped and moved into Rose Hunter’s poetry journal.

Here’s the link:

Teddy or Red > YB Poetry Magazine Blog

For a larger version of the image, go here.

If you’re into animals or poetry or both, the YB Animals Issue is worth checking out…

Meeting relatives within walking distance of my paternal ancestors’ bones.

Translation aside, I have no idea what they’re saying… do you?

 Kleinwarasdorf, Burgenland, Austria

cheers to the season / to love and light / to inspiration

It’s funny, the memories that stick with us. For me, memories from a wedding I attended in Keszthely, Hungary have little to do with the castle it took place in, or the even the bride and groom (dare I say).  What I remember is the flower girl, the flow of her dress, and the light that made her glow like a light bulb as she left the castle to get on with her day . I also remember the man who wore traditional Hungarian boots. It actually wasn’t the man so much. It was more about what he had on his feet.  I remember thinking, “How can I get a pair of those boots to take home with me on the plane?”

For full-sized images click the links:

Flower Girl  /  Hungarian Boots

Happy anniversary to Dorothee Lang’s BluePrint blog carnival >Language >Place!

>Language >Place is a regular gathering of writers and artists from around the world whose themed blog posts are showcased on different websites about every 30 days.

In the founder’s words:
it’s a joined blog cyber journey featuring international perspectives on language and place.

>Language >Place Anniversary Edition
Carnival Theme > Streets, Signs, Directions

It’s great to be included in this special edition with my contribution: home sense memory. When you arrive at the carnival through the link above, you can access all contributions—including my own—in three different ways:

on a map / in a found poem / through an itinerary

It’s fun to try each of them. Visit the carnival itself to see how they work.
Curious, I asked Dorothee about what inspired these different approaches.
Here’s what she wrote:

↓

General Thoughts

when i put the call up for the anniversary issue, i hadn’t figured the layout for the edition yet – all i knew was that i wanted to do something special for the anniversary. and with the theme “Streets, Signs, Directions”, it felt that it called for an open approach. so i followed the direction / inspiration that came from the contributions.

↓

The Map

i really enjoyed putting the edition together, and working with different approaches. the google map is the first one i ever did – the idea for it arrived when i looked up places from the first contributions online at google maps (Pondicherry, Eilat..), and tried the “my map” option. that also would be a great way to include the previous editions, i thought.

↓

The Poem

that was the second step – a different and contrasting approach to the map: geographic / poetic, place/words. and again, it was induced by the first contributions, 3 of them were poems, combined with images: your “home sense memory”, buddhetat’s space, and a link from Rose Hunter, who first had another piece in mind: substitution.

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The Itinerary

what was missing yet in the layout: images. there were so many fascinating and diverse photos included in the contributions, some of them with similar elements, but all with a unique angle. and there were the notes, which provide their own entry point to each contribution. that’s how the itinerary took shape, following the sorting of the stanzas, and picking up on the quoted lines. it also worked the other way round: interesting pairings of images then formed a stanza. altogether, the edition developed its own dynamic and the contributions came to a closure without tiring tries to get the poem right.

↓

Cover Thoughts

there also is an alternative “cover” (below). it’s one thing that keeps fascinating me, how the same content, presented in a different way, has a different feel and context, and also probably leads to another reading approach / experience…and so interesting, to reflect on the beginning now at the ending point, and revisit the path.

↓

Surprise Surprise

the biggest surprise during this past year of running these >language > place blog carnivals through the BluePrint headquarters is: how each host comes up with a unique edition, be it from theme, from the layout, the atmosphere – just looking at the list of previous editions with iconized cover pages and with themes gives an idea of it.  

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Previous carnival host Parmanu wrote some notes on the carnival as it developed:

With age, the carnival begins to show its value as a concept. So much of individual writing on the Internet is buried under a tangled web that search engines can barely reach; a carnival like “Language-Place” offers a theme-based portal to navigate such writing.

The whole entry is online here.

a sunny august moment unfolded like this, if I recall it correctly …

~

head, spinning fast spinning right up down left i’m
meandering home from the station, ideas and fantasies
dreams and ambitions of elsewhere of there of

away far away, other lands other times other spaces
back then wonder when
but not now and not here and not present
old breath vision time and sensation

away, until 

2 blinks they open, my eyes so wide open i see that it’s me

in my fresh in my nation my city
so fragrant this moment

right here and today

~

written for: > Language > Place Blog Carnival: Edition #11

featured in:  BluePrintReview Newspaper