The Gingerbread Man Got Caught by Maria L. Berg 2021
Today’s photography prompt was inspiring. I refilled my glass gingerbread man with syrup and I made some healthy gingerbread with freshly grated ginger and toasted hazelnut flour (instead of almond). I’m so glad I tried it, because Gingerbread People are delicious.
Yummy Gingerbread Person and Cookie with Dried Plum by Maria L. Berg 2021
New Poem
Sweet Gingerbread Love by Maria L. Berg 2021
Disquieting Signs
Lift it up Hold it up to a light source a reflection of changes my broken parts may slide when the waters arrive to challenge the edges of this lift the corner see our wild beasts absorbed in fascination to elucidate reject the sameness of life takes on a different meaning find a beautiful haven some way for mutuality and interaction like a string of horses splashing ahead in terms of connection I have so much ground to cover, cook longer, and then check again
Spreading Christmas Cheer by Maria L. Berg 2021
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
And for the Change of Focus Challenge theme Rest, Sleep, and Hibernation, here’s a picture of the gingerbread person at rest:
A few days ago I realized that Bells managed to get on my prompt calendar twice. I thought about replacing it, but then I concluded that I hadn’t done much with the bells filter I created the first time around. I had some fun detailing my bells with pieces of label stickers.
Ringing in Christmas by Maria L. Berg 2021
New Poem
The prompt at Poetic Bloomings today is Prompt #365 – Do You See What I See? which challenges us to write from the perspective of an item associated with Christmas.
I Worry She’s Forgotten Me
I stand in this dark corner by the closet in the hall. She moved me here to clear a path for the couch, but never put me back by the door. She left a windbreaker and a floppy summer hat as if to define me, define my purpose, or a purpose I once had. This change of station has me worrying that she won’t use me this year. But I was filled with anticipation as the festivities started early. She pulled out decorations and new lights arrived and then more came. But something’s wrong: she moves the lights from room to room hanging them in colorful defiance of the encroaching dark, but she takes them down again. A week ago, she set up Santa’s village and fixed the toy shop’s roof, but now it’s put away. It’s as if she’s taunting me every single day. The first year, I felt strange, out of place, over-dressed and embarrassed when she hung lights and decorations where coats and hats were meant to be. But as the gifts lay at my base and I saw the smiles in my lights on her face I began to enjoy my stand-in role she created. Every year she has added to my Christmas costume. Last year colorful ostrich feathers bedecked me as a modernist palm. And yet I stand bare my basic shape of function showing. Will she or won’t she? It’s torture, this waiting, not knowing.
Christmas Bells Are Ringing by Maria L. Berg 2021
If you’ve enjoyed the photographs I’ve been taking, I’ve added some to my RedBubble store and I’m excited about the new products. The abstract bokeh really lends itself to product design. So fun. While you’re looking, please click the hearts to like the images on the RedBubble site. It will help my work get attention. Thank you.
Let the Heavens Ring by Maria L. Berg 2021
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Last night I made a candle filter. I thought I would try it with the fisheye lens technique to create flickers of nostalgia.
A Flicker of Nostalgia by Maria L. Berg 2021
Stream of Consciousness
It’s stream of consciousness Saturday. The prompt for today is “opposites.” In my experience opposites attract, but today I am more interested in nostalgia and its opposites. Living in the moment is the opposite of nostalgia, but aren’t my perceptive filters and emotional experiences in the now driven by those memories I would dwell in if nostalgic? Isn’t it healthy to face, visit, perhaps dwell in them a while, looking toward the future? Is it futurism that is the opposite of nostalgia? Or are they both a form of fantasy? I pick and choose which memories create a warm glow in the same way, as a futurist, I pick and choose which signals and drivers to extrapolate into possible futures. Nostalgia itself triggers cycles of fashion and entertainment, wanting to bring the best memories into the present only starts their cycle into the future, so where is the opposite?
Wired for Nostalgia by Maria L. Berg 2021
New Poem
For today’s new poem prompt I repeated what I did last week and browsed my WordPress Reader and found:
This roaring wind and rain bite through the heavy gray Yearning for the day’s opposite, I imagine variegated, pavonine skies hues of blue and green water and sky in conversation Waves crash as if ocean-side If only this nose tickle was from salt and sand As I fill another tissue, I pretend a peacock-feather fan in hand, wispy tendrils tickling As I create a delicate breeze to dry my perspiration on a lovely opposite day of peaceful relaxation far from now
The Sounds of Nostalgia by Maria L. Berg 2021
If you’ve enjoy the photographs I’ve been taking, I’ve added some to my RedBubble store and I’m excited about the new products. The abstract bokeh really lends itself to product design. So fun. If you get a chance to take a look, please press the hearts on the images you like. It will help my work get noticed. Thank you.
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Candlelight of the Mirrorworld by Maria L. Berg 2021
Today I put a couple festive candles in the Mirrorworld.
New Poem
A prompt from In the Palm of Your Hand by Steve Kowit is to use a Dream Metaphor. I haven’t had a really vivid dream recently, so today I’m going to close my eyes with a metal spoon in my hand hovering over a metal bowl and write down any dream imagery I see before dropping the spoon wakes me up. I’ve heard that many visionaries used this technique, but I’ve never tried it before.
Flicker by Maria L. Berg 2021
The Red Candle
It starts with a red candle. The flame flickers and the shine of the melting wax at the rim turns into a scarf that wraps and flies out behind me. It is tugged and the candle turns its profile now a face aflame. I worry the scarf will burn.
The scarf has wrapped around a man in a thick, fringed gray cape with a wide-brimmed aged and wrinkled hat pulled down over his face. He pulls on the scarf as he hurries toward me, grabs my camera, and flings it to the street, smashing it into specks. He reaches past me and pinches the wick, extinguishing the candle’s flame.
We are on a set. Fake eyelashes knock over the scaffolding which topples into Christmas trees. The family scurries onto the couches for the formal photo. The red scarf, now tied in a bow, is tossed over the nearest tree. Everyone races into the rows of fake trees, but the gray man doubles back, shrinking to slide under the couches then growing to join the other elves on the hand-cranked, vertical sled with side wheels and gears. Once they ride out, the door slams shut.
I have a chance to breathe and contemplate the rush. How each action sped to the next, and then it was over, like the lick of a candle’s flame catching the curtains, but nothing else. A holiday gathering can exhaust with lack of oxygen.
It ends with the elves seated on the lip of the lit candle, warming their hands by the flame which sheds a warm glow on a cherub-faced elf with blond curls who beckons me to join them. I hesitate, not wanting to burn.
Flame in Reflection by Maria L. Berg 2021
If you’ve enjoyed the photographs I’ve been taking, I’ve added some to my RedBubble store and I’m excited about the new products. The abstract bokeh really lends itself to product design. So fun. While you’re looking, please click the hearts to like the images on the RedBubble site. It will help my work get attention. Thank you.
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Today I made some yummy cocoa and attempted to capture some of the steam, and then some magic. The great part is I also got to drink the cocoa!
Snow Cocoa by Maria L. Berg 2021
New Poem
Today’s Poetry Form prompt from dVerse Poets Pub is a bit of a challenge. This is the last dVerse prompt of the year as the pub is shutting down for a couple weeks of holiday. So I’ll be coming up with my own prompts for the next couple weeks. Grace came up with a couple ideas for today: to write a Kwansaba or a response to David Whyte’s Blessings poems. I went with the latter and continued with the Changing Focus Blogging Challenge theme of Rest, Sleep, and Hibernation.
Blessing For Sleep ~ after David Whyte
I thank you for transporting me from the worries of the day, the cold demands and expectations of order and rationality and whisking me away to a colorful world of chaos while secretly doing your work in the background, cleansing my mind, letting the bits of useless sensory information break down and slough off into the abyss and thank you for mending and repairs, the small scabs from scratching at itchy skin magically made whole, tired sore eyes that wouldn’t stay open, now perceive all the values of light surrounding me in the day and though I failed you last night, falling back to the comfortable habit of staying at the surface waking often and not letting myself let go I know that tonight we will try again and you will come without judgement or expectations, but offer surprising combinations of today’s perceptions I thank you for breaking the rules and the barriers to show me other realities, fantasies and possibilities tamed through dream experience my mind a shiny suspension bridge my hand the tollgate into this world
Cocoa Magic by Maria L. Berg 2021
If you’ve enjoyed the photographs I’ve been taking, I’ve added some to my RedBubble store and I’m excited about the new products. The abstract bokeh really lends itself to product design. So fun. While you’re looking, please click the hearts to like the images on the RedBubble site. It will help my work get attention. Thank you.
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Today I tried my snowflake filter with some traditional Christmas lights.
Colorful Traditions by Maria L. Berg 2021
New Poem
I finished my soothing sounds for my Changing Focus project. December’s theme is Rest, Sleep, and Hibernation. Now I have to decide if I want to read a poem over it. I really like the collection of sounds how they are. I might just type a poem over the visuals.
Hibernation
Winter has let itself into the house It did not knock or call to tell me it was coming It sneaked under the doors and through the windows Frost nibbles at my toes in the kitchen Shivers crawl over me on the stairs I want to Winter like the cat grow a thicker coat and curl up in it to sleep these days of darkness away in happy naps
Modern Traditions by Maria L. Berg 2021
New Traditions by Maria L. Berg 2021
If you’ve enjoyed the photographs I’ve been taking, I’ve added some to my RedBubble store and I’m excited about the new products. The abstract bokeh really lends itself to product design. So fun. While you’re looking, please click the hearts to like the images on the RedBubble site. It will help my work get attention. Thank you.
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Yesterday I cut a bunch of intricate snowflakes to try as filters. The effort was a bit wasted since only the very centers show up in the photographs, but they are still interesting.
In the Snow by Maria L. Berg 2021
New Poem
Today’s prompt from dVerse Poets Pub is a selection of words from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.
One Underlying Hammer
Wasn’t that always the point why? Why? Did I look back. All forgiven through your fluffy perfected disdain, that’s all I am left behind craxis overwhelming the warm stillness
Snowfall by Maria L. Berg 2021
If you’ve enjoyed the photographs I’ve been taking, I’ve added some to my RedBubble store and I’m excited about the new products. The abstract bokeh really lends itself to product design. So fun. While you’re looking, please click the hearts to like the images on the RedBubble site. It will help my work get attention. Thank you.
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
This morning I made a Christmas stocking filter and started by turning the neighbors’ security lights into stockings.
Stockings Stuffed with Light by Maria L. Berg 2021
New Poem
Today’s prompt from dVerse Poets Pub is Quadrille #142. The quadrille is a poem of 44 words and Mish challenges us to put some tinsel in it. The only time I remember decorating with tinsel was the year I lived in Sweden. However, Mish provided other definitions of tinsel which look fun. I’m liking tinsel as a verb.
She Wants to Tinsel Everything
She wants to tinsel the world put a silvery sheen on it make it sparkle, but not like he does with false promises denial and delusion She want to emphasize what is already there with a thin, metallic shimmer wrapped around the branching minutiae
Hanging Stockings by Maria L. Berg 2021
If you’ve enjoyed the photographs I’ve been taking, I’ve added some to my RedBubble store and I’m excited about the new products. The abstract bokeh really lends itself to product design. So fun. While you’re looking, please click the hearts to like the images on the RedBubble site. It will help my work get attention. Thank you.
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
I hear Christmas in the crackling fire in the wind at the window tap, tap, tapping to get in in the chime of the doorbell the creaking of hinges the clanging of silverware and scraping of plates in the turning of the record player the fun familiar songs of youth the somber traditional songs or yore of birth and death and forgiveness in the tearing of paper and crumpling of bows in surprised laughter and disappointed woes I hear Christmas coming like lights turning on each day another room until all the brightness at once.
Takeoff by Maria L. Berg 2021
If you’ve enjoyed the photographs I’ve been taking, I’ve added some to my RedBubble store and I’m excited about the new products. The abstract bokeh really lends itself to product design. So fun. While you’re looking, please click the hearts to like the images on the RedBubble site. It will help my work get attention. Thank you.
In Flight by Maria L. Berg 2021
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Yesterday I discovered a new technique through another happy accident. I left my lights on after the shoot yesterday, and noticed how they reflected in the glass of the sliding door as if they were outside. I used that to create bokeh in the trees this morning. It’s a great discovery for taking outdoor bokeh on a rainy day.
Romantic Parasite by Maria L. Berg 2021
Stream of Consciousness
It’s stream of consciousness Saturday. The prompt for today is “tree.” In preparation for today’s photo prompt, I read up on mistletoe, and learned that it is a parasitic plant that grows on trees. It not only strangles its host tree and hurts its growth, it is also toxic to humans. Romantic, right? Makes you want to kiss someone? Since it’s toxic, it’s been used medicinally in many cultures. The whole kissing under it appears to be spawned of male toxicity, as in the white berries are a sign of virility because they represent sperm? Oh, creepy traditions.
New Poem
For today’s new poem prompt I repeated what I did last week and browsed my WordPress Reader and found:
That was a fun bit of discovery. And I think I’ll try to wrap that all into my sleep theme for December. Let’s see what that all inspires.
Crimson Morning Light
Even when certified, I must sleep officially declared possessing, my eyes close meeting certain standards, my breath slows no law covers this nightly transport the dream smuggler of kermes vermilion a scale insect, a sap parasite writhing with nymphs, squashed to crimson the color of the light behind my closed lids, the pulsing blood singing the sun, rising to greet sneaking through curtains, the day begun
Kisses in the Trees by Maria L. Berg 2021
If you’ve enjoy the photographs I’ve been taking, I’ve added some to my RedBubble store and I’m excited about the new products. The abstract bokeh really lends itself to product design. So fun. If you get a chance to take a look, please press the hearts on the images you like. It will help my work get noticed. Thank you.
Motivation and Reward: The pleasant dreams calendar is working. Look at all those stars. Last night was the first night so far that I slept through the night, and I remembered a small part of a dream.
Tools: Still having a cold, and thus being tired, really exhausted, appears to be the only sleep tool I’m using at the moment.
The multi-media project: I started playing with the soothing sounds I’ve been collecting, and I could listen to the kitty purring with rain and wind all day. Here’s the beginning of what I came up with so far:
Soothing Sounds by Maria L. Berg 2021 (recommend listening with headphones).
I’m starting to explore my feelings about sleep in my daily poems, and since I rediscovered my Z filter, I’m catching lots of dreamy Zs in my photos. So some imagery is starting to take shape.
Dreamscapes One and Two by Maria L. Berg 2021
December Daily Prompts by Maria L. Berg 2021 Please leave your links in the comments. I hope you will join me.
Experience Writing 