Tag Archives: Redbubble

#SoCS: Celebrating 100 Days

Feet on the Ground by Maria L. Berg 2022

If you’re curious and want to look back over what I created every day for 100 days, you can click on October 2021 in the column on the right under Archives, and hit “older posts” at the bottom of each page until you get to October 1st when this posting streak started.

Head in the Sky by Maria L. Berg 2022

Stream of Consciousness

It’s stream of consciousness Saturday. The prompt for today is “In the.”

Wading In

In the gray
in the office warming
in the office chair
in the house that
rejected its drainpipe
tossed it to the porch
In the expectation
of a possible visit
for repair In the
cleaner, but still messy
interior with the vacuum out
and waiting in the fifth
hour since waking, still hazy
drinking coffee and
chomping on a candy cane
In the morning pages
in the artist sketchbook
in the middle of the desk
I let the words flow in the
stream of consciousness I hope
to wade in all day

New Poem

For today’s new poem prompt I browsed my WordPress Reader and found:

Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC). Today’s word is Answer.

Paeansunplugged’s Ragtag Daily Prompt Saturday is Clean Slate.

Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt #243 is Temerity. This challenge includes a word limit of exactly 69 words.

Facing the Future

If, after a year of temerity,
one finds oneself in disparity
and wishing for a clean slate

wait, and think if erasure
is truly the only answer
before taking such a drastic step

all those hard-earned failures
failed better to face again
and the neural trauma
it will take to clear
every foolish and rash
deed from your pate

might be worth this heap
of embarrassment
in the end

Kitty Yells 100! by Maria L. Berg 2022

And we have arrived! Here we are at the end of the journey: 100 days of photographs and poetry. It has been fun, and I have explored so many new ideas, techniques, and forms. I hope you have enjoyed my triumphs and failures through this writing experience. I’m going to attempt a week (or two) off, then come back with some new experiences for 2022.

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.

Happy Reading and Writing!

#SoCS: Resolve to Dissolve

Sky Writing by Maria L. Berg 2022

Today, in response to Of Maria Antonia’s 2022 Weekly Photo Challenge prompt “A New Year,” I tried something I’ve been thinking about. Using the same clear plastic that I used for my “snowglobes,” I created a filter with written words and put them in the world. This opens up so many possibilities, an exciting discovery to start the year.

Snow Writing by Maria L. Berg 2022

Stream of Consciousness

It’s stream of consciousness Saturday. The prompt for today is “resolve.” I am resolved to have a day of stream of consciousness. Let those thoughts flow unfettered. When I looked up resolve, I was surprised to find it’s almost a janus word. It has the definition I expected: to come to a definite or earnest decision, but it also means to break up or disintegrate. It also has the musical meaning to progress from dissonance to consonance which could work well as a triple meaning in a poem. If my song ends resolved, is it determined to act, dissolved and broken, or just not dissonant? It can also mean to clear away or dispel (doubts, fears, etc.), so in that way it is a janus because if you resolve an issue, you can come to a decision about it or clear it away and dispel it.

New Poem

For today’s new poem prompt I browsed my WordPress Reader and found:

Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC). Today’s word is Harbinger. I am a big fan of the word harbinger.

Paeansunplugged’s Ragtag Daily Prompt Saturday is Light.

Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt #242 is Goodnight. This challenge includes a word limit of exactly 45 words.

On the Cusp

We have said goodnight but
light’s fingertips grip the horizon
the triumphs and horrors dissolve
and for a moment peacefulness
smells like melting orange dreamsicles
and the chill of brain-freeze
does not hurt but excites
almost every note I breathe
is a harbinger of resolve

A Bright & Shiny New Year by Maria L. Berg 2022
Dreaming of a Happy New Year by Maria L. Berg 2022

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.

Happy Reading and Writing!

Return with the Snowglobe

Waking Up Inside a Snowglobe by Maria L. Berg 2021

This morning I received a real snowglobe world.

My Snowglobe Footprint by Maria L. Berg 2021

New Poem

The prompt at Poetic Bloomings today is Prompt #366 – Many Happy Returns which challenges us to write a return poem.

Fleeting

She will never return
that woman of yesterday
before this morning’s snow
before the candycane
melted in this coffee
she is but a blip of history
a snug memory
of the woman I used to be
She will never return
that woman of this morning
before putting on boots
to make footsteps in the snow
before grabbing the camera
to make snowglobes
before jumping back
under the covers
to cuddle with the cat
and listen to him purr
she was still half asleep
and she stayed there
with all the possibilities
ahead of her
I will never return
the me staring out the window
at the large white flakes
falling from the thick gray
meeting the water, so I
really do feel like I’m
in a snowglobe
I am but a moment
now a snug memory
a blip in history
I will never return

Receiving Snow 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.

Happy Reading and Writing!

#SoCS: Everything is yummy when you give it away.

The Spirit of Altruism by Maria L. Berg 2021

Today’s prompt, altruism, inspired me to finally make an open hand bokeh filter. I like how it turned out. Then I had fun filling it.

Giving is Growing by Maria L. Berg 2021

Stream of Consciousness

It’s stream of consciousness Saturday. The prompt for today is “yum.” My family gathered for gift giving last night and my mother made the most delicious strawberry cake. Yum. This morning I put the super-soft slipper socks that my sister gave me onto my frozen feet and wow they are yummy. I opened the Starbucks mug from my bother and it came with Holiday coffee which I am drinking. Yum. And it’s perfect with the old fashioned donut holes I bought for this morning’s breakfast. Yum. But the yummiest was waking up to my favorite kitty who came to cuddle with me and gave me loud purrs for Christmas. So yummy.

Handful 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:

Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC). Today’s word is Memento.

Paeansunplugged’s Ragtag Daily Prompt Saturday is Gift.

Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt #241 is Din. This challenge includes a word limit of exactly 19 words.

Weihnachtsgespann

Through the din
of crumpling paper
and electronic toys
she presented an
unwrapped gift,
a delicate memento
to cherish.

Helping Hands 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.

Happy Reading and Writing!

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Jingle Bells by Maria L. Berg 2021

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.

Happy Reading and Writing!

#SoCS: Nostalgia for Opposites or the Opposite of Nostalgia

Picking the Happy Memories by Maria L. Berg 2021

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:

Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC). Today’s word is Bite.

Paeansunplugged’s Ragtag Daily Prompt Saturday is Variegated Skies.

Quickly’s prompt is Pretending.

Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt #240 is Pavonine: of or resembling a peacock. This challenge includes a word limit of exactly 81 words.

A Peacock-Feather Fan

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.

Happy Reading and Writing!

Lighting My World

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.

Happy Reading and Writing!

Calming Winter Cocoa

Steamy Cocoa by Maria L. Berg 2021

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.

Happy Reading and Writing!

Winter Traditions

Traditional by Maria L. Berg 2021

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.

Happy Reading and Writing!

Each Snowflake is Unique

Snowflakes on the Lake by Maria L. Berg 2021

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.

Happy Reading and Writing!