The Birds of Christmas

Christmas Cardinal painting 2006

Lo the birds of Christmas

are searching for some seeds

on winter's frosty mornings

so remember nature's needs,

and toss a little fodder

to our feathered friends

in thankfulness for songs they sing

when this long winter ends.

~Kathie Adams Brown (December 9, 2004)

The Colors of Christmas

The Fragile Web

We are all connected,
I heard the ancients say
In a web of life
That trembles with each breath
A fragile state
For all of us
For if the web
Becomes undone
Then so shall all
Fall.

~Kathie Adams Brown (December 15, 2009)

One Single Impression: Spider's Web

In the Womb of the Word

Hyper-colored photo by Kathie Brown 11-5-09

In the womb it starts,
Blood pulsing, hear throbbing, bone forming,
Life!
Thoughts forming, song singing, mind boggling
Forces
Creating
Becoming
Believing
Sharp pains,
Struggling,
Rushing gushing
Bounding towards the light
Birthing out the beginning
Beginning at the end
Creative rush
Creative flush
Beginning once again.

~kathie adams brown 11-24-09

Under the Milky Way

Under the Milky Way I sit
A star bridge arching above me
Before me the flickering flames of a campfire
Smoke thoughts rising to the sky
And before the last ember fades,
Before the last flame has licked
The fragrant wood,
And crumbled into ash,
I capture this warmth inside me,
I capture the silent sky,
I swallow the universe in wonder,
And howl my contentment to the moon,
For I am a wild thing
On this starry, silent night.


~Kathie Adams Brown (11-8-09)

Prompt: reincarnation

Departed

The Big Lost River near Arco, ID 1987

I never knew when I departed
That I would long for you like this,
That I would awaken in the darkest night
Restless and searching,
And wanting to come home to you.
I did not know your form
Would be imprinted on my brain,
You scent would linger like a kiss
On my memory.

I did not know it would be years
Before I would see you again
And that in seeing you
I would never be able to come back to you
Until my last breath has departed
And I rest in your earth once again.

~Kathie Adams Brown (11-8-09)

OSI Prompt: Departed

A Cloud is an Elusive Thing

Thunderheads over Sycamore Canyon 10-20-09

A cloud is an elusive thing,
An ephemeral wisp, a temporary ghost,
As it floats across the sky
Changing form as fast as wind can sculpt it.
With unseen hands the master
Carves the soft and tattered edges
While here below on solid ground
I watch the artist work
And as I watch I wonder
About the great blue sky,
And galaxies beyond,
And my small life here,
On this shifting ground.
So which is more ephemeral?
The clouds which tears apart
Only to form once again
or me?
For here I stand this moment
Solid as can be
Never to return,
And even now the answer to this question
Eludes me.

~kathie adams brown (October 20, 2009)

One Single Impression Prompt: Elusive

Locust Birds

Like an army of locust
the fierce finch flocks descend
devouring greenery as they go
in this dry desert
where no tender shoots are safe
from beaks that gobble,
beaks that grab,
beaks that tear
and swallow.

~kathiesbirds (June 16, 2008)

OSI Prompt: Conquer

Brown Creeper

Brown Creeper 10-11-09 by Kathiesbirds

graphite and prisma color on paper.

My talisman arrived in autumn
On cryptic wings
Clinging
To the rough bark of a pine
Creeping
Up the solid girth
On tiny feet
With curved beak
Probing
In dark crevices
For that juicy morsel
That food, that sustenance
To carry us through winter
A plain bird
A subtle thing
It brought me life
On cryptic wings.

~Kathie Adams Brown (10-11-09)

OSI Prompt: Talisman

My Chair is My Window: OSI

photo by Kathie with the Nikon D80

My chair becomes my window
As I relax into a dream
In my secret garden
Where all my thoughts take wing
I fly out thorough this window
To galaxies beyond
I visit many places
I have never been before
I feel the earth beneath me
And a zephyr brush my face
I feel the warmth of sunlight—
Breathe the fragrance of new mown hay
I hear bird song in my ear and
The voice of love calling my name
In my secret garden
As I relax into my chair,
As I relax into a dream.

~Kathie 8-3-09

OSI Prompt: Window

Bloodlines

Morning shadows fall
on the white stable
of thoroughbreds waiting
for alfalfa
green and fragrant.

I lift the bales
And think of my grandfather
Feeding his cattle
Four decades ago,
And know
That I carry his blood
In my veins.

I hear
the munching,
grinding, contentment
of horses being fed.

I feel
the blood pumping
connection
of labor and sweat,
and providing for
these animals,
this hay.

I toss another flake,
and stand almost alone
in a flurry of floating green.

~Kathie Adams Brown
(September 11, 2000)

Happy Birthday Grandpa! I still miss you.

OSI Prompt 51: Spectral