daily life/art/culture/justice and how they merge, clash, & play inside my northern state of mind (set in Hokkaido and Minnesota)
photo by keiko fukue 2007 The recipe to life isn’t complex. A few basic ingredients: clean water, food, shelter, and hugs, blended with generous dollops of humor, compassion for the downtrodden, respect for all life. Cultivate the seedlings of self-love with care. Sprinkle yourself with red pepper upon a dark occasion, and pour on the […]
A milestone has been reached. My son said his first three-word sentence last evening, and he said it with such pleasure. My heart blossomed into a giant sunflower–and he is my sun: He shouted, “Lion says Raaawr!” How many of us can claim a first sentence of such power? Which leads me to a fable […]
“Trying to own water makes no more sense than trying to own love –it is the flow that matters.” -Sarah Ruth Vangelden, Yes! Magazine (Winter 2004) On May Day my family all packed up and headed to see the big May Day celebration at Powderhorn park. About 30,000 people celebrate in the park every year—and […]
Here’s a pic of Masa and Elizabeth in the afterglow of May Day celebrations.
(University of Minnesota Arboretum in autumn, 2006, photo by me) This poem is a prayer for space and solitude and I have built it word by word, star by star, leaf by leaf, and snowflakes times thirty three. It stands here like a red brick house constructed with sturdy hands and baked in the oven […]