Clunk & Jam .
Through the clunks and jams and carriage returns of the dusty old beast that rides my desk, I slap silence with letters on waving arms, clunking out truth on a black rubber roll, as jams slow the rush and errors have a say.
Footnote: ‘Clunk & Jam’ is the title of the book. The book was typed on an old manual typewriter – Clunk & Jam being the sound of the typing and also the above poem about the process.
(Making Clunk & Jam second edition, 2019)
Occasionally she lost sight of hope.
(Clunk & Jam, 2019 book).
Art by George Frederic Watts (1886). Original in colour.
Martin Luther King Jr based his 1959 sermon, ‘Shattered Dreams’, on the theme of a 1886 painting called, ‘Hope’.
Excerpt:
‘We must determine how we live in a world where our highest hopes are not fulfilled. What does one do under such circumstances?
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The Artist Crime of The Century .
Imagine … sitting in the waiting room of a dentist surgery, flipping through a newspaper. You spot a sketch of the proposed Twin Tower buildings in New York. In that moment you decide, upon completion of the buildings, you will (illegally) string a tightrope wire between the towers (450 metres high) and attempt the impossible. And you do it. Not once, but you dance (and kneel and lay) along the wire, crossing back and forth 8 times. Philippe Petite devoted years to making his dream a reality -along with loyal supporters. A friend told me this story and recommended the movie ‘Man on Wire’. I return to it time and time again for inspiration and strength – and the message that we must prepare our steps well but also be prepared to step back from the wire when those steps don’t feel right to take.
Find in Clunk & Jam book. See ‘Man on Wire’ documentary film, 2008).
The New Brave .
If it is brave to be tough – is it not also brave to show sensitivity?
If it is brave to fight in anger – is it not also brave to not fight the sadness?
If it is brave to get on with it – is it not also brave to sit still in it?
If it is brave to confront something – is it not also brave to choose to retreat?
If it is brave to hold emotion back and in – is it not also brave to feel it? If it is brave to be in the spotlight – is it not also brave to be alone?
Pictured book page from Clunk & Jam. Pic from The Concise Oxford Dictionary and ‘Mary Poppins’ book.
What’s with all the smiley faces – things are not really that great.
The one thing she disliked most was false optimism 🙂 And it was making its mark everywhere, particularly in emails and text messages 🙂 Sometimes people even shouted happiness :)!!! But was all this just a disguise? Were people really that happy :/ She sensed the world increasingly turning away from those who weren’t feeling all that happy right now 🙁 Opting for the pretense of living fairy tale lives:) That made her feel sad. 🙁 As did the effect of so many colons and wrong way brackets consuming a perfectly good language.
See this Rose who is free from the labor of smiling. This Rose about dealing with all matters of the emotional kind. This Rose is curious about the origin of sadness.
(Clunk & Jam book 2019)
Donated some copies of Clunk & Jam, Wisdoms of Rose, cards and paste-ups to Condell Growers and Sharers community library and vege garden in Condell Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne.
