Play It Again, Toads

Greetings, dearest Toads! Margaret couldn’t make it this weekend, so we must Play It Again without her. But worry not, she’s just busy at the moment and will be back soon to delight us with her photos and words.

I stole an image Mama Zen borrowed from Pinterest. I love the quote. Also, Mama Zen’s prompt is one of my three choices for today:

1. Words Count with Mama Zen: “Is your life a circus?” (A dangerous thing to ask these days, I know.)

2. The Way of Tea: create a poem based on a quote by Sen No Rikyu, poet and tea aficionado.

3.  Kerry’s Wednesday Challenge ~ Gods in Nature: write a poem from the perspective of an ancient god or goddess, “contemplating existence in the present era.”

Please write a new poem for this prompt. Choose one of the three I’ve provided, or feel free to go archive hunting. Make sure to let us know which challenge you are choosing (include the specific link in your post). Speaking of specifics and of hungry linking tools, do feed a direct link to your knew poem to Mr. Linky. Then visit other Toads. We love sharing the words blooming in our gardens. 

Play It Again, Toads

Hi Friends, Margaret is very busy this week, so I am filling in to bring you her wonderful feature: Play It Again, Toads. I had fun looking back through all of the wonderful possibilities, and found three I think we will have a lot of fun with. Let's dive in!

Street Poem by Susie Clevenger

First up is Susie's Taking It To the Streets, to create some street poetry that is uplifting, like her wonderful example above.

Artist Rachel Pentergrass

Photo by Margaret Bednar

Or you might enjoy Margaret's Dolls, Revisited, from Artistic Interpretations by Margaret, taking inspiration from some marvelous dolls created by her daughter and her daughter's classmates. Choose one and tell us a story.

painting by Gerda Wegener

Another possibility is Shay's prompt at Fireblossom Friday: The Art of Gerda Wegener. Choose one of the gorgeous paintings, and take it as far as you like, remembering that Gerda's favorite model was Lili, formerly Gerda's husband, Einer, who became Lili during their marriage. (If you have seen The Danish Girl, Gerda's art will really speak to you.)

You may also browse the sidebar archive (2011 to 2016), and choose something else, if you prefer. Just let us know which prompt you are writing to.

Have fun! Then link your new poem, and take some time to enjoy the work of our fellow poets.

Play it Again, Toads

Welcome to the 25th Play it Again, Toads! where archived challenges of this Imaginary Garden come to life again.  Have fun exploring the side bar (2011 - 2016) and selecting your own or choose from three I've highlighted below.

As always, you are not required to use one of my photos for this prompt, however if you do, please be sure to use it with an archived challenge.  The art work is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art - a place I try to always visit when I am in NYC.

Please submit an original poem and link you specific post to Mr. Linky below and be sure to make it clear which challenge you are resurrecting by including a link to it as well.

As always, please be neighborly and visit the other wonderful poets who participate.

1)  Mary's Mixed Bag:  Poetry of the Ordinary

2)  Fireblossom Friday:  The Crack in Everything

3)  Brudberg:   Not a Sestina but Close

(Click on images to enlarge...)

detail - Peter Paul Rubens oil/wood "The Triumph of Henry IV 1630

The above energetic sketch: shows Henry IV (1553-1610), King of France, entering Paris "in the manner of the triumphs of the Romans," as described in Ruben's contract of 1622.  Rubens was to paint forty-eight large canvases for the king's widow, Marie de' Medici, to decorate the Palais de Luxembourg.  Those depicting her life (Louvre, Paris) were finished in 1624, but of the companion series only the enormous Triumph of Henry IV (Uffizi, Florence) was  completed before the Marie's banishment from France in 1631.  The present oil sketch is the last of four in which Rubens worked out his heroic allegory of an actual event.

Jacob Vosmaer oil/wood "A Vase w/ Flowers 1613

The Delft painter Jacob Vosmaer was an early if not pioneering specialist in the painting of flower pictures, which often depict rare specimens known to the artists solely from illustrated books.  At some time before 1870 this panel was trimmed on the sides and cut down (about nine inches) at the top, cropping the crown imperial.  

Seymour Joseph Guy oil/canvas 1870 "Story of Golden Locks"

As a girl reads Goldilocks and the Three Bears to two little boys tucked in bed, her menacing shadow and the wide eyes suggest that she is recounting the story's most frightening moment.  At this time, fairy tales were appreciated for their moral content, and Goldilocks, in particular, for warning children not to wander off on their own.  Later interpreters have construed the tale as signaling a girl's search for identity as she approaches womanhood.  Guy's female subject creates a sense of foreboding even as she exudes calm, foretelling her future success as a mother.  Her doll is stashed in the box on the chair, implying that she is ready to put away childish games and assume an adult role. 

Pedro de Mena "Ecce Homo & Mater Dolorosa "1674-85

Carved wood sculpture, enhanced by paint and other media, including glass eyes and hair, reached a pinnacle of naturalism and expressive force in 17th-century Spain.  Pedro de Mena's virtuoso manipulation of these materials created startling likenesses of bodies and clothing.  They encourage in the beholder an empathetic response to the suffering of mother and son, who appear as exemplars of worldly forbearance in the face of tragedy.  Carved details such as the twisted and knotted rope binding Christ's hands or the Virgin's thin, deeply undercut drapery are joined by the subtle and descriptive painting in thin glazes of the silver and red brocade of the Virgin's tunic and the bruises that cover Christ's flesh.  Men's desire was to make the figures seem physically present before the viewer.  At the same time, they have a dignity and reserve that made them ideal works for contemplation.

Pedro de mena "Ecce Homo & Mater Dolorosa" 1674-85 

                                                   

El Greco (1541-1614) Oil/canvas "View of Toledo"

In this, his greatest surviving landscape, El Greco portrays the city he lived and worked in for most of his life.  The painting belongs to the tradition of emblematic city views, rather than a faithful documentary description.  The view of the eastern section of Toledo from the north would have excluded the cathedral, which the artist therefore imaginatively moved to the left of the Alcazar (the royal palace).  Other building represented in the painting include the ancient Alcantara Bridge, and on the other side of the river Tagus, the Castle of San Servando. 

Charles Sprague Pearce Oil/canvas 1882 "Arab Jeweler"

Boston-born Charles Sprague Pearce belonged to the generation of American artists who increasingly settled in France in the post-Civil War years.  Like that of his celebrated Parisian teacher, Leon Bonnet, Pearce explored a range of subjects throughout his successful expatriate career.  A four-month excursion along the Nile in the early 1870's led to a particular interest in "exotic," or Orientalist themes, such as the ambitious portrayal of a native craftsman.  

John Singer Sargent Oil/canvas  1883-84  "Madame X"

Madame Pierre Gaudreau (the Louisiana-born Virginie Amelie Avegno; 1859-1915) was known in Paris for her artful appearance.  Sargent hoped to enhance his reputation by painting and exhibiting her portrait.  Working without a commission but with his sitter's complicity, he emphasized her daring personal style, showing the right strap of her gown slipping from her shoulder.  At the Salon of 1884, the portrait received more ridicule than praise.  Sargent repainted the shoulder strap and kept the work for over thirty years.  When, eventually he sold it to the Metropolitan, he commented, "I suppose it is the best thing I have done," but asked that the Museum disguise the sitter's name.

Play It Again, Toads!

Hello, all. This is Kerry stepping in for Margaret (with pics by Karin). I know of the massive snow storm that has hit the East coast of the USA and expect that some of our members may be without internet connection this weekend.

I skipped back over our previous January prompts and selected the following three for reprisal:

1.  Words Count with Mama Zen (2014)

2.  Sunday Mini-Challenge with Susan Chast (2013)

3. Weekend Photo Challenge with Fireblossom (2012)

Alternately, you may select any prompt from our archives. Please remember to provide a link back to the original post. All photos are courtesy of Karin Gustafson. Stay warm, everyone!

Play it Again, Toads!

Bada Shanren (Zhu Da) Qing Dynasty 1702
Hanging Scroll; ink on paper
"Two Eagles"

Welcome to the 24th Play it Again, Toads! where archived challenges of this Imaginary Garden come to life again.  Have fun exploring the sidebar (2011-2015) and selecting your own or choose one from three I've highlighted below.

This is a time of year for contemplation and hopefully anticipation.  I want to thank each of you for your wonderful poetry this past year and hope you will continue to play along with "Play it Again, Toads!" challenges in 2016!

As usual, you are not required to use a photo for this poetry prompt - but you may use one of these for inspiration if you like.  These images are from my latest visit to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Please submit an original poem and link your specific post to Mr. Linky below and be sure to make it clear which challenge you are resurrecting by including a link. 

As always, please be neighborly and visit the other wonderful poets who participate.

1)  A word with Laurie: Review

2)  Fireblossom:  Calling All Angels

3)  Jukebox - a You Tube musical video challenge  Our Herotomost was given a personal challenge from Isadora Gruye, but I thought it might be fun to open this idea up to everyone.  

"Two Women Sitting in Shade
of Sycamore Tree"
Dynasty 19 reign of Seti
1294-1279 BC

The little sycamore that she herself planted

Opens its mouth to speak

The words coming forth from its mouth

Overflow with honey.

It is perfect its branches beautiful,

Blooming and strong,

Laden with ripe and unripe figs

That are redder than jasper.

Its leaves like turquoise,

With the gleam of glass.

It attracts those who have yet to come:

"Come spread a day of beauty,

Morning after morning, up to three days, While

seated in (my) shade...

I am discreet and do not say what I see.

I will not breathe a word."

This is a poem presented with the above image at the museum.  I don't know who wrote it and I don't know if it is a translation of something old.  Perhaps you can use the poem for inspiration in some way...  

Altar bowl with winged animal among waves
China, Ming dynasty, Chenghua period  1465-87
Porcelain painted with cobalt blue under and
red enamel over transparent glaze
(Jingdezhen ware)

Dancing Celestial
India (Uttar Pradesh) early 12th century
Sandstone

Vase - China, Qing dynasty 1644-1911
early nineteenth century
Porcelain painted with colored enamels
over a transparent glaze (Jingdezhen ware)

Play it Again, Toads! #23

Mandarin Ducks (Asia)

Welcome to the 23rd Play it Again, Toads! where archived challenges of this Imaginary Garden come to life again.  Have fun exploring the sidebar (2011-2015) and selecting your own or choose one from three I've highlighted below.

The photos were taken at Prospect Park Zoo, Brooklyn this past week.  You are not required to use a photo in your poetry prompt - but you may use one for inspiration if you like.

Please submit an original poem and link your specific post to Mr. Linky below and be sure to make it clear which challenge you are resurrecting by including a link. 

As always, please be neighborly and visit the other wonderful poets.

1)  Imagined by Kerry - "Ingrid Jonker" 

2)  Imagined by Marian - "Music, Gratitude Edition: A Walk on The Wild Side"

3)  Imagined by Brudberg  - "Time-travel"

Elliot's Pheasant (Southeastern China)

Peacock (India)

Black-necked Crane (Asia)

Play It Again, Toads!

 Welcome to the 22nd Play it Again, Toads!  where archived challenges of this Imaginary Garden come to life again.  Have fun exploring the archived challenges from the sidebar (2011-2015) or choose one from three I've highlighted below.

Most of the photos were taken last weekend in North Carolina's Appalachian Mountain area - fairly close to the Virginia state border.    In a few months... my "backyard"

Please submit an original poem and link your specific post to Mr. Linky below and be sure to make it clear which challenge you are resurrecting by including a link. You may use my photos, but it is not required.

As always, please be neighborly and visit the other wonderful poets.

1)    Imagined by Kerry O'Connor "Paul Laurence Dunbar - 7 line stanza poem"

2)    Imagined by Grapling "Masks"

3)    Imagined by Herotomost "Its ma thing.... nostalgia"

Play It Again, Toads!

Val d'Aosta (A Stream over Rocks), 1907-8 John Singer Sargent Oil on Canvas

This landscape painting is set in Val d'Aosta, in the Alps bordering Italy and Switzerland, where the London-based American portrait painter John Singer Sargent often made summer visits.  Here, Sargent characteristically composed a view that revealed his immediate experience of the place, foregoing an expansive mountain vista in favor of the running brook at his feet.  Inspired by Impressionist landscape painting and especially the work of Claude Monet, this horizonless view verges on two dimensional pattern, owing to Sargent's emphasis on the effects of brilliant light on moving water.

Welcome to the 21st Play it Again, Toads! where archived challenges of this Imaginary Garden come to life again.  Have fun exploring the archived challenges from the sidebar (2011-2015) or choose one from three I've highlighted below.

The photos are available to use with this Play it Again challenge, but not required.   I took these photos while visiting the Brooklyn Museum.  I have included information beneath each painting as I find it interesting and I hope you do as well.

Please submit an original poem and link your specific post to Mr. Linky below and be sure to make it clear which challenge you are resurrecting by including a link.

As always, please be neighborly and visit the other wonderful poets.

1)  Imagined by Kerry - Feature Artist Kelly Letky

2)  Ella's Edge - Fashion

3)  A Word with Laurie - Allegro: Eight Lines, One Minute!

A Ride for Liberty-The Fugitive Slaves, Eastman Johnson, 1862  oil/paperboard

In this powerful simplified composition, Eastman Johnson portrayed a family of fugitive slaves charging for the safety of Union lines in the dull light of dawn.  The absence of white figures in this liberation subject makes it virtually unique in art of the period - these African Americans are independent agents of their own freedom.  Johnson claimed to have based the painting on an actual event he witnessed near the Manassas, Virginia, battlefield on March 2, 1862, just days before the Confederate stronghold was ceded to Union forces.

Following is a poem written by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (African-American poet) that was posted with Eastman Johnson's painting:

"Eliza Harris"
In agony close to her bosom she press'd
The life of her heart, the child of her breast: -
Oh! love from its tenderness gathering might,
Had strengthen'd her soul for the dangers of flight.
But she's free! - yes, free from the land where the slave
From the hand of oppression must rest in the grave;
Where bondage and torture, where scourges and chains
Have placed on our banner indelible stains.

View of Brooklyn Bridge, Samuel Halpert (1884-1930) (no date) oil on canvas

Perhaps no painting is more closely identified with the Museum's American art collection than this scene of what was a portion of downtown Brooklyn in 1820 - a work that was purchased for the fledgling Brooklyn Institute (the museum's forerunner) in 1846.  Painted from the vantage point of the artist's second-story window facing Front Street ... at the heart of the image was the "old-fashioned" Dutch-style barnyard of Abiel Titus - a feature that greatly contrasted with the elegant stone row-houses that were included at the left of the scene before the painting was damaged by fire in 1881.  

Ram's Head, White Hollyhock -Hills, Georgia O'Keeffe, 1935, oil on canvas

"I had looked out on the hills for weeks and painted them again and again - had climbed and ridden over them - so beautifully soft, so difficult...  I could see them - farther away - from my window in the rain.  So I tried again.  They seemed right with the Ram's head.  I don't remember where I picked up the head - or the hollyhock.  Flowers were planted among the vegetables in the garden between the house and the hills and I probably picked the hollyhock one day as I walked past.  My paintings sometimes grow by pieces from what's around."  George O'Keeffe

The Shepherdess, Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1880's, oil on wood

Often described as visionary or proto-modernist, Albert Pinkham Ryder painted small works that were mysterious in feeling, owing to his often-vague description of form, use of a dark or limited palette, and evocation of uncertain moods.  In "The Shepherdess", Ryder was most likely inspired by similar subjects by the French artist Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.

The Waste of Waters is Their Field, Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1880's, oil on panel

Albert Pinkham Ryder was regarded as a visionary and experimental painter among Centennial-era artists.  He often addressed the theme of human destiny, as played out in literature or the Bible, but he rendered his subjects with highly simplified or expressively exaggerated forms and densely textured surfaces that challenged the visual expectations of his audience.  Ryder based this seascape on a poem by the Englishman Robert Southey that recounted the ocean voyage of a medieval king to the New World:  Day after day, day after same day... a weary waste of waters!"

The complete poem by Robert Southey can be found at: Poetry Nook.

Play it Again, Toads!

Rain rolling toward Clingman's Dome

Welcome to the 20th Play it Again, Toads! where we revisit archived challenges of this Imaginary Garden.  Have fun exploring the archived challenges from the sidebar (2011-2015) or choose one from three I've highlighted below.

I am in the midst of a move - we sold our house and are moving into a rental which will allow our daughter to finish her senior year of high school - but come June of 2016 we will move to the mountains of North Carolina.   This is why I have been a bit quiet lately - but the light is at the end of the tunnel and we DID recently take a one week vacation to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and I have a few images you may use for poetic inspiration.

I will be late in commenting as we are in a state of chaos right now but I WILL visit as soon as I can.

Please submit an original poem and link your specific post to Mr. Linky below and be sure to make it clear which challenge you are resurrecting by including a link.

As always, please be neighborly and visit the other wonderful poets.

1)  Words Count with Mama Zen "Power Image"

2)  Imagined by Kerry "William Carlos Williams"

3)  Fireblossom Friday "Lists"

Mountain Farm

Black Bear and cub

Elk in the Great Smoky Mountain Valley 

They call it The Smokies for a reason

Play it Again, Toads!

One World Trade Center (NYC) from the Staten Island Ferry

Welcome to the 19th Play it Again, Toads! where we revisit archived challenges of this Imaginary Garden.  Choose your own archived challenge from the sidebar (2011-2015) or select from three I've highlighted below.

Feel free to use my photos here for inspiration with an archived challenge if you so desire.

The iPhone photos were taken on one of my trips this summer to visit my son and daughter in New York.  Manhattan is always an experience, but I have fallen in love with Brooklyn and enjoyed Prospect Park numerous times (of which the images below are from and have been rendered in an App called "Waterlogue" for privacy).

Please submit an original poem and link your specific post to Mr. Linky below and be sure to make it clear which challenge you are resurrecting by including a link.

Please be neighborly and visit the other wonderful poets.

1)  Imagined by Kerry "Cadence in Free Verse"

2)  Imagined by  Hedgewitch "Etheree(al)"

3)  Imagined by Hannah - "Boomerang Metaphors"

NYC Skyline from Staten Island Ferry just before sunset