Spirit Houses Glowing

These are part of a more complex project from Maternal Mitochondria to be disclosed later! But very excited these fairy or spirit houses are coming along.

Secret Art & Poetry Trail

Maternal Mitochondria, collaborative duo of me and Isabel Winson-Sagan, is excited to share the news that our geochache trail is up!

Walk the path to find them all! 6 tiny sculptures with marbled messages. And a 7th, at the end, where you can sign the log.

Here is a bit of the hidden poem:

it’s dangerous
to hide all of your spirit
outside of yourself

and yet this land
compels all of those
who walk it.

Instructions are up at
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC78VPK_hidden-poem

For those of you who don’t geocache–just find your way to Santa Fe Skies RV Park at the start of Route 14, exiting from I-25.
Park near the office. A very short walk into the park leads you to the dog walking path on your right. Start there! It is less than a half hour easy walk round trip.

Geocaches never involve digging–each container is hung, but hidden.

And you don’t have to dress up, although I did:

Geocache Coming Along

Isabel Winson-Sagan has been doing some design work on the poetry and art geocache.

These are possible designs for the text. It will be cut up and rolled into little scrolls and hidden in the eggs.

Hoping to install on the path next month!

Revision Process Based on Physical Limitations

I originally wrote this poem for the geocache Iz and I are doing inside the painted eggs:

shell of the cosmos
cracks with light
yolk of suns

chickens in the yard
cluck over their bit of earth
beneath the rooster’s comb

follow the trail
with your dog, taking a stroll
with your heart on a leash

things also allow us—
the report of rain,
raven feather, the past

a deathless ogre in the fairytale
store a soul in a needle
in a nest in a tree

in an egg
in a Canadian goose
in a jackrabbit

locked in an iron chest
buried beneath a green juniper
in the Chihuahuan desert

it’s dangers
to hide all of your spirit
outside of yourself

and yet this land
compels all of those
who walk it.

But then we realized it was too long, we weren’t looking for that many sections So I reduced it:

shell of the cosmos
cracks with light
yolk of suns

follow the trail
with your dog, taking a stroll
with your heart on a leash

a deathless ogre in the fairytale
stores a soul in a needle
in a nest in a tree

locked in an iron chest
buried beneath a green juniper
in the Chihuahuan desert

it’s dangerous
to hide all of your spirit
outside of yourself

and yet this land
compels all of those
who walk it.

It’s obviously better for the project, and it is tighter. A little something has been lost–maybe in terms of music–but such is revision. Your thoughts? Have you ever experienced this?

Geocached Poetry!

Isabel and I are working on designing a poetry geocache at Santa Fe Skies RV Park. It will be along the dog path, and consists of a series of cages, each containing a painted egg.

Inside each egg will be a suminagashi scroll, with part of a poem on it.

In preparation, we created a geocache of haiku signs on the westside (https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC75VNF_haiku-signs). Rather to our surprise, we immediately had visitors. We made a few mistakes, which folks were happy to help us correct. It now seems to be running smoothly–and people are enjoying the haiku treasure hunt.

Hitting The Pavement: Geo-caching and Activism with Maternal Mitochondria

What is maternal mitochondria? It’s genetic material–probably non-human–that allows cells to metabolize energy. There are 7 types–the 7 mothers from whom we are all descended, after differentiating from our common African ancestress, the original Eve.
My daughter Isabel swabbed the inside of her cheek some years ago and sent the sample to National Geographic. We share the most common form in Europe.
And it makes a great name for our ongoing mother-daughter collaboration in the arts! 2017 is our designated work year. One of our first projects was to figure out geocaching, so we could hypothetically geocache some poetry.
Here we are, starting off befuddled in the Railyard, only to…voila…find a tiny something hidden in a tree:

And this, too…

The project seems more doable after this experiential research.
Since Donald Trump’s election, we’ve also added on a more community based element to our self-education. So far, we’ve been to synagogue, non-violent training, and are headed to a city counselors meeting. More as it develops!