Friday, January 07, 2011

Sole Readers




What histories are written in the feet? Who can read the lines? Steps through the years. The earth presses against our feet. Ancient bone runes, graveyards rising, shoes fill with dirt, with seeds that unfurl cartographies inscribed in swirls of lines, ridges and hollows that map life in calloused, toughened skin.

These animal pads.

Their
finely boned dance.



____



If you click on any image it'll take you to the album, and a larger slideshow if you so wish.



Into the bathroom I went with a large pad of paper, dark acrylic paint, a cleaned shrimp sauce container from Christmas day for water, a large brush and shouted to my daughter, 'I'm taking off my jeans, don't be embarrassed!' I laid an old dog towel and paper towels on the floor, poured some water into the tub with bubble bath creating a pool of a few inches of warm water.

I painted the soles of my feet, and stood, stomped, painted some more, took specimens, footprints, identifying etchings. The bottom of my feet were dark sepia black.

Then I scrubbed my soles clean with a sponge in the bath, watched the grey water swirl down the drain.

After I used a daylight bulb and took these photos. For the visceral, the real. Animal pads, baby!

Feet that done a bunch of walkin' through a whole crunch of years, oh yeah!


___
Written for Big Tent Poetry prompt: feet.


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15 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:28 AM

    Boy, did you have fun with this prompt, Brenda! So did I, but your haibun is so imaginativer. I loved the picture show.

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  2. A really original visual and verbal take on the theme.

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  3. Wow! I love your creative take on the feet prompt! You painted the perfect picture in my head.

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  4. How often we ignore our feet, and take them for granted! I thought this was a beautiful posting, Brenda.

    Sam x

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  5. Wow! What a wonderful celebration of the prompt. Really makes me want to try your visual process on my own feet. Love the whole of it.

    Elizabeth

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  6. Brenda this is fantastic. I can see you had fun with this.
    Pamela

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  7. Brenda this is fantastic. I can see you had fun with this.
    Pamela

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  8. Anonymous11:03 AM

    How Fun! Love the poem and the feet!

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  9. Hey, thanks everyone!

    Viv, Dick, Laurie, Sam, Elizabeth, Pam, Jeanne, & Linda!

    It was a sudden rush late last night. I had to get out my bare feet.

    Though perhaps the description of the footprinting process may have taken away from the seriousness of the prosepoem, I'm not sure.

    One might have inclined towards art; the other, camp.

    Like our two feet, huh?

    from (haha)
    Stomping Tom Brenda

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  10. Fantastic! I love the poem and your process of exploring your feet. "Animal pads" is awesome.

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  11. Anonymous7:42 PM

    I love the phrase "ancient bone ruins" as well as the last two lines.
    Wonderful response.

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  12. gorgeous poem. the images are packed and the distillation at the end perfect.

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  13. Very, very nice - full of beauty, thought and vibrancy.

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  14. Thanks, everyone -you're all so sweet!

    Sweet on the feet.

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A Pulsing Imagination - Ray Clews' Paintings

A video of some of my late brother Ray's paintings and poems I wrote for them. Direct link: https://youtu.be/V8iZyORoU9E ___