Daily Prompt — First one for 2016!
Woke to this hawk calling outside the bedroom window, then he followed me and the dogs on our walk.
Make art about hawks.
My New Year’s Wish For You <3 My Hope For Us All
December 31, 2015
There is an old story of a bear who goes into her den to dream the world into being during the winter. She dreams of deer, and pine, of clear water, sweet berries, and buffalo. She creates the world anew, each being, entire ecosystems, during the course of each winter, with her dreams. When she emerges into the green of spring, trailed by her cubs, she celebrates and is celebrated by all the creatures of the earth.
Centuries ago Aristotle said, “The soul cannot think without pictures. The reasoning mind thinks in the form of images… As the mind determines the objects it should pursue or avoid in terms of these images, even in the absence of sensation, it is stimulated to action when occupied with them.”
More recently, Denis Watley, a noted psychologist, brought attention again to this idea through The Secret.
We too can dream our world into being.
Visualization is similar to daydreaming. In both processes you create mental images; the difference between visualization and daydreaming is intention. Daydreaming allows your mind to wander, but when you visualize and focus on something specific, you are putting intention, all your beautiful power as a sacred soul, behind it.
It is the intention that creates the energy that creates the attraction. The attraction starts the action that produces the manifestation.
Ancient cultures understood this well. The bear, with its ability to seemingly die in winter and remerge in spring with new life, has long symbolized transformation, and the transformative power of dreams. Understanding the bear’s gifts, we have looked to this creature as teacher and guide and healer. These connections held true for ancient cultures around the world – anywhere people and bears lived together.
My New Year’s wish for all of you is that you come to know how beautiful and sacred and powerful you truly are, how powerful your dreams, and that in this coming year, you dream your perfect spring into being, that we all do. May 2016, for everyone, be filled with peace, and joy, and Love–always always Love ❤
xo
Mary
Daily Prompt
“a child carrying flowers walks toward the new year”~Bei Dao
Make art envisioning the new year.
(The Flower Carrier by Diego Rivera)
Celebrate the New Year By Sending Us Your Beautiful Work! HeartWood Call for Submissions!
December 30, 2015
HeartWood Literary Magazine
HeartWood, an online literary magazine in association with West Virginia Wesleyan’s Low-Residency MFA program, publishes twice yearly, in April and October. Our inaugural issue will go live April 2016.
Submission Guidelines
HeartWood, an online literary magazine in association with West Virginia Wesleyan’s Low-Residency MFA program, publishes twice yearly, in April and October. Our inaugural issue will go live April 2016.
We accept submissions year round through Submittable, and welcome previously unpublished poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, from both established and emerging writers. We do love Appalachian voices, but we enthusiastically encourage writers from all backgrounds to submit.
General Submissions
What We Want:
We are interested in writing that pushes into, dares to reveal, its own truth, that takes emotional risks, that gets to the heart of the matter.
Simultaneous submissions are fine, provided you notify us if the work is accepted elsewhere.
We also welcome queries from Appalachian artists (writers, visual artists, musicians, performers, folk artists, etc) interested in being included in our Appalachian Arts section.
Submission Details
Prose submissions, fiction or nonfiction, should be 3000 words or less.
Fiction: Fiction submissions may include short stories, flash fiction, or novel excerpts if the excerpt can stand alone. You may submit more than one piece of flash fiction, as long as the total word count does not exceed 3000 words.
Creative Nonfiction: We’re open to a wide range of nonfiction, with the exception of academic articles, or that which would be considered more traditionally journalistic. Personal essay, memoir, lyric, literary journalism, or some blurring in between, are all acceptable.
Poetry: Poets should submit no more than 3-5 single-spaced poems at a time. Include all poems in a single document for upload. Lyric, narrative, experimental, prose poems–we’re open to all variations of the poetic voice.
Surprise us. Make us think. Make us feel. Make our hearts race.
Appalachian Arts Interviews
We also welcome queries from Appalachian artists (writers, visual artists, musicians, performers, folk artists, etc) interested in being included in our Appalachian Arts section. We define Appalachian artists as an artist who is heavily influenced by the Appalachian region and its traditions, history, and people. At HeartWood, we are looking for artists who take these traditions and speak to them in a new and unexpected way.
To query about possible inclusion in the Appalachian Arts section: Submit the following in one document (doc, docx) through the Appalachian Arts link on our Submittable page:
- Artist bio
- Artist statement addressing what being an “Appalachian artist” means to you, how you uniquely define yourself as an Appalachian artist, and how your connection to Appalachia as you see/define it connects (or doesn’t) to your work.
- At least one link to where artwork or samples can be seen/heard (artist website, other publications, YouTube, etc).
If we’re interested, based on the query, editors will email requesting additional information and work sample.
What We’ll Do
Submissions will be responded to within three months. If you haven’t heard from us after three months, feel free to inquire by sending us a note through Submittable. If your work is accepted, HeartWood acquires first North American rights. All rights revert to the author upon publication, but we do ask for first publication attribution in any future publications. We also reserve the right to include accepted pieces in any future anthologies or promotions. If we have passed on a submission, please wait 6 months before submitting again. Regrettably, time being as it is, we are unable offer feedback on submissions.
As much as we would love to be able to pay our contributors, unfortunately we are not able to do so. This is a labor of love for all of us, and we will do our best to honor and promote your work.
(Please note: We regret that current or past employees, current or past students, and alumni of WVWC are not eligible for publication in HeartWood, but we wish you much luck with your work elsewhere.)
Daily Prompt
“..the great floodgates of the wonder-world swung open…”~Herman Melville
Make art about the mythologies of water.
Daily Prompt
My son jokes, saying he doesn’t believe in electricity.
Make art inspired by the phrase ‘There’s no such thing as….’
Sometimes the Prompt Is a Change
December 28, 2015
Daily Prompt
“In the space between chaos and shape there is another chance.”~Jeannette Winterson
Make art about rising to the challenge of change.
Monday Must Read: Jonathan K. Rice: Killing Time
December 27, 2015
This week meet Jonathan K. Rice. Jonathan is founding editor/publisher of Iodine Poetry Journal, which is in its sixteenth year of publication. His latest poetry collection is Killing Time (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2015). He is also the author of Shooting Pool with a Cellist (Main Street Rag, 2003) and Ukulele and Other Poems (Main Street Rag, 2006). His poetry has appeared in many periodicals, including The Aurorean, Blue Unicorn, CharlotteViewpoint, Cold Mountain Review, Comstock Review, Ekphrasis, Eunoia Review, Gargoyle, Kakalak, Kentucky Review, Main Street Rag, O. Henry Magazine, Pedestal, Sacred Journey, San Pedro River Review, Slipstream, Sundog: A Southeast Review and The Southern Poetry Anthology VII: North Carolina. He has been a longtime host of poetry readings in Charlotte, NC, where he lives with his family, and is the recipient of the 2012 Irene Blair Honeycutt Legacy Award for outstanding service in support of local and regional writers, awarded by Central Piedmont Community College.
Jonathan is also a visual artist. His work has been featured as cover art on several books. His art has also appeared in the online magazines The Pedestal, Referential Magazine, Red Headed Stepchild, Levure Litteraire, The Inflectionist Review and Empty Mirror. He was the featured artist in the spring 2015 issue of Apogee Magazine, the literary arts magazine of High Point University.
He has had solo exhibits at Jackson’s Java, Vin Master, Wingmaker Arts Collaborative, The Peculiar Rabbit, University of North Carolina Charlotte Student Union Gallery, the Pennington-McIntyre Gallery on the campus of Cleveland Community College in Shelby, NC and the New South Gallery and Studios in Statesville, NC. His art has also been included in a number of group exhibits in galleries such as Hart-Witzen, Green Rice Gallery, Max L. Jackson Gallery at Queens University Charlotte, Studio K (Charlotte, NC), Mooresville Art Depot (Mooresville, NC), Gallery 102 (Lancaster, SC), Art in the Village (Ballantyne Village in Charlotte, NC), Fanjoy-Labrenz (Hickory, NC) and Gallery Twenty-Two (Charlotte, NC). Jonathan’s work is in many private collections and businesses.
Jonathan’s Artist website:
Buy Jonathan’s books at Main Street Rag Publishing:
http://mainstreetragbookstore.com/?product=killing-time
http://mainstreetragbookstore.com/?product=ukulele-and-other-poems
http://mainstreetragbookstore.com/?product=shooting-pool-with-a-cellist
Read Jonathan’s beautiful poetry online:
http://www.kentuckyreview.org/index.php/issues2/rk2014menu/item/212-ricebio
http://referentialmagazine.com/contributors/p-r/jonathan-k-rice/
https://eunoiareview.wordpress.com/2014/02/08/want-2/
http://www.charlotteviewpoint.org/article/3181/Rearranging
See Jonathan’s beautiful art online:
http://inflectionism.com/previous.htm (The Inflectionist Review, Number 3)
http://levurelitteraire.com/jonathan-k-rice/
http://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/features/visual-art/dream-sequences.html
Jonathan on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC9DTy6_iMg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh6cpnYDNQ0
Happy Reading!
xo
Mary
Mary Carroll-Hackett: Poetry and Prose 
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