Feral: ˈferəl,ˈfirəl/
adjective
Df: (especially of an animal) in a wild state, especially after escape from captivity or domestication.
Make art about wildness, about being in a state of wildness, about escaping domestication.
23 November 2016
Dreamt I was working with a couple of other people in some kind of disaster distribution center, coordinating and handing out goods to people in need, blankets, socks, water bottles, cloth diapers for babies. People moved through the barn-like building, their steps stuttering softly against the dirt floor. The line seemed as if it would never end. It didn’t feel like I was doing enough. But then, a young woman with two small children, a baby on her hip, and a four or five year old girl holding her hand, stopped in front of me for a blanket. The young mother’s face was drawn and exhausted, and the kids too seemed scared and weighted with whatever disaster it was we were all dealing with out there in the world.
The little girl said, “Blue.”
I smiled, not sure for a second what she meant, but then I looked down. The stacked blankets were mostly green and gray, but tucked into the pile halfway down or so, one blue blanket.
Her mama shushed her, and smiled sadly at me. but the little girl looked up at me, smiling a little around the fingers she had in her mouth, and said again, “Blue?”
Her mama hushed her again, saying, “Missy, we can’t–“
“Sure we can,” I said. I pulled the one blue blanket out of the others and offered it across the table to the little girl. She let go of her mama, and reached out with both her little girl hands to take the blue blanket, wrapping her arms around it like a hug and smiling.
We all smiled.
Make art about small acts of taking care of each other.
J JOURNAL: NEW WRITING on Justice seeks submissions for its 19th issue.
J Journal seeks new writing – fiction, creative nonfiction (1st person narrative, personal essay, memoir) and poetry – that examines questions of justice. Although we find that our most powerful pieces relate tangentially to the justice theme, we also welcome work that speaks directly of crime, criminal justice, law and law enforcement. As a literary project, however, J Journal is less likely to publish straightforward genre fiction. We encourage writers to approach the justice issue from any angle.
Email up to three poems or up to 6000 words of fiction/nonfiction to: submissionsjjournal@gmail.com
Or send your submission to:
Editors, J Journal
Department of English
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
524 West 59th Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10019
Website: www.jjournal.org
http://jjournal2.jjay.cuny.edu/jjournal/
Submit Your Personal Essays to The Artist Unleashed
Deadline: Rolling
Website: http://www.theartistunleashed.com/
Earn $0.015 per word to be published on our blog, The Artist Unleashed. We want articles based on your personal experience as a writer or artist to help fellow creatives. Articles for this website must be about an aspect of writing and/or art and must also inspire and/or motivate, encourage discussion, offer advice or argue an opinion, and be rich with informative/engaging content. We will tweet and Facebook your post to get it as much exposure as possible. Unique views on a single post have reached 1500+ within 24 hours. Please visit our website for guidelines: theartistunleashed.com/write-for-us.
The moon does not fight. It attacks no one. It does not worry. It does not try to crush others. It keeps to its course, but by its very nature, it gently influences. What other body could pull an entire ocean from shore to shore? The moon is faithful to its nature and its power is never diminished. -Ming-Dao Deng
10/9/2016
Make art about connections made through food, connections in the present, or to the past.
10/4/2016
I grew up in Hurricane Alley, eastern North Carolina, so the preparation for these big storms is something I learned early. Hurricane Matthew has ripped through Haiti, and is on his way to the US East Coast. All my provisions are laid in, flashlights and emergency equipment in place and ready, and I’ve battened down as much as I can. But sometimes Mama Nature’s just too big and unpredictable for any kind of preparation.
Make art about preparing the best you can.
10/5/2016
Thinking a lot today about all the ways people find their way to, or demonstrate faith. Took me immediately to one of my top three favorite songs, The Mountain, by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer.
Excerpted Lyrics by Dave Carter
Some build temples and some find altars,
some come in tall hats and robes spun fine.
Some in rags, some in gemstone halters,
some push the pegs back in line.
I see the mountain, the mountain comes to me,
I see the mountain and that is all I see.
Make art about temples or altars or shrines, faith in some unexpected way.
10/6/2016
Road Angel Andrea at Walmart today told me about her grandmama teaching her to sew, first by making curtains, long straight hems, she said, over and over again, summer curtains, winter curtains with their heavy lining. She said her grandmama was patient but tough, making her tear out crooked stitches, and try again til she got it right. “I learned to take my time,” she said. “I learned to take my time, look ahead of the foot, and how a pair of curtains can make all the difference in a room.”
Make art about curtains. Or about what you learned from an elder.
30 July 2016
Finally got started on my summer canning.
Make art about preserving something.
31 July 2016
“We move to find what we cannot see”~David Wagoner
Make art about forms of blindness.
1 August 2016
Earth. Air. Fire. Water.
Make art about an elemental force.
Happy National Poetry Month!
Daily Prompt Time!
spring song
by Lucille Clifton
the green of Jesus
is breaking the ground
and the sweet
smell of delicious Jesus
is opening the house and
the dance of Jesus music
has hold of the air and
the world is turning
in the body of Jesus and
the future is possible
Make art about the body of the planet.
Mary Carroll-Hackett: Poetry and Prose 
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