Lotuspapillon, has published a chapbook!

Published!

For years I waited, and denied myself, and doubted.  Now I know! Victory belongs to the 'triers'. So let me introduce you to my first try, my chapbook, HeartString: poems of love, loss, and healing. You can order it as a kindle ebook or in paperback, on Amazon! I self-published, so I'm learning. But I welcome the journey and I feel worthy of the ride. 

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Poem #1: For baby girl

I’ve been waiting

to hold you.

The little girl within. 

I’ve been fighting, praying, begging

blaspheming, and sinning.

I thought you were my imagination,

But here I sit getting ready to meet you, 

feel your skin, touch your hands, look

into the eyes I’ve searched for all my life. And say,

I’ve found you, I’ve found you.

2013 (c) by Ieisha McIntyre

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Readings

So I've been doing mostly readings. Under The Circumstances readings are just what I need to be doing more of. If you missed it, I'm sorry.


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I haven't posted a full poem in a while.  With the way that people love to snatch poems and call them their own nowadays.  But today I felt moved to place something on the minds of whomever reads this little blog of mine.  So here you have something for your summer reading and thinking. Blessings and enjoy!

When Is it Enough?

by Ieisha McIntyre

I can wake up in the morning

and look out my window 

and see the truth.

Why that isn't enough, I don't know.

I can move my two legs equally well. 

And walk up and down hills

taking in the morning breeze, 

high-fiving oak leaves as I go. 

But still, it is not enough.

I can place my palms together in prayer 

have those prayers answered and blessed.  

But,

still not enough.

I know that the God I worship is 

the beautiful soul within me, Yet

I look outward for the love I seek.

It is still not enough.

All Rights Reserved (c) 2012

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NAPOWRIMO 2012!

Well hello fellow poets and lovers of poetry.  Here we are again in April. We continue to celebrate our beloved national poetry month with the 30/30 CHALLENGE. 30 poems in 30 days. Can you do it? Can you create with judging yourself? Can you read and absorb the truth of other people?  Well let's see if I can do that myself. I'll be writing some, sharing some, and trying to inspire you to do the same with as many writing prompts as I can muster.  I've had a few years of trying on the 30/30 challenge and I've made it through only once.  I'll see if I can get another year under my belt. 
Some years I try to find a theme to my writing and other years the theme finds me.  I believe this year the theme has absolutely found me.  Perhaps the same theme has found you too. 


Have you felt that you've looked around your last corner? Have you begun to think that you've had your last surprise and that for better or worse, your life is your life?  Have you begun to think that you just better get used to it and that your dreams were just dreams?  And then, for no reason at all, something changes, something happens, and everything looks just a little bit different. If you're picking up, what I'm putting down let's get to it and POEM!! And see if we can stick with the theme of Unexpected Beauty and Blessing.

Here's your writing prompts for April 1st and 2nd:


Writing Prompt #1: 
What is that thing that you've wanted all your life that you had begun to think you'd never see come into your life? Has it found you? Whether big or small speak to the beauty of that blessing.


Writing Prompt #2: 
The blessing of a child's imagination is not often honored. Do you remember your childhood flights of fancy? Have you been surprised when that magic has revisited you lately? Poem it! Share it!



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Update!

I know I haven't posted a new article in more than a few months, but I will be getting the blog caught up over the holiday. I hope you are all counting your blessings.  And, for the writers amongst you, I hope that you are having a successful time a NANOWRIMO  and are not letting it get you down.  Blessings!!! Updates and photos to come!

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Seattle Opera's Production of Porgy and Bess (Opening Night)

Here we are in the afternoon of the opening night of Seattle Opera's Production of Porgy and Bess.  We have a world renowned conductor, a locally sourced chorus, fabulous soloists and a beautifully sunny northwest day. One couldn't ask for more.  Here's a video montage of our dress rehearsal. Check my events page and make sure that you make it to one of the performance before its gone.  ONLY SEVEN MORE PERFORMANCES AFTER TONIGHT!!!




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Porgy and Bess Orchestra Rehearsal

The orchestra of Seattle Opera is working hard as well.  Take a moment and look at the flexibility of the orchestra. They are incorporating jazz style with the classical style of opera.  This is a delectable meal for the musical palate.




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Porgy and Bess Directors Talk

I'm having a wonderful time as a chorus member of Seattle Opera's production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.  Our amazing director is a huge part of the wonderful time that I'm having.  Take a moment and listen to the passion that he has for this Opera.




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Porgy and Bess Chorus Rehearsal

If you haven't heard, Seattle Opera is doing Gershwin's Porgy and Bess! And I'm in the chorus. If you happen to be in the Seattle area and you want to see a production with tons of local African American Performers, then get yourself a ticket and get on board!  Check out my events page for a link to Seattle Opera and tickets! Events




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NAPOWRIMO POEMS-2011 #19/30

I bet you thought I had forgotten all about NAPOWRIMO 2011. But you would be wrong.  Here's number 19!

3 AM. 

by Ieisha McIntyre

Missing tender,

falling gently, simply 

lost.

All Rights Reserved (c) 2011

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NAPOWRIMO 2011-Writing Prompts #5-Yesterday

Hello NAPOWRIMO POETS!  I hope you are still with me.  Today, I have a prompt for you that asks you to plumb your memory and use your senses. Divorce those digital photos you have and search around your home for an old photo.  From the time when you had to take your photos to the shop and trust that you had done well.  Or, from the time when Polaroid was king.  Find those old photos of yours and tell us the story of that photo.  You can use good old american free verse or you can stick with a structured approach. Heck, you could start your own structure if that's what you'd like to do.  MAKE IT WORK!  (post,share, link!)  Blessings! And find an open mic silly!





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NAPOWRIMO POEMS-2011 #4/30

Here's a bit of encouragement for #4/30

Poetic Definition #4

by Ieisha McIntyre

Ephemeral: (adj.)The leaf, once green,

now ghost white

dust in flame.

All Rights Reserved (c) 2011

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NAPOWRIMO 2011-Writing Prompts

Let's Catch up- Days #1-4

Hello NAPOWRIMO poets! If you are like me, you just wanted to make it through April fools and may have forgotten all about poetry.  Well, if you did don’t worry. Here are three writing prompts to get you caught up and one to get you back on track for Monday April 4th.  Don’t forget to LINK and SHARE!

Prompt #1- FOOLERY

Since this one should have been for April fools, which I confess to loathe.  Let’s write a little poem that some how gives shape to the way that you feel when you feel foolish.  Try to focus on the “giving shape” part of the prompt.

Prompt #2- Found poetry

1. Take a moment and look through your most recent favorite magazine article. 
2. Cut that article out of your magazine.
3. Now, cute phrases, words, sentences out of that article.
4. Rearrange those words, phrases, sentences until you have your newly found poem.
5. POST IT!

Prompt #3- Sunday Walk

1. Take a walk!
2. Walk around your apartment, block, backyard, bedroom.
3. Notice what you notice.
4. Whatever you noticed the most of, write about it!

Prompt #4

Let’s focus on just one word. Flip through the dictionary, preferably a rather large one, an let your finger land on a random word.  Accept the challenge of writing a poem based on and/or involving your newly discovered word.

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NAPOWRIMO 2011

 Hello Everyone!  Its NAPOWRIMO time again.  I love April just for the fact that it is spring, poetry, and new discoveries all rolled into one.  I hope that you are ready for another journey into poetry and discovery of your poetic self.  I am!  I'll be posting poetry writing prompts to get you caught up and on track for the rest of this month.  I'll also post links to other sites who are doing NAPOWRIMO as well.  I hope you take the time to search out an open mic in your area or even start one.  Take that poetic shyness, push it to the side and let your poetry shine through!  Muster your courage and give your poetic gems a chance to be heard.

Stay tuned for poetry and prompts! (link, share, post, poem!)



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Something New

I haven't placed any new poetry of mine on this blog for a while.  So I thought I would share a little something from my meditation this weekend. I've only included a moment. You can take it as you receive it. Nothing earth shattering but just a moment.  But then, as we know, it only takes a moment for one's world to shatter.  It only takes one moment for one's world to heal. Enough, here it is. Enjoy.

The End

by Ieisha McIntyre

She winced; 

a birds feather 

on a wire. 

All Rights Reserved (c) 2011

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The Solo Book Club-The New Jim Crow Meeting #1

Adaptation and Transformation in Racism


I stated a few weeks ago that my next book for The Solo Book Club would be Michelle Alexanders’s The New Jim Crow.  I decided that I would share just a few quotes from the chapters as I go along. I’m also going to making comments about how I felt and what those quotes caused me to think about it. So here goes the first installment of quotes, thoughts, and feelings.  Let me know if reading these has encouraged you to read the book yourself and make your own understandings.  I’d like to hear what you think.

Quote #1:

“Any candid observer of American racial history must acknowledge that racism is highly adaptable.  The rules and reasons the political system employs to enforce status relations of any kind, including racial hierarchy, evolve and change as they are challenged. The valiant efforts to abolish slavery and Jim Crow and to achieve greater racial equality have brought about significant changes in the legal framework of American society -- new “rules of the game,” so to speak.  These new rules have been justified by new rhetoric, new language,  and a new social consensus, while producing many of the same results. This dynamic, which legal scholar Reva Siegel has dubbed “preservation through transformation,” is the process through which white privilege is maintained, though the rules and rhetoric change.”(21)

This quote hit me so hard. I have spent a good amount of time lately thinking about the adaptation and transformation that the people of the African Diaspora go through; Sometimes to reinforce our strength, sometimes to survive, sometimes simply because we can.  I have never thought that there was adaptation and transformation occurring on the other side of equality as well.  After reading this short passage it seems silly to not have thought that.  But I suppose it was simply a blind spot of mine.  And we all have those. But, think.  We are all involved in this ever changing cycle and struggle to gain more privilege on one side and on the other to gain equality.  But if we don’t take the time to educate ourselves in what has previously occurred, we will repeat the past, and we will repeat the cycle.  

¹ Reva Siegel, “Why Equal Protection no Longer Protects: The Evolving Forms of Status-Enforcing Actions,” Stanford Law Review 49 (1997):1111; see also Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Romation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s (New York; Routledge, 1996), 84-91.

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African Diasporic Voices - Adaptation

adaptation-(People and cultures evolve as the traditions and memories we carry with us creatively engage new surroundings and other cultures.)

Today, I continue my postings on the Museum of African Diaspora’s “I’ve Known Rivers” project. This week I challenge you to look at the topic of Adaption. 

Children of the African Diaspora have always had to adapt in order to survive.  Very often that adaptation has led to a new level of thriving. At other times, the adaptation has led to destruction.  Adaptations made in the face of survival are not always the best choices.  They are just adaptations.  Think of the flames that lit up our major cities when The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.  Think of the destruction of our inner city neighborhoods with the addition of the different drugs and controlled substances. Think of the explosion of African-Americans in professional fields in the 70’s and 80’s, and the increase of African-American artists and writers during the new deal arts programs. 

All of these adaptations have their own merit.  Some might see that they provide a “good” some might say that they are a social “ill”.  What do you say about adaptation?  (Link, Subscribe, Share, Post comments!)

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African Diasporic Voices-MOVEMENT

I hope you have been working on the topic of Movement. I have.  Have you ever thought about movement  in ways other than the physical?  Have you ever thought about a change in thinking as a form of movement?  Its funny, but I haven't.  Isn't interesting the blind spots we have?  Anyway, I was searching through my Youtube subscriptions and found this Tavis Smiley interview with Forest Whitaker.  (I love me some Forest!)   Listen to what Forest says about movement and story near the end of this segment.




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African Diasporic Voices-Movement

African Diasporic Voices - - Theme #2 Movement:

Movement-(Individuals, families and communities move continuously, sometimes seeking fresh prospects, sometimes forced by slavery, war or famine. Always, our movements reinvent us, remixing the possibilities.)

As children of the African Diaspora we have gone  through constant and continuous movement.  Whether we are trying to find our way back home, trying to create a home where we have arrived, or just trying to understand and define who we have become in a new place and reestablish our origin story for the new generation coming, we are a people of transformation.  We are constant primarily in each generations almost involuntary need to redefine ourselves.  The most obvious example is found in our naming of ourselves. 

Taking a quick look at the naming of our racial/ethnic groupings,  the process seems almost a sort of adaptation of the naming ceremony.  First Negro, then Colored, then Black, Then African-American, Afro-Caribbean, then Afro-Indian, and now with the influx of African Immigrants, many of our youth are beginning to establish whether they are African-American (descendents) or simply calling themselves, Black American.  Just as our music comes from the pulse of our movement from rural to urban, so too does the naming of ourselves and our culture.  And the change can happen so quickly.

In the most recent winter Olympics, Cheltzie Lee, a young women with an African-American mother from Louisiana and a Chinese father (born in Bangladesh) who has grown up in Australia, represented Australia.  Could she have developed to such an advanced and honorable place as an Olympic Ice skater in America?  I don’t know.  But what I do know is that the movement,  from American to Australian is clearly significant.  How significant? I'll leave that to you to decide.

(I know the commentary is in russian, but I liked the camera angles.)


Are you someone who feels a significant difference in your life and how others see your blackness, african-ness due to your geographical location? 


THINK ABOUT IT. TALK ABOUT IT. POEM ABOUT IT! (link, subscribe, share, comment!)

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