'I See Beauty Within'

Jientje passed this along to me last week for leaving a comment that lifted her spirits. Mine was one of several encouraging, uplifting comments that she had received. Her gift in kind left me thinking about the power of kindness. Kindness — sincere, warm words from one person to another in the hope of making them feel good, feel valued, feel encouraged to continue in their endeavors is the greatest teacher, I think. It creates the room to grow, do more, do better. It creates a feeling of safety and belonging that in turn create an environment in which to create.

I'm depositing this gift here because that has been my experience of the participants in One Deep Breath and now One Single Impression. Together we seek to build up rather than tear down. May that spirit be the air we breathe on this site.

Whee! All The Way Home: Gallows Humor

Whee! All The Way Home: Gallows Humor: "The cardiologist drew this way-cool picture of Pete's heart, showing where the blockages are — 65%, 85%, and the big winner, 95%. I asked to keep it. The doctor asked whether he should sign it. Ha ha ha. It is a very cool picture that I want to scan and post, but that selfish husband of mine won't let me. You'd think it was all about him. Dude, I've got a blog that looks pretty dull without accompanying artwork."

Please join us in prayers and best wishes for Patois's husband. Visit her today.  Thank you.

Sandy and Andree

Sandy is a teacher, writer, and a mother to her 9-year-old muse. She has published her poetry in several collections — Seventeen Park Lane, Silent Spaces, Writing in Faith, and Out of the Blue. She has a long-standing interest in graffiti and has published Strange Attractions Exploring Graffiti about her experiences of the art form and its creators.

Sandy lives in Connecticut with her husband and daughter.




Andree is a teacher of mathematics to middle school and community college students. Until One Deep Breath, she never wrote poetry unless under the threat of a teacher. She is mother to Anna, Amelia, Andrew, and Danielle, and grandmother to Wingnut. She is a contributor to Dr. Math® Gets You Ready for Algebra. She has had two photos published (so far). Her passions are photography, blogging, her cats and her home in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont in Barton, where she lives alone. For now.

An Update and Blogroll Requests

Hi everyone! The first 36 hours of this blog have seen over 150 visitors from all over the world. I am astounded and gratified by the positive response. The hairy woodpecker on the left is my profile photo. If you see this bird on a post at One Single Impression, you will know the post is from me.

If you would like to be added to the blogroll, could you please leave a link in the comments or in an e-mail? If I had my druthers, I would add each of you as soon as you comment. But that is rude. You can easily reach us at onesingleimpression@gmail.com.

Coming up:

• Bios of Sandy and myself. She has great photos from her part of the world. I have great photos of my cats, wild birds, and wild red squirrels.
  
• How-tos (some of which I am learning how-to-do myself!).
  

What else, technically, do you want? What do you need from me? I am the technology person for the blog.

Thank you for your support; I'm having a ball doing this!

One Single Impression

This new blog takes its name from a definition of haiku, which is a "form of Japanese lyric verse that encapsulates a single impression of a natural object or scene, within a particular season. The form of the haiku is 17 syllables arranged in three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables."*

Haiku can also be considered as, "The best haiku capture human perception—moments of being alive conveyed through sensory images. They do not explain nor describe nor provide philosophical or political commentary. Haiku are gifts of the here and now, deliberately incomplete so that the reader can enter into the haiku moment to open the gift and experience the feelings and insights of that moment for his or her self."

It is not our intention or purpose to define the form for anybody who contributes here. Definitions by their nature limit or set boundaries around terms. We include them in this creative dialog as a a point of departure rather than a limitation. Discussing form and its nature and purpose are simply parts of creativity.

One Single Impression is what we create whenever we write any kind of poem, however we vary theme and form, whatever we write about. We are sharing ourselves, beginning a thought that invites others to share the experience. We fully respect each contributor as a sensitive human being and a writer.

We are picking up where One Deep Breath is leaving off after this week. For the past year and a half many poets who blog have derived inspiration from Susan and Jennifer's blog, where we have shared our responses to their weekly prompts for haiku poems.

So many of us are keen to continue sharing our poetry, that we have decided to create a new place for this creative conversation. We are very happy to have Jennifer's support in this initiative.

We will post a weekly poetry prompt on this site every Sunday. We hope you'll come back to share your work and support with each of us. See you Sunday, March 2!