Monique

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Mona de Femme

This moon pains me,Swoons; Restrains me.Clawing the shoreDrawing forthHot blood at high tide.Exposing ugly featuresThose carniverousCreaturesThat I'd buried deepIn thick blankets of darkness.They harkenTo the starkness.It bathes them in light.It begs their expression.They burn their plightLike scars on my flesh, andHave I, after all this time,Left the wrong impression?The night begged the question.There came a silence.Felled over, like heavy ...

In Observation of Women

If you have been following me on my other social media, you probably saw my series of posts in observation of 'International Women's Day.' I did a similar thing last year, and if you are interested in doing some scrolling, I would invite you to take a look.On my personal Facebook account, I also shared this image. This is one of my favorite images of my mother. She was 21 years old and holding her first daughter, me. She is now almost...

A Eulogy

I am a child of thine dawnTorn by your loomborne by the moonUnto it's women, it waxesI am smiled uponStorm and monsoonWarm is thine wombFor, the rain be thine practiceAnd the tide be mine axisAnd we ride, wildly into the blackness.Oh, wretched, hard, stinging flowerStretched, scarred and singing in to your final hourHow deep were your dancing rootsHow proud and plenty were you in your fruitsMartyrous flower of numerous showerWho carried lofty...

Elizabeth.

After a two month long, 9,000 mile tour, I finally made it to this ever fleeting, vague and distant shadow of home, entering my room at 11:11PM.This was my first bedroom. It was my grandmother's last bedroom before she passed away in October. I cleaned it up and made the bed before leaving in January. My grandfather, expecting a late arrival, kept the light on for me.While there is an unshakable hollow feeling, there is also a sense of welcom...

A Desert Reflection

I am crypticStung with prideI have driftedAlong the tideI am liftedSong and strideLike a triptychI have shiftedThronged in lightThe unbridled brideUnweddedBelonging to the nightBeyond wrong and rightUnsettledThe pattern has been impededI feel my faithful seas recededHere is the eternal autumn of DemeterI smell the sweet scent of dead desert cedarEmbeddedBeneath a coat of fallen snowIndebted long unto the crowLimbs twisted and splinteredKept gold ...

Sunset at Snowy Redrock

The sun tucked this snowy canyon in for the evening. I watched this during a hike on Lost Creek Trail. Out in Calico Basin, still being caressed in the sunlight, I could hear climbers communicating with each other. I have hiked and climbed here many times before. It was a new experience to see the valley highlighted in white snow. The shadows were stark. The earth was firm beneath my feet. The air was brisk, and felt new in my chest. My thoughts ...

With Love, From Vegas.

Even if you are not a patron, know that I deeply appreciate you for taking the time to have a look at my page. Truly.Here is a little peek inside of a box set that I assembled for a patron who increased his pledge, generously, while I was in the thick of my last tour. I was on tour for a total of two months, and drove about 10,000 miles.This pledge came in while I was traveling from Sacramento to Phoenix. I made a stop in Vegas to visit a good fr...

No, I'm not this hip.

Finally finished up my winter tour and am enjoying some much needed time off, in Virginia, with my younger sisters. Today is a coffee shop day, where I catch up on emails, tour planning, and work on any of the multiple projects I've got stewing. My 17 year old sister is a fine visual artist. So I created a little still life out of my objects for her to draw while I work. She ended up drawing something much more interesting. She has always bee...

Crisis of Woman

You were a ballastIn all my unrestIn moments of maliceI felt you divestAnd your burdensome silenceIs too much to digestGrowing like callousInto the veins of my chest --Like vine in the latticeI wandered, aimless.Emerged from the forestAnd sauntered abreastTo the mouths of the chorus,Over thin seas of glassI was an Alice,Much drink to ingest.I entered the palaceWith blood on my dressAnd beneath tender softnessWas carefully caressed.Child, borne of...

Rainbows

The silver lining in the grim pocket of a rainy day.Taken at 7:23PM after a shoot in the suburbia of Tampa, Florida.

Real Life, Because

Because I usually take my work too seriously.Because drama is not always theatre.Because I am not always a character.Because pain is not always a performance.Because pain is poetry.Because I am often too proud to market myself.Because I am overcome by obscurity.Because striving to stay relevant feels inauthentic.Because vagueness becomes me.Because I am a professional disagreer.Because I am not always pretty.Because anxiety manifests itself in my...

The Plight of Clarity (Semi-Finished Thought)

Often, I keepAll these words to myself,Soften and sleepAmong the herd with stealth.Like layman, ladenWith a latent scurf of radianceSinging single syllable courtesies,Performing surface maintenance.Raging for raised wages,While forgoing their health.Presume and preach,But refuse to reachFor the higher shelf.Will not hear teachFrom within oneself.Living as serfsAppraised by monetary worth.Letting their lordsDecide what it is they deservePray, tell...

Subconsc[ience]

All those clever, brokenSilent moments.All closed, never spokenViolent notions.And every intended emotionWhispered away in the wind, unnoticedStrangling the song of the awry voice, floatingFarther and farther from center,ExplodingShaky, uneven nervesOf the universeProfane and perverse,Caught up in its throat andChoking on oceans of wordsWhich refuse to be heard.Converging every breath of every kindWith every pulse in every mind,Connected at the t...

The Plight of Clarity. Unfinished Thought.

Often, I keep all these words to myself,Soften and sleep among the herd with stealth.Like layman, laden with a latent scurf of radianceSinging single syllable courtesies,and performing surface maintenanceRaging for raised wages, but won't reach for the higher shelf.Absurd, had they heard wordsUnrelated to material wealth.Await, pray for patience, cadence.Lost in grey gradienceCaught in the crosshairs of complacence.I hoard what I can't af...

Regaining Clarity.

The body is a temple,Reservoir of pain.Drawn up from the waterTo be thrust back down again.Welcome life in gulps, heaving,Momentary lapse of reason.Soon as you findYourself dry,You're thirsting for some rain...

Just out of focus;

Balance and clarity are not fixed and final.They are daily practice and maintenance.

First & Forever

Often are dreams so lightly regarded,With an airy frivolitySuch as passing cloudsWho assume numerous fantasyCalling the awe of the momentary wondererAnd are immediately relinquishedTo the inexhaustible continuum of sky.Business as usual.But not for you,My first and forever.You were awake.Your humanity was wide reaching and unassuming.Your mind was an incredible arena.Your dreams were voluminous and overwhelming.Your dreams were not subconscious,T...

Tempest Revisited

I refuse to crouch and cowerBeneath a dark, shrouded truthBeneath a bad, harrowing moonBefore a cloaked, sinister sun.I will tear, furiously,Those delusory robesFrom her deceitful modesty,And batheIn the nudity of her rain.I will danceIn the faithfull blows of veracity.I will not be crippledWhile there is all this infinite,Fathomless highwayPandering so eagerly underfoot;I will crawl.While these mountains do standIn the starkness of their dignity...

Morning Fix: Coffee

I am currently sitting at a coffee shop somewhere in northern Texas, having a capuccino and getting my jones on for the 15 hour drive ahead of me.Snow and ice storms have forced me and my little Tacoma to detour far south of my original route in order to avoid very icy roads and sleeping in freezing conditions. As such, I lost a lot of work.However, I have quite enjoyed my solitude. Driving 12 hours at a time through a literal cloud that is dumpi...

Touch.

A gentle movementAgainst the skin,And into the soulCan either build or break.Despite all the fortitudeOf my history,There is a fragilityIn the unknownAnd yet,DespondencyIn knowing.Therefore, shall ITear it down.

Morning Resolve

Apologies.I should apologize for leaving the blog hanging for a while. Rest assured that I have been quite busy turning out material for several different projects. However, I haven't found the 'desk time' to master editing, communicate with my collaborators, etc. I've got many pieces that just need putting together. However, I have taken on one too many familial obligations, and especially being that it's the holiday season, ...

Morning Fix

Are you afraid of the dark, or is the light more difficult to adjust to?For me, the evening is a celestial harbor; into whose welcoming darkness I enter to shed profane assignments and the respective expectations tied there.The light, and the other who resides there, can be left to the day.The evening is a blanket of refuge for resting bodies, whilst respective souls enter into the infinitude of unconsciousness- ultimate consciousness, where they...

In preparation for what's to come...

As promised, here is an exclusive shot by my dear friend and collaborator, Roberto Hull, of the Hudson Valley. This was taken in the Catskills this past summer.Roberto is kindly traveling to Jersey to shoot with me tomorrow, as I have made the decision not to travel to the Catskills this winter.There is a relationship there which needs to enter its winter season with space to promote healing, growth and newness in the spring.Meanwhile, there is a...

Tempest Overcome

You give the man a fortuneFor a brochure.Literature notingThe nomad ventureThat you’ve paid for.More or less a bargain,But what is it worth?Have a seat in the garden,Fingers deep in the earth.Hands full with the hearthLay back in the cloverGiving way to rebirth.Sway back in the soberOvercoming of dirt.Strumming with wings of a bird,The strings of mirth.But hell, is one’s thirstWorth the curseOf selling out first,Our internal wisdomTo the syst...

Peek inside the box.

Here is a set of polaroids from my last shoot in Austin, Texas a few weeks back with Dan (Lipstick Photo). They are now traveling over a thousand miles to their new home. I cannot express how it felt to intersperse my hand written poetry in between these shots, tie them all together with a ribbon, and mail them to my first patron. Stay tuned and consider making a pledge if you'd like to receive a box of goodies, or a discount on an upcoming b...

A closer look into the box sets.

Said goodbye to some beautiful prints like these two I resurrected from the archives, taken by David Aimone. I was much more clean cut, and with a few piercings I no longer have! They are off to their new home with my first patrons.Much more where these came from!