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The Dear Old Camp I Know
a little heart hymn give me clean hands cleanwords clean thoughts. open my eyes—green cabins, green treeswhite clouds white candles white birchblue jacket blue lake blue skies —dotty seiter ===== ===== Notes about poem and art:• “a little” is a Takodah tanka to wrap up camp for this summer, holding words from the morning prayer… Continue reading
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Cooking Up Good Things
june vacation recipe —a real humdinger! 1930’s camp,maine pond, new friends next door, nine days, warm temps—serves 2 —dotty seiter ===== ===== Notes about poem and art:• I didn’t notice until several weeks after I wrote “june vacation recipe” that, except for its first “word”—which is actually in numerical form—it is made up entirely of one-syllable… Continue reading
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Walkabouts
morning walk, norton pond road hawkweed and white birch, lupine and blue flag iris,mailbox on sawhorse—wooded trail that would have gone unseen but for boy on bike —dotty seiter ===== ===== Notes about poem and art:• “morning walk” is another tanka, a form I don’t remember learning about until roughly a year ago and now have firmly… Continue reading
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Ways Things Unfold
passeggiata, narrows road —incongruous, improbable, and yet post-dinner we strollthe gravelly unpaved lanepast moosewood, hemlock, bunchberry, damp logs,moss, soft cross-hatched pine needles,ferns, and leaf litter. then we stand stock still:majestic, life-sized, sculptedelephants! just like that we’re touchedby hushed holy dignity.pachyderms. ayuh. —dotty seiter ===== ===== • “passeggiata” is a stack of 4 haiku, one stanza of… Continue reading
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Courses of Life
with flashing yellow wings and bold black striping bright canadiantiger swallowtails puddlein the new topsoilwatered by jerryand renée. butterfly boys—hot for nitrogen,organic matter,and salts—swarm, flutter, and flit,soon to woo the gals. —dotty seiter ===== ===== Notes about poem and art:• “flashing yellow” is another one-stack triple haiku, this one celebrating Canadian tiger swallowtail butterflies who… Continue reading
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Who Is the Fairest of Them All?
on reflection norton pond mirrorsthe sky. inside the cabin,above the divan, on the wall, mirror mirrorsnorton pond and mirrored sky. —dotty seiter ===== ===== Notes about poem and art:• One way this tanka invited me to “keep myself challenged” was by breaking one of its lines in two and typing the two parts with nonstandard alignment. Its… Continue reading
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The Sound of Music
canopy bed —with gratitude for my hearing aids we are lullabyedby rhythmic trill as we read in bed—gray treefrogs’fricative surround-sound soongentles us into slumber —dotty seiter ===== ===== Notes about poem and art:• Though I strongly wanted the treefrog music as sound track for my dreams throughout each night, I couldn’t sleep with hearing aids in—they… Continue reading
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Indicators
predawn moon’s telltale but for a crescentdrifting on the pond’s glass facei would not have knownfrom my window spaceto seek a tiny peepholein the canopy;even then onlya glimpse of the water’s twinbefore clouds moved in —dotty seiter ===== ===== Notes on poem and art:• “predawn” is a single-stack triple haiku. I delighted in the fleeting… Continue reading
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Vacation, Front-Row Seat
aloft —om shanti shanti shanti up steep ladder-stairs,a compact sanctuary—exposed studs, aged planks,twin beds, quilted madras spreads—meditation in the eaves. —dotty seiter ===== ===== Notes about poem and art:• Oh, that sweet spare loft, those age-darkened rafters, that tiny dormer, that rustic space with just enough room to arrange a chair and two beds so… Continue reading
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Vacation Scrapbook
sigh dave wakes, exclaims: allnight! the loons! i of littlehearing slept right through. a pang of grief, thisblank spot in my vacation souvenirs scrapbook. —dotty seiter ===== ===== Notes about poem and art:• “sigh” is a double haiku acknowledging the aural blank spot in my experience of the “Wicked Cute Camp.” About that blank spot I’ll… Continue reading
My Story
In 2014, I grab an unexpected opportunity to paint.
To make art.
I get hooked.
In 2015 I start a blog—a diary of my creative practice.
I post my paintings and their stories. The good, the bad, the ugly.
In 2025 I begin writing poetry and include a poem and painting in each post.
My compass points: shake hands with fear, be playful, get messy, trust my gut.
dottyseiter: now playing 