Feelings Flowing, Garden Growing

August 22, 2025

Feelings Flowing, Garden Growing

After Waving Goodbye

a little hollow
space in my core, tender, low,
i give it a hug

—dotty seiter

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*Needing Only to Be Noticed*
3 x 3″; watercolor, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper
card #6 to Caroline at camp
2025

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Notes about poem and art:
• “After” speaks for itself, a tiny tight haiku to give voice to a pervasive strong feeling, short-lived though it might be.
• Needing celebrates a geranium plant that hangs in a pot in our side garden this summer. I auditioned circular instead of square swatches here and played with some iridescent watercolors in the mix for the first time.

artist at play

circles instead of squares, inspired by lorene forkner, iridescent watercolors

Posted by:

Dotty Seiter

13 responses to “Feelings Flowing, Garden Growing”

carol lee

August 22, 2025 at 3:06 am

Really love the color combinations with the touch of green! Lucky Caroline!

The poem really touched me, the feeling when we say goodbye, that little hollow space in my tummy. The wanting yo hang on!

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  August 22, 2025 at 5:52 am
  
  Carol, thank you for celebrating these color combinations with me. Getting up close and personal with flowers in the gardens Dave so wonderfully cultivates has been a gift beyond measure this summer.
  
  Thank you for letting me know my poem touched you. Oh, that feeling of saying goodbye, so so tender.
  
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Simone

August 22, 2025 at 5:43 am

Dear Dotty,

I finally am reading all the blog posts from the past weeks (when I was in France and thereafter). I am so touched by your poetry and your painting. They influence each other, make each other stronger.

I’m amazed by your poetry. It’s so strong, playful, abundant, full of life, full of depth, I can’t get enough of it.

It opens worlds for me – (isn’t that what poetry is supposed to do?). Of your life (long ago, or right now). But at the same time something broader – all our lives – what we share as human family. The little and the big things, tiny things that we can notice – a flower, sunlight, a feeling. But at the same time this points to the ‘All’. To our place in the cosmos.

I can’t all say this in English, but I guess you get the point.

Keep painting, keep writing, keep enlightening the rest of us! You have a rare double gift, it’s amazing to see it grow and unfold. I’m looking forward for what lies ahead of you, but I’m completely confident it will keep ‘clicking’ within you. I can feel that ‘click’, every time I read a poem of you. It never feels forced of artificial. It comes from deep within. That strenghtens my ‘click’ with ’That What Is’.

it feels like all of the depth (let’s call it ’spiritual depth’) that you have witnessed/expressed the 10 years that lie behind us (you have helped me at so many times the past years going through difficult moments) It feels like all of it is expressed in your poetry. Not directly talking about it, but pointing to it, to the beauty and tenderness of it all.

Keep writing, keep painting!

with love and gratitude, Simone

>

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  August 22, 2025 at 1:32 pm
  
  Simone, I am very touched and humbled by your heartfelt words. Thank you! As you already know from many conversations we’ve had, my meeting you online 10 years ago was a pivotal point in my art journey; you provided the key energy, through your painting, that invited me to explore the making of abstract art for the first time and to set my compass more firmly on opening myself to reaching for greater play and childlike freedom in the act of painting. More recently, you have explicitly encouraged and cheered me to turn towards picking up writing poetry with renewed focus, and what a door you’ve thrown open for me! I am especially uplifted to hear you say that my poems express both specific details of my own particular experience AND a sense of deeper, spiritual universality. Thank you, thank you, thank you! With love and gratitude in return, Dotty
  
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Joyful Puttering

August 22, 2025 at 7:59 am

Heartfelt poem….and sweet painting. The watercolor circles speak to the petals beautifully! Very nice Dotty!

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  August 22, 2025 at 1:34 pm
  
  MaryAnn, thank you! For feeling the heartfelt and seeing the sweet, for noticing the conversation between watercolor circles and geranium petals. So grateful!
  
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roseanne333

August 22, 2025 at 7:45 pm

The circles are lovely , Dotty, and echo the geranium’s petals in color and shape. This is a nice variation from squares. So much is possible. I could feel that hollow space in my core, too, as I read and reread your haiku. ♥️

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  August 23, 2025 at 6:03 am
  
  Roseanne, good morning! Thanks for your feedback—I especially appreciated your invitational so-much-is-possible statement. You’ve got me musing : )
  
  And thank you for reading and rereading my haiku, letting me know you felt that hollow space in your core, too, as you read. I’m grateful to know my words spark a feeling response.
  
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Sheila Marie Delgado

August 22, 2025 at 11:42 pm

Oh my! Oh JOY!

I love the poem. We all have that little hollow sometimes. But do we think to give it (us) a hug? I love your mind, Dotty. ;o) Your heart.

Circles! PINK circles! And green, and shadows. Love, love, love.

The squares are terrific. They feel stable and give a sense of security.

The circles are bubbly and energetic. Delightful!

xoxoxo

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  August 23, 2025 at 6:06 am
  
  Sheila, *I* don’t always think to give myself a hug, so thank you for reflecting my words back to me : )
  
  Thank you, also, for appreciating the shadows in my art and for elaborating on the effect of squares—stable and generating a feeling of security—and the effect of circles—their being bubbly and energetic. Fun feedback!
  
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  1. Sheila Marie Delgado
    
    August 23, 2025 at 4:43 pm
    
    🤗
    
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lolajovan

August 23, 2025 at 2:11 am

ooooooh those circles make me smile! Also, circles are hugs! What a perfect pairing of poetry, geometry and color! Chef’s kiss!!!

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  August 23, 2025 at 6:10 am
  
  ooooooh, chef’s kiss! and ooooooh, such a gift to make that connection between circles and hugs! and ooooooh, love YOUR poetry in saying “perfect pairing of poetry, geometry and color!” Thanks, Lola!
  
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