Finding Ground in New Terrain

December 1, 2025

Finding Ground in New Terrain

Poet’s Construction Supervisor License

you invite me to
reframe my house, leave doors and
windows open wide

—dotty seiter

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*Milksilk Moment*
3 x 3″; watercolor and ink on paper
card #30 in a series of color swatches,
photographed against black file cabinet
2025

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Notes about poem and art:
• “License” is a straight-up haiku in traditional syllabic format that I wrote as part of a thank-you note to poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer whose poetry and classes have situated me in a new-build mindset for receiving and writing poetry. It is a tiny wisp of a poem that carries in it great depths of personal meaning, connection, learning, and the foundation for countless poems yet to be written.
• Milksilk Moment represents a second photographic iteration of card #30 in my series of color swatches.

artist at play

addicted to watercolor swatches, inspired by lorene forkner, inspired by rosemerry wahtola trommer

Posted by:

Dotty Seiter

11 responses to “Finding Ground in New Terrain”

carol lee

December 1, 2025 at 5:31 am

What a lovely and simple ( which is hard to achieve in almost any art form) reminding us all that we should be always open for new ideas, thoughts. Love those milkweeds on the black background!

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  December 1, 2025 at 5:35 am
  
  Carol, thanks for this lovely simple feedback; I so appreciate simple, but as for manifesting it consistently … not so much! This haiku is an apt reminder for myself : )
  
  Agreed, those milkweeds on the black background!!
  
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Simone

December 1, 2025 at 7:30 am

I love ‘receiving poetry’. Shines a new light on writing poetry for me. we could look the same way at painting. Receiving a painting.

The photograph on the black background is beautiful. Especially with those tender, light colors and textures.

>

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  December 1, 2025 at 7:53 am
  
  Yesterday, Meg went through my blog and commented on probably a dozen of my most recent posts—and I was struck by how her receiving is so uniquely true to who SHE is, and therefore different from your receiving or anyone else’s, and in many cases so different from what I was thinking about when I wrote the poems. Creative expression is so wonderfully a collaboration between creator and receiver : )
  
  Yes!, the black background seems especially well suited to this particular swatch card and to the “tender, light colors and textures” of the milkweed.
  
  Thank you for your comments, Simone.
  
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Joyful Puttering

December 1, 2025 at 7:50 am

Don’t you just love when the our doors windows are open! What lovely thank poem for Rosemary. We are lucky when we have life changing teachers in our lives.

Your wisp of a poem is the perfect pairing with swatch #30. I love everything about it! But I am curious if you locked Dave out of the room while you were photographing it.

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  December 1, 2025 at 7:59 am
  
  I DO just love when our doors and windows are open! And I’m grateful each time I notice myself closing them, thereby giving myself the chance to choose otherwise.
  
  Yes to life-changing teachers in our lives!
  
  I enjoyed your notice of my use of the word wisp, MaryAnn, and I LOL at the thought of locking Dave out of the room while I photographed!!! Thankfully, circumstances didn’t position me to have to make such a decision one way or the other : )
  
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Joyful Puttering

December 1, 2025 at 9:28 am

YES….about windows and doors also needing to close sometimes!

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lolajovan

December 1, 2025 at 1:18 pm

oh oh OH! Yes to open doors and windows, yes to photograhing against the black, yes to Rosemerry’s inspiration and HOLY CATS IN A BASKET to how much joy and inspiration I receive from your posts! xo

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  December 1, 2025 at 1:39 pm
  
  oh oh OH! back atcha, Lola!
  
  And HOLY CATS IN A BASKET to how much joy and energy I receive from your comments!
  
  I’ve just ‘returned’ from my daily meditation, and now I am further infused by you to pick up the reins of my day and giddyap into the afternoon.
  
  xoxo
  
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Sheila Marie Delgado

December 2, 2025 at 4:00 am

Awesome little ditty, Dotty! (It would work well in song. Don’t you think?) I love this version of Milksilk. So gallery ready. And worthy!

30 already?! It seems they too might never stop. And I hope they don’t!

I am so glad you are having fun with watercolor.

🤓😆🥰

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1. Dotty Seiter
  
  December 2, 2025 at 6:01 am
  
  Sheila, thanks for your comments! This version of Milksilk is quite dramatic—”gallery ready. And worthy!” as you so kindly stated : )
  
  I am TOTALLY having fun with watercolor in this series of swatches. They may in fact never stop! I do have plans to switch gears and play experimentally with other ideas, but I suspect watercolor swatches will find a way to continue to make appearances nonetheless.
  
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