november 26
early evening, no wind.
from nearby,
under a dome of night sky
the bark-like honks
of a canada goose,
followed by the
collective honking
of many canada geese—
all of them cutting loose,
floating on a wetland stage
under cover of darkness
and partially obscured by
a ragged-edged curtain of dry
scrub and milkweed,
not a one feeling any need
to hold back—
like so many musicians
wearing dark jackets
and starched white shirts,
priming their flugelhorns
and lateral tympaniforms
for tonight’s late show—
the first of a southern flyway tour—
while i stand backstage
and catch the gift
and musical riffs
of their raucous rehearsal
—dotty seiter
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~5 x 7″; oil, pigment stick, and collage on paper
sketch for Let’s Face It With Friends series
2025
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Notes about poem and art:
• “november 26” was inspired by Ted Kooser, a poet who, recovering from cancer in late 1998, had to stay out of the sun, and began taking daily 2-mile walks before dawn after which he wrote poems. My poem here arose from an after-dusk walk in the dark of a November evening.
• While taking a previously-mentioned Jane Davies 90-minute Zoom class in September, I reached impulsively for a large sheet of used palette paper sent to me by artist Lola Jovan, tore off a section, availed myself of pigment sticks, made a few marks to indicate a found face, and added a few bits of collage.
dottyseiter: now playing 
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