digestif

after yoga class, the poet-artist gives her friend
a ride home and her friend says, wanna join me for lunch?
sure!, she says, and they poke
around and cobble together
what they decide to upgrade to a “luncheon,” finding
a little of this and a little of that to fill the roles
of appetizer (tortilla chips), soup (tomato juice), 
salad (celery sticks), main course (tuna sandwiches), 
and dessert (frozen thin mint cookies), 
after which her friend says with mock solemnity
and a faux haughty voice, 
would you care for an aperitif?
uh, the poet-artist hesitates, 
isn’t the drink at the end 
of a meal called a digestif? 
which hits their funny-bones
and sets them to laughing hilariously.
still laughing, the poet-artist stands up 
and asserts, what do we care what it’s called!, 
i don’t want a drink anyway, 
best digestif to my way of thinking
is a post-prandial passeggiata. 

perfect, says her friend, and she adds  
as they begin walking, i have a question
i’ve been wanting to run past you— 
you’ve been painting for almost 12 years now, and writing
blog posts for all those years and now poetry as well.
when you look back at your body of work, 
written and painted and drawn 
and scribbled and collaged and wordsmithed, 
and you look at the life you have lived making all of that, 
what do you see and feel?

the poet-artist takes only a few steps 
before she replies:
i remember in first grade having to color a mimeographed page
of circles with color words printed below them. you know, like
BROWN PURPLE GREEN, and so forth. 
i began coloring, easy-peasy, 
and then before i could even finish coloring 
two circles my teacher
told me i was coloring 
the circles the wrong way—
the RIGHT way was to move my crayon round
and round and not
from side to side. 
which i knew was just plain stupid.

the writing and painting and
drawing and scribbling and 
collaging and wordsmithing i’ve done
for the past dozen years, 
and the life i have lived making 
all that art and all those poems
feels like i went back to the day 
before 
the mimeographed page landed on my desk,
and i shifted my body just one degree 
in a different direction 
and scribbled my way into the best 
whole-arted life ever.

—dotty seiter

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⬇️ GUEST ART! ⬇️

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Notes about poem and art:
My poem and Lola’s art above offer a partial view of the culminating collaboration of our five-part Question Exchange. Take yourself to Lola’s blog where her images and words intersect powerfully and poignantly in response to my question to her.

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Wrap-up for the Question Exchange with Fellow Creative:
As explained at the outset, Lola Jovan holds a Reader Giveaway at the end of each month at her blog. When you leave a comment on any post during a month you are automatically entered. One lucky commenter then wins their own Question Exchange, to be defined in the way that suits them best.

My name was drawn from the hat at the end of November 2025! I suggested to Lola that I’d like to write poems in response to her questions—she jumped up and down excitedly and said, I’ll respond to your questions with art!

My questions to Lola were as follows, and her responses appear at her blog in five consecutive posts starting December 22, 2025:
1. What is the origin story for your life as an artist?
2. What are the general rhythms of your day—what does the weave of art (all of it, the whole business) look like in the big picture of any given day?
3. What can you tell me about painting from feeling?
4. When and in what way did writing become a significant element in your life?
5. Position your hands to form a viewfinder, roughly fist-sized; point it somewhere in your home—what is the/a story of what you see?

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My responses to her questions, enumerated below with a title I added as I work on this collaboration, appear here in my blog starting December 23, 2025 and ending today, each with the title Question Exchange with Fellow Creative:

Lunch with Lola

An invitation to dine. I find myself wondering what it would be like if we sat down and had a meal together—just a casual, long lunch between friends. And so, here is the menu!

1. Appetizers – what whets your appetite for writing and painting, makes you want to go there, do that?
2. Soup and Salad – now that you’re there, how do you usually begin, and is just beginning sometimes enough?
3. Main Course – if creating was a main course (a sandwich, even!), what would it be and why?
4. Dessert – what is the sweetest, most decadent and delicious part of your creative life?
5. Aperitif – when you look back at your body of work, written and painted/drawn/scribbled/collaged and the life you have lived making all of that, what do you see and feel?