#The100DayProject

Slingshot Effect: 100 Days (52)

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Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 52:

A couple rows on the white panel, and dogwood in the rain. These days I am cataloguing some of the things that bring me real hope, like the four good souls of Artemis II and their marvelous team, the joy of the Singing Resistance folks, the absolute dogged courage and persistence of Mrs. Frazzled and her friends who are advocating for women abused by men on The Hill. So many threads being woven for new social realities to grow.

The Slingshot Effect
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

What power slings you around the Moon?
What hope takes hold like gravity?
What force takes your hand and leads you home?

So much can go wrong, so many possibilities to be pulled off course,
so many people throwing their weight toward the shiniest object,
so few willing to enter the darkness on the other side.

But there in the dark you can see the glowing craters
that remind you of the shining spirits of your loved ones,
you can reach out and feel the arms of your beloveds surrounding you.

Can you feel what draws you through the silence
to begin the journey home: the hope, the kindness,
the tenderness of a new world rising?

A crowd of women satisfied in their precise calculations
watches you reenter, joyfully and reverently,
green and safe and changed forever.

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On Merit: 100 Days (51)

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Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 51:

My neighbor’s tulips, and a few more rows on the white panel. I am loving how this bamboo yarn crochets up, how the rows of double crochet stitches in this pattern create little flowers in the mesh. And the finished Into The Woods Quilt! The Janus School Gala is this Saturday. Click the LINK for tickets, to make a donation, or to find out how to bid for auction items online!

Today’s poem is a haibun, a form developed in the 17th century by history’s most renowned haiku poet, Matsuo Bashō. It begins with a short piece of prose, and ends with a haiku commentary on the prose.

Merit
a haibun
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

Mr. Hegseth claims his fighting force will be solely based on merit (by which he means he will not accept women), a word which can only be described as ironic, coming from a drunk chosen from the daytime TV couch, who had mismanaged every business he attempted to lead. Meritorious comes from the Latin verb mereō, which means “to earn, or to deserve.” His role might better be described as meretricious, which means empty and gaudy and lacking in true value. Meretrix, from the Latin, is a feminine noun rooted also in mereō, referring to women who earned their living from prostitution. Like Hegseth, the language devalues the inherent merit of women.

the worth of women
is not determined by the
opinions of men

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Carrying Water: 100 Days (50)

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Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 50! Halfway there!

I finished the grey panel today and began on the white. I think I can see my way to finish this one. I had my doubts for a while. Went up to see my friend Sam Lewis today. Saw lots of buds and blooms, a flock of deer (I love their tails!) and a grumpy red-tailed hawk (she was making a sort of growling sound). At least three new kite remnants in the trees and wires.

Carrying Water for the Patriarchy
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

See how she trades away her own desire for desirability,
thinks proximity to power will bring her power,
thinks that will bring her safety,
puts on a mask to immobilize her face,
performs her femininity
with vacuous eyes and fatuous lies,
a puppet for the lords of greed.

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Artemis: 100 Days (49)

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Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 49:

A yellow tulip that has been blooming for 20 years (a baby shower gift), more rows on the grey panel, and the Midwife card from Nick Bantock’s Archeo deck.

Artemis

by Beth Weaver-Kreider

How
apt that
now when so
much is at stake for girls
when women unleash the hounds
of Artemis upon the ones who prey
upon our young when we call out against
the cruelty yearning for a more humane way
that we would send this arrow moonward
this rocket basket of beautiful souls into
space to commune with the moon
and name one of her dimples
for a beloved one
to show us
we can be
human
again

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Wing: 100 Days (48)

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Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 48:

Crocheting and a walk to High Point with my love.

Shifting
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

In Our Lady’s Garden,
tall birds strut and bow,
ravens call from high in the branches of an old oak tree,
a deer steps out from the brambles,
a long green snake winds its way through the grasses,
and a ladybug redder than a drop of blood takes wing.
An owl calls from deep in the shadowed forest.

Here you feel your grandmothers’ eyes upon you,
you hear your name in the breeze 
that rattle the branches of the witch hazel,
and the scent of roses surrounds you.

You could take on any shape you choose.
Any word will transport you.
Any fluttering leaf could become a wing.

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Vampire: 100 Days (47)

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Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 47:

Today’s poem is a quickie. I like the basic idea, but I’m throwing down the ideas tonight in hopes that I can come back later and refine it if I still like it.

Vampire
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

He needs our outrage, our fear, our despair.
He feeds  on our anger, our exhaustion.
Creates chaos, watches hungrily
for morsels of panic to consume.
Do not invite him in.
We must starve him.
Feed him our fortitude, our joy, our whimsy.
Prepare feasts of compassion for our neighbors,
banquets of beauty and art, fiestas of free thinking,
Gorge him with humor and hilarity.
These things he cannot abide.
They will not nourish him.
Bring him into the sunlight.

Crocheting with such fine yarn is really slow going. This is when I usually start to abandon a project. So this is the point of my choice to finish my UFOs for this 100 days—to keep me engaged in projects that don’t show a lot of progress.

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Serviceberry: 100 Days (46)

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Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 46:

I crocheted two rows on the grey panel tonight.

Serviceberry
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

shadblow snow scatters petals
across the walk
last year’s nest (left empty
by robins fledged last spring)
hidden now (almost) in starry blossoms

this tree (named for the fish
that fed the Susquehannocks)
spawns rose and purple berries
(sharp tang, and sweet) in May and June
each blossom now a promise
of tomorrow’s delight

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Meanwhile: 100 Days (45)

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Tying Up Loose Ends

A couple rows on the gray panel while I listened to Heather Cox Richardson talk about the mad king and his unhinged war. I think I’ll head to the Lancaster Make Some Noise Protest this evening.

Meanwhile
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

Meanwhile, he threatens genocide.
Meanwhile, we hold children in concentration camps.
Meanwhile, there’s still no justice for people shot in the streets.
Meanwhile, he is still in the Epstein Files.
Meanwhile, the children don’t care about your damn signature.
Meanwhile, he probably shouldn’t even be allowed near children.
Meanwhile, we bombed a girls’ school.
Meanwhile, we killed over one hundred people on boats in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, they’re serving rotten in the concentration camps.
Meanwhile, girls and women are getting raped in the concentration camps.
Meanwhile, sick people aren’t receiving medical care in the concentration camps.
Meanwhile, he keeps threatening war crimes.
Meanwhile, some Christians still call him God’s Chosen.
Meanwhile, he is increasingly unhinged and impaired.
Meanwhile

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Shapeshifting: 100 Days (44)

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Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 44:

A little more work today on the Grey panel of the shrug. I counted my hearts and flowers for Pride: 129 in the current batch.

Shapeshifting
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

Before I was born I was a little owl
gliding over moonlit fields
listening with the dish of my face
feeling my way through air
as a fish feels the water
which is both its existence
and its road.

When I die, I will curl into the womb
of the World, the coils of my snake body
sliding through the passages of earth
which will be both my pathway
and my truth.

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Question: 100 Days (43)

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Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 43:

Finished panel 2 in the shrug. This is definitely not going to fit if I construct it as I was thinking of doing. Some re-designing will be necessary. Unlike my knitted sweater, this is not something I would completely frog and re-do.

I also made the pink hearts and flowers and the rose today. The little blue heart was a gift from a friend, along with the three stones. I finished the last of my Kilimanjaro tea in my Tanzania mug. Blueberry mango smoothie for supper.

Question
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

Who is calling your name in the dawn?
Whose voice do you hear in the garden?
Will you come alive?
Will you be reborn?

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