INSPIRATION

Welcome to Edition #17 
>Language>Place blog carnival

In this post, I welcome guests from around the world. Please read through the introduction and then visit some spectacular artists and writers and the places that speak to them in a language called Inspiration. In my worldview, inspiration is a type of language that speaks to our most inner selves.

In my Sáami culture, places and landscapes can communicate without words: They have their own language. Places are a direct link to my inspirations. I know of a rock on a certain beach that tells a story. It has been there for thousands of years watching bears traverse the beach. If I sit on the rock, sure enough, I'm inspired to write something. What place inspires you? What does it say? How do you listen there?


Mt. Edgecumbe L'ux, Sitka, Alaska

There is a story behind the volcano I see out my window every day. Places can even have their own songs (a yoik). Places speak to us. They inspire writing, thoughts, art, a personal change, & more. You return to that place over and over again because you know it has a language of its own and that the place will ‘say' something to you. It inspires you.

poem collage by Vivian Faith Prescott

A volcano named L'ux inspires me. My poem and collage "A Gift of Fat for the Fire" (see image to the left) is based upon my struggle to learn the Tlingit language and how the language is connected to the places I inhabit, whether I can speak the language or not.

CLICK ON THE BLUE TITLE LINKS BELOW TO ACCESS EACH ARTIST'S & WRITER'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE "INSPIRATION" ISSUE: 

LINES OF COMMUNICATION by Sandra Davis

Often it is a single word or image that inspires us. 
“Lines of Communication” evokes language and an elegant beauty. 

INSPIRING PLACES: COASTAL by Steve Wing

"Some things transcend language, each providing a universal touchstone of experience."

Fünffingerplätze': It is the place inside a diorama that inspires. It is memory and shadows.

OTHER TOWN, OTHER TIME by Jonna Laster

"Place inhabits memory. Do people haunt places or do places haunt people?  It seems that locality –  whether it is compressed into a photograph, or a book, or a thin membrane of recollection –  can summon deep emotion."

The Place Between chronicles growing up, living in, and recollecting Alaska.

 MARLOWE AND ME  by Marcus Speh

"As often, when inspiration strikes, I move from text (a Chandler novel) to picture (I drew into a photograph of Chandler and put it on my page of inspirational quotes) and then to blog, when my vision has become sufficiently clear.  Inspiration rarely stops there: now people will comment and provide further thought, and when all is done and the dust settles, I find myself in a different universe, sometimes ready to write, other times only ready to repeat the cycle."

MY PLACE OF INSPIRATION by Dorothee Lang

"So many places to go - yet often, inspiration waits right  in front of my door - or rather: in my backyard. And it speaks in petals and stems."

Erin Hollowell's COURTING THE MUSE: WALK TOWARD THE MOUNTAINS

Inspire – from in- + spirare (to enflame, breathe or blow into) – like the lighting of a fire by patiently blowing on enkindled timber.

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN  by Parmanu

"Train journeys inspire me. I can imagine a life entirely on trains: waiting on platforms; journeying perpetually from one oddly-named station to another; reading uninterrupted for hours at a stretch; conversing with strangers; watching the countryside go by; laughing inwardly at the comic appearances of conductors – this is a universe one can inhabit, photograph and write about, for a whole lifetime."

A PLACE TO ESCAPE by Linda Evans Hofke

Intimate places allow us to be alone with our thoughts. Here, place is language. Visit Linda Evans Hofke's blog "Linda's Life on the Other Side." 

Kersten Christianson's  

INSPIRATION: GRATITUDE FOR LANGUAGE AND PLACE at Raven Bones

Photo by Kersten Christianson 

"I am inspired by the vocabulary of place." 

-- Kersten Christianson

NOOK AROUND  by Mary Wheeler 

“My writing inspiration gets kicked off as soon as I step out my door, typically just to sit in some nook or cranny right out my door, no matter where that door may be. It is symbolic of getting right outside of my thoughts and breathing in fresh air, fresh inspiration.”

Gunalchéesh--Thank you for visiting Planet Alaska and taking the time to be inspired. Now go and listen to the places that inspire you.--They may say something new and profound. 
                                                               ----Vivian Faith Prescott

*A special thank you to Dorothee Lang of BluePrint Review for providing me the opportunity to host this Edition #17 of the >Language>Place blog carnival (If you are interested in hosting an issue of the blog carnival contact Dorothee Lang).