Flowers in the Cracks

Ideal
The Flowers in the Cracks
Express the joy of renewal of our spirits
With beauty, truth, and love

Real
The Flowers in the Cracks
Is a cultural arts program
Celebrating the renewal of our spirits and communities

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Out of the Darkness Community Walk

Help support Peter’s walk Out of the Darkness

Donate Now!
• Pete’s Calendar:

Out of the Darkness is helping people regain a sense of calm, levity, and normalcy for those at risk of suicide.

Sponsor Peter in the Walk!

September 27, 2008
Crissy Field, San Francisco, CA

• Check-in 8:45 AM
• Walk begins 10:00 AM

• VIP Speaker: Senator Tom Torlakson
• Emcee: John Sasaki, KTVU (Fox 2)
• Diamond Media Sponsor: KTVU (Fox 2)
• Sponsors: John Muir Behavioral Health, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, UCSF

Each year, people commit suicide when they lose all faith, all hope, all enthusiasm. Interests and cares do not drive them to greater things. They burden them down with such weight that every day is a struggle. Very little is simple, calming, content, sweet or joyful. Very little ameliorates the pains, angst, ennui or dissolution they feel. All is dark: life, themselves, their loved ones, their fellow beings, the world, the spiritual and divine, the mundane and daily. They feel lost, or they have lost everything that mattered, or the causes and purpose of their life have been lost or defeated.

Even then, there is hope.

Even then, there can be flowers in the cracks.

Even then, life, and the joy of life, can be restored and renewed.

This is the mystery of love, and the mystery of the human spirit.

Help me raise funds and awareness on behalf of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), so we can lead others Out of the Darkness.

Help, by your donations, to lead others back to the light. Give so we can help restore that sense of a fruitful, content, productive existence, so they can eventually be once again filled with enthusiasm, joy and love.

“A friend in need is a friend indeed!”

Given the immediate and present crises around the world and here at home — especially during these economically and politically unstable days — it is vital that you give to this cause.

You may never know who is contemplating suicide:

• A family member.
• A relative.
• A friend.
• A neighbor.
• The person who sits next to you at school, at work, or at your place of worship.

Either that, or you do know someone. It may even be you, yourself.

Get help today!

OutOfTheDarkness.org
• If you are in crisis, call 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Flowers.

Poppies, And The Flower of England

I wrote a post for the Legio X Fretensis blog, “Poppies, And the Flower of England” which directly applies to the artistic themes of Flowers in the Cracks.

It also applies the Global Understanding movement, and the issues it wishes to address between 9/11 and 11/11 of this year, 2008.

More on that another time.

-Peter.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Marrakesh Mint Green Tea



Server: Purnima
September 14, 2008
Done: 3:32 pm

One walks into Zucca and they are in Paris
Which is strange when one can see Mountain View beyond
The music curls around your body like a cat
Sleek and black and furry
When one dines here they dine a le monde

The mint and the pepper both burn as they soothe
The echoes of the kitchen provide percussion and clatter
The pluck of guitar and the clarinet smooth
Improvisationally accompanies the brunch on the platter

I sit here in bliss as I eat the sweet citrus
The waitstaff converse about both life and work
The siren in French sings with soft voice like a mistress
I’m a voyeur upon a grander life in which I merely lurk

The lovely Slavic princess calls me then
And I step back into the street
We talk about homecomings and make plans for when
We’ll have some time for leisure to once again meet

She’s been around the world while I’ve been just milling here
Sitting in Mountain View in the heart of the Valley
My mind whirling on the American Dream so dear
As I speak on the phone looking at trash cans in the alley

Then with gentle and laughing “Ciaos!” we part in mind
Her to her recuperation and me to my scrambled eggs
I return inside, my virtual Paris to find
“What is real, what simulation?” my confused heart begs.

They chat about true troubled psyches
As I sip my Marrakesh Mint Green Tea
About men and power like feminine Nikes
Victorious women fully independent and free

I hold in my fingers the tag of Mighty Leaf
The Green Knight alone at Zucca’s stone bar
And I reflect how the atmosphere in my heart steeps
Saturating my being like being bathed in a star

Light and pure, truly restoring my soul
Feeding more than belly already sated
Leaving me a bit closer to a sense of being whole
Pondering now what future is fated

The cars and the trees and pedestrians now
Reflect on to me the call of Outside
Yet the quietest conversations of waitresses somehow
Holds me fast to the place like a gravitational tide

Drifting in time as exotic music arabesques
Swirling around my ears as brunch disappears
Celebrating the world free of work tied to desks
Relaxing as women’s chatter flows past my ears

The time for all words is now nearing end
They are insufficient to capture the moment
The taste of the eggs and the beat of the drum send
Harmonic perfection beyond further comment

Copyright © 2008 Peter Corless

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Lunch at Hobee’s 9/11/2008


Three people by the window talk about town
The bicyclist in blue near the back
The delivery guy with the big box in brown
The beautiful music from small speakers in black

Today is 9/11, though you wouldn’t know it here
Mexicanos serve with a smile or shy grin
Sipping ice tea in comfort without worry or fear
To enjoy life again is natural, not sin

The patter of music and the soft pats of butter
The soup and the salad, the orange in slices
The bills and the thank yous, and do you want another?
The words and the tones and the light and the spices

“Hasta luego,’ mi amigas y amigos
Enjoy a new day unlike the ones prior
I am free to enjoy however the day goes
To raise my sights and to raise my prayers higher

To ceiling, where plants hang along with a banner
“Fast, fresh and friendly,” a motto for life
To consider a life lived in civilized manner
Enjoying a brunch without worry or strife

Crescendo the symphony in placid release
Then start a new movement in lyrical vein
Take a deep breath and now exhale in peace
Step into the sunlight o cross tracks for the train

May you all find a Hobee’s to nourish the heart
And a flower in the cracks to inspire your art.

Copyright © 2008 Peter Corless


Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Flowers in the Cracks / Global Understanding - Take Pictures on September 11, 2008

A long post. A good post, I pray.

Peace be unto you all!

-Pete.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

The American Dream

This weekend, the first movie influenced by the Flowers in the Cracks will enter production: The American Dream.

Tune in to TheAmericanDreamMovie.blogspot.com to keep abreast of production developments. This short film will be comprised of an all-volunteer army of cast and crew.

Yes, it is happening.

Woot!

-Pete.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Flowers all over the place!

I recently have been exposed to tons of flowers bounding out of the cracks.

The San Mateo County fair had oodles of them. An army of pretty, sedate, calming blooms and vases of Ikebana, specifically Ikenobo.

The College of San Mateo had a lecture of their particular flower arranging aesthetics. I sat on a bench in front of the Homeland Security booth advertising the services for agricultural import safety and customs inspection, and listened to a placid discussion on how to snip flowers in the crisp and precise way to please the eye and sooth the soul.

It was after this experience, that lovely day I wandered with Jodi Shepard & Son & Daughter at the County Fair, got a ticket for the Al Yankovic concert, and wrote my poem for our departed friend Terry Young, that life bloomed for me in so many ways.

Yet life was not being as fruitful for other friends of mine. The brother of a dear friend of mine had been, unbeknownst to me, suffering from cancer. I caught up with my friend and her family recently. This includes my friend, her son, her brother and his wife. A small family faced with a big challenge. Liver cancer.

It wasn't time for theoretical ideals any more. I knew this man. I know what this means to my friends. I can feel it in my own skin. I know what it felt like when my own mother was diagnosed with cancer, and we were facing the treatments. I had to take some days off before writing about this because this is serious.

Right now, I still await to hear word about the surgery my friend's brother, hence, my friend, was planned to undergo. If all went as planned, he's recovering. Yet it will take time to discover whether the cancer is in recession or not.

As it stood on those days after I first learned he was sufferering, I just knew two things: 1) people who have hope to survive stand a far better chance of pulling through and 2) I was going to give my friend every hope to hold on for the sake of his family. His loved ones.

Right now, my two Ree Slocum prints, the first of the brilliant orange California Poppies (with some dazzling azure flowers interspersed) and the second of the subtle purplish-to-blue Blue Peter, are on loan to my friend's family. They need these beautiful flowers more than I do. They can look down on my buddy, and say, “It's alright. You rest up. No need to water us. We're just pictures. We'll watch over you as you watch us."

Yet I also went to Fleurty, on Central Avenue, right next to Hobee's, to get some good flowers. Arranged. Tina and I considered the seriousness of the situation. I was near in tears at times. My voice caught and squeaked a bit.

I asked for the Gladiola (pl. gladioli, Latin). Because they are the “sword flower.” From the same Latin that we get gladius and gladiator from. Swords and swordsmen. Because the sword represents insight — cutting through to see what is inside. Like the doctor’s scalpel on his cancer. And because this guy is in for the fight of his life. I wanted the gladioli not to be funereal, as they sometimes are, but triumphant. A masculine return to their meaning.

Next was the rose. To represent love. Love of this man, my friend, even if I met less times in my life than there are fingers on one hand. Because I know how much he means to his sister. Because I know how much his sister means to me as a friend. And how close this family is to each other. This is the war of love over despair.

Finally, the chrysanthemum. These were light green-gold. Lighter green than limes. Somewhere between yellow lemons and lime green. Delicate, curled in on themselves. They symbolize a form of ever-blooming life: “optimism and joy.” I knew they were the symbol of a fictional imperial family, from Legend of the Five Rings. I did not know until I read this right now:
“A symbol of the sun, the Japanese consider the orderly unfolding of the chrysanthemum’s petals to represent perfection, and Confucius once suggested they be used as an object of meditation. It’s said that a single petal of this celebrated flower placed at the bottom of a wine glass will encourage a long and healthy life.”

If that's the case, I’ll get my friend some more of these precious pompom flowers!

If you’d like to get more flowers from Tina:

Fleurty
2320 Central Expressway
Mountain View, CA 94043
650-965-2121

Tell them “I read about you on Flowers in the Cracks.”