Study of a Tombstone Angel

Eternity is so close, mused the Angel. It exists in the face of everyone that loves someone.

shy flower talk to me said, Princess Haiku

This is one of the flowers that I captured in the dahlia garden in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco this year. The garden was a gift from the San Francisco Dahlia Society. Thanks to the volunteers who presented the City of San Francisco and its visitors with such a wondrous garden.

Louisa's Dress: a dream journey

reprinted from January 22, 2009 with new photographs

The dream Louisa's Dress, that I am relaying was experienced several years ago as a theater performance. I awoke sitting up in bed clapping after the final scene. I had a notebook on a little table near my bedside and wrote the dream text down as it is written here. About ten years later I pulled the little journal out to read and carried it around for some days in a black book bag. I left this bag on the SF BART line, and was heartbroken that I had lost the only copy that I had of it. Miraculously, the book bag was discovered by a psychologist who realized the importance of the manuscript and who went to some effort to return it to me. So unbelievable as it was, the dream that was given was lost and then restored. I have for years pondered the meaning of this dream and found that threads or texts and subtexts emerge and then disappear into passing years. At various stages of understanding I became each character in the dream theater. I have a lengthy interpretations but the symbols and the dance of the dream itself, make evident it's mythic and psychological meaning.

Scene 1: Louisa encounters a fortune teller in a train station.

I am in a train station in New York City rushing towards a train on a platform beneath me. As I descend concrete steps and pass my walls covered with grafitti, I see an old gypsy woman grasping the hands of people who pass by and read palms. As I pass by the gypsy takes my hand and looks deeply into my eyes as she speaks. "I see Cybele and a witch daughter named Rose." I feel sorrow as she says this. "Tell me more about Cybele, " I implore her. At first she hesitates and then finally she speaks, "I see years and years of sorrow." I blink tears away and pay her. Other passengers are watching us. "Isn't that amazing," someone in the crowd says," she paid the gypsy." As I walk down steps onto the train platform I think, "I must embrace sorrow, keep company with death." "The journey before me into my sleeping selfhood stretches endlessly; a long tunnel of darkness."

Scene 2: A blind man restores the light for those who see

As I enter the train platform all of the lights go out and everyone is alarmed. Suddenly the light is restored. A blind man has repaired a problem in the light system. The man gives a short speech, "in my blindness I am able to see more than most. In the many crevices of darkness I have come to know intimately the mechanism of light and find restoring your vision a simple matter." The many people on the platform clap and throw their stamped train tickets into the air as the train pulls into Grand Central Station through the mirage. I get onto the train.

Scene 3: Louisa searches for her mother's house

Pushing my way through the crowd I make my way outside into the cold gray drizzle of late October twilight in Greenwich Village. I am cold and I walk a long distance looking for my mother's house. -Not to visit my mother but my older sister who has summoned me home for a matter of importance.

As I journey towards my mother's house my dress takes on provocative and unique form. I walk along the cobblestone streets of the West Village. the eyes and reflections of people I see make me aware I am wearing a unique dress. Suddenly, my sister drives up in front of me in a white sports car. My mother is with her. "What is mother doing here" I ask? "I've never seen her before and I don't want to see her now." You didn't mention her bore." "Don't be troublesome," my sister replies, "just get in for she wants to see you. My mother is an elegant matron with ash blonde hair and is conservatively dressed. My mother and sister stare disdainfully at me, disapproving of my dress and velvet shoes with ribbons which tie around my ankles. I get into the car and return with them to my mothers's house; a town house in the Village. Her windows are covered with thick drapes.

Scene 4: A bewitching dress of thin white baptiste

I am dressed in a delicate white dress of French batiste. My mother and are speaking together in a dressing room filled with racks of conventional dresses. "Louisa, my mother says, "I can't bear to see you in this dress. See what I have for you.? I walk up and down the racks of dresses observing them closely. I look down at my own long filmy dress and make a decision. "I can't give up my dress, Mother." "I don't want any of these." My hand sweeps across the room and unseen by me because we are separated by a rack of dresses, my mother reacts with shock and horror. I have rejected the only gift she has ever offered me and has a heart attack and dies. When I walk across the aisle to her I discover her dying. "How grotesque," my sister says to me as she enters the room. "The only thing she ever offered you and you refuse it." "How could you; wretched girl." I flee the house supposedly to complete some ephemeral errand.

Scene 5: There are two of them anima twins

It is dusk and I am wandering through the cobblestone narrow streets of the Village in search of my mother's house again. I become cold and tired and stop to rest in an old dark movie theater. An old Marlene Dietrich film is playing called, "The Blue Angel." I notice that two young English girls are sitting near to me in the movie theater. I see they are lovely and appealing although they are dressed in provocative clothing. Their brashness suggests the innocence of the very young. They look at an image of Dietrich on the screen and turn around and point at me. "Look at that one; she is mysterious too." They come and sit next to me and make sexually provocative overtures. One sits in my lap and I am quite taken aback but find them amusing and attractive. We leave the movie theater together to return to the train station.

Scene 6: The anima twins shock the debutantes who are all wearing identical pink hats

The anima twins and I take a subway train to my mother's house. They continue their provocative antics. As the train stops at the next station several debutantes get on the train. They are all wearing identical pink hats. The twins make a scene. One of them puts her hand on my breast. "Take your hand off of Louisa's breast," says the other loudly. the debutantes in their pink hats are shocked by their behavior and insult us. I make a comment that silences them and we get off the train at the next stop.

Scene 7: The face of the head waiter slit up into a grimace as he said to Louisa, "your dress is weird."

We wander through more cobblestone streets in the Village and stop at an elegant hotel to rest. There is a cafe outside. I call A.K. and ask him for directions to my mother's house. He is lthe trustee of my trust and also my father. He gives me directions and the twins and I walk into the dining room. The headwaiter is appalled at our presence for I am in my strange white dress and the twins are in provocative garb. He tries to make us leave and I silence him. I demand after a while that he summon us a cab. He does so reluctantly. Finally he takes one for us that was called for another. He is glad for us to leave. He opens the door of the cab as we leave in a dignified manner. The anima twins and I get in. Suddenly the headwaiter's face slits up into a grimace. He whispers to me, "Louisa your dress is weird."

Scene 8: Louisa wanders into a lost train station

The taxi drops us off in front of an abandoned train station and the anima twins runs off. I see an old bag lady and ask her, "how do I explain these girls at home?" "I need a drink" she replies and vanishes into the dark. I turn around and see that I am being followed by a troupe of mimes. They are dressed in red velvet costumes from head to toe. Their hats are pointed and their tear drops glisten like pearls in the darkness. I start to run and they chase after me. They catch me and surround me in a circle. They dance around me while each one of them mimes a different feeling I have. I react in panic and flee.

Scene 9: Oh Louisa, you have torn your dress

The anima twins and the mime troupe search for me in the train station. Finally they find me down on the station platform. I am sitting on a white horse. I jump off of the horse and this time I am the one who dances. The music of Bolero is playing. My dance is sensuous and provocative as is the music. I throw a small strand of pearls I am wearing onto the train tracks. The dance ends with me tearing open the front of my dress of bewitching batiste to expose a white breast. At this exact moment a train pulls into the platform; its whistle echoing through the empty station and its shadow covers first my breast and then all of me; all of everyone. The train passes through the now empty station. All vanishes. A voice whispers in the dark, "Oh Louisa, you have torn your dress."

Midnight Garden

reprint from March 23, 2007



The full moon shines
with all its might,
drenching my garden
with mystic light...............

L. 11 years old

Flowers such as "Queen of the Night" bloom only in hours of darkness and belong to my sister's midnight garden. They open pale eyes under the light of the moon, when the rest of the world is sleeping. Their perfume is more intoxicating than ordinary flowers for they belong to dream and mystery. One of the night flowers; Cereus greggi blooms only for one midsummer's night each year. The flower exudes its exquisite perfume as night falls, then closes forever with the first touch of dawn. There are people who are like that too; special people who in a unique moment touch us with ephemeral beauty.

All Hallows "To Do List," said Princess Haiku

All Hallows “To Do List”

Ten Things To Do Before Midnight

1) Polish the crystal ball.

2) Leave a note for planchette.

3) Open the moon umbrella and be patient; 12 

more minutes to wait.

4) Close eyes and try to remember my midnight 

birth of long ago.

5) Finish reading Midnight's Children by Salman Rusdie. 

6) Eat the last bite of chocolate ice cream.

7) Ask the Tarot if miracles are still possible.

8) Snap in the DVD of Children of Paradise.

9) Slip into the slinky midnight blue........

10) Listen to the sound of the wind ruffling through

 tall green Ponderosa pines 

and remember when listening was enough.

At the stroke of midnight put down the calligraphy 

pen and curl into bed, smudgy fingers and all for a
dream awaits. 

When winter's cold has put to rest the dreams and musings of the summer, we have nothing left except islands of purple and magenta in our mind to retreat to.

the labyrinth at the end of the world, said Princess Haiku

I recently wandered into the Land's End labyrinth that sits below a hillside along the Sutro Park Trail in San Francisco and faces the Golden Gate Bridge. The beauty of this labyrinth and landscape enchants the mind. I had heard about Land's End Labyrinth years ago but had long given up finding it. I was delighted to see vibrant and happy people walking the labyrinth.

I live in the San Francisco East Bay and the walking trails of SF are unknown to me. This particular day had begun with a visit to Sutro Park to see the statue of the Goddess Diana (a replica of the original in the Louvre) that sits in a small grove of trees. I noticed small notes and candles tucked into the base of the Statue. Suffice it to say that a Dianic Cult is alive and flourishing in this park.

Nearby are the ruins of the Sutro Bathhouse and I wandered along a path through it and ended up on a trail alongside the bay providing spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I lost myself in the fluttering of white sailboats, moving in and out of fog and sunlight.

 the Land's End Labyrinth was created by Eduardo Aguilera and follow this link to the official website of the Labyrinth.


Perched on a small plateau off the main Coastal Trail, the labyrinth in San Francisco's Lands End is an inviting outdoor creation: a simple strolling circuit with unmatched views of the Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge. Created by Eduardo Aguilera in 2004, the labyrinth feels like it has been part of the landscape for centuries. It's the perfect setting for a solstice stroll. And in the winter, the waves crashing against the cliffs give the place a dramatic mystique. The labyrinth was intended to be a site for meditation and relaxation, but it's also just a lot of fun to walk on a whim. On our last visit—between big rainstorms—there wasn't a soul on the trail. Park at Lands End parking lot behind the Cliff House at Point Lobos Ave and 48th Ave. (map). Walk east on the Coastal Trail and take the offshoot trail to Mile Rock Beach. Descend the stairs. When the staircase turns a sharp left, continue on a trail going straight. The labyrinth comes into view. 

autumn tristesse said, Princess Haiku

This morning I saw gold leaves high above the landscape of trees and memory.  It always ends this way;  a flash of gold that soon scatters into burnt fields of wheat and memories left far behind. -Only to be resurrected in a season of Autumn tristesse.

lotus of eternal dream said, Princess Haiku

a dazzle of flowers said, Princess Haiku

I discovered these bright flowers in the butterfly house at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers. It was as though they had wings of their own, so brilliantly were they colored.

breath of a flower becomes self said, Princess Haiku

flowers awaken history said, Princess Haiku

dreams of a white poppy under moon, said Princess Haiku

everywhere this beauty said, Princess Haiku

It's another ordinary day that isn't to eyes that seek.

a flower heart said, Princess Haiku

One of my poems has been published in the new edition of the Criterion Literary Journal and can be viewed via this link. The Criterion is one of the best international literary journals in English and I am both delighted & honored.

an orchid altar said Princess Haiku

This orchid display was captured at the San Francisco Orchid Exposition at Fort Mason a few weeks ago. I had such a fabulous time viewing and capturing orchid images. The miniature orchid, Alba that I brought home now has five delicate little white blooms on it. I am so in love with orchids now that I can't imagine my life without them. How quickly a new love takes center stage in our lives.

a flower that night left behind said, Princess Haiku

a flower heart said, Princess Haiku

orchid heart stopper said, Princess Haiku in a dazzle of gold

This beautiful orchid image was captured at the San Francisco Orchid Exhibition last week and was one of the prize winners. It's easy to understand why.

my only destination is beauty said, Princess Haiku

This cluster of orchids bedazzles the mind as well as the eyes and I captured it for eternity.