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some potters call their clay mud/and themselves mudslingers/the way servers are hashslingers/and firearm duellists are gunslingers/and let’s digress jauntily a bit more and have some fun and call the rumored slayer of goliath a slingslinger

but back to clay also known as mud

there is low-fire clay also known as earthenware/suitable for fire pits but not conventional kilns/unless a freeze-dried puddle instead of a vessel is desired

there is high-fire clay also known as stoneware/that can take a max temp of 2361° F or so,/also known as cone 10

and there is a lot of mud in between

some like porcelain is slick and buttery

some like soldate 60 has some grit

the color range is from chalk white to charcoal black/with red tan and brown also common/and reds and blacks often make for a messy cleanup

according to seven clues to the origins of life without clay we would not exist

and so i say

i am one with clay

was am and will be/nigh unto eternity

Note: The prompt offered on the NaPoWriMo website invited poets to explain obliquely why they are poets and not something else. But I AM something else, so let’s see what happens when I start with that.

These pieces were done by the author on April Third, 2025, at Lively Minds Art Studio.

The Potter’s Progress

Clay speaks to me tactilely/And telepathically

I need form/I need life

Clay chides me here and there

I deserve better/I do not deserve slapdash

Clay on the wheel connects me/With the Spin with which Creation began

That hum you hear is Universal

Clay has her delights and cruelties/And sometimes a will of her own

Stop trying to make a bowl. I do not want to be a bowl. Make me into a bird with four eggs on my back.

Sometimes cleanup is messy./Beware her dust!

Clay urges me to improve./I asked her why she was so demanding.

You know it is not I who demands. It is you yourself.

I am however thrilled that you do so.

It’s good for both of us, Darling.

Monday I made these four mugs.

Tuesday I had an appointment with the urologist.

Wednesday I set about trimming the mugs.

Not all of the mugs survived trimming. I went too deep with one and cut through it. So I reconstituted the trim scraps and remade a fourth mug, a sort of big brother to the others.

I had enough reconstituted scrap to pull four handles, and one by one I affixed them to the mug bodies via the Slip&Score method.

This went well with the three smaller mugs, and I still had session time, so I carefully trimmed the still-soft larger mug and put the last, largest handle on it, completing the quartet.

The NCAA’s annual basketball tournament is colloquially known as March Madness. For one who strives to be One With Clay, March Mudness is a better fit. 🙂

The Clay at times transcends decor and pottery

With shape and decoration proving timeless.

The potter wins the artisanal lottery

.

And though some day time makes her feebly doddery

The work she’s done endures in realms not chimeless.

The Clay at times transcends–

.

Now hold on just a second, Buster. You have set yourself up for failure. Sure, you will find more rhymes for Pottery and Timeless, but soon you’ll resort to Snottery and Slimeless and even worse, and the Poetry Gods will mock you dismissively. You’ve got the easy-rhyming Clay and the not-bad Potter and the even-better Pot to work with. Start over!

But–but–I wanted to do something with words no one has used before…

Sometimes there’s a reason for things never being done before, Bud. Here’s what you do. Go back to the potter’s wheel and MAKE that ‘timeless’ thing. It might take you a year, but it will be time well spent. Give the world something to marvel at, THEN write about it.

Yeah, that makes sense. But that’s doing things the hard way, isn’t it?

No, fella. That’s doing things the infinitely more rewarding way.

You’re right, dammit.

Now Get Crackin’!!

i was lengths of roll-tubed clay/alchemy performed today/made me beach bum beach ball cat/cell phone on the side no hat/so i use my hand for shade

vaguely hoping to get laid/vaguely wishing for a towel/but there is no need to growl/i’ll just chill on canvas beach/vague existence tastes like peach

IMG_20210315_185700_592

feat o clay

storebought clay comes in 25lb bags
two bags fit within a 50lb box
forty boxes make a one-ton pallet
and it is cheaper by the ton
but let’s start with what one bag can do

20210315_202546

a quarter of a bag yields an exotic heretofore nonexistent bird
a tenth of a bag might give you a cereal bowl or a small teapot
devoting all 25lb of the bag to one shape might be the life-sized head and shoulders
of a couple of human beings
the same 25lb might depict a village in ultraminiature

2021 0316 vase

“feet of clay” is idiomatic for fallible
but perform a feat o clay
and you become upliftable

2021 0316 closed form

commune
attune
become
one
with
clay

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As a ceramic artist I have done a certain amount of hand-building, which is non-wheel-thrown working of clay. Ehen the “Build” prompt came up it occurred to me that “hand building” could be my Bad Pun of the Day if I used Hand Building to actually build a hand. (Thank you for reading my Bad Pun of the Day!)

HAND BLDG

Hit the switch–a genius bulb

Agitation of the skull

Need of subject Plan & grid

Dream becoming something big

Personal note: I made this page, and am writing these words, at an event called Meet Your Literary Community. As far as I know I am the only Acrostic Poet on display in the Community. Hope I’m doing a good job Representing!

The earthly remains of my brother Brian were cremated and put into a cardboard box. The family agrees that Brian’s final resting place might be best placed inside an urn of my creation. I hope by May I will have done something suitable; meanwhile, I’m getting my skill back, some at a time.

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I’m also doing birds and other miscellany. Practice, practice, practice–feels good to be back.

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At long, long last I got my hands on some clay today. It has been many months since the last time. This is a little chunk from a bag of Dave’s Porcelain (bless Dave, wherever he is–I’ve been using his stuff since 1989) that is so dry from summer spent in my good friend Joy Riner Taylor’s garage that I’m having to reconstitute it in my kitchenette sink. GREAT to be One With Clay again!! Thanks to Joy for making it possible!