Ode to Central Park

OK, forget Spring fever….it is Summer here in the city! I have the sunburn to prove it! (And I as one who usually doesn’t get sunburn I can vouch that the sun is super hot!) I am extremely fortunate to live close to one of the best oasis in the city: Central Park.

The park holds a ton of memories for me. Family jogs, picnics, strolls, bike rides. It has been a blessing for a nature loving city girl! This weekend with unseasonable temps well into the 80’s, winter skin desperately in need of some sun, and some bonding with nature called for, I enjoyed some solitude in a park that is like a second home to me. 

I usually “perch”  in the Conservatory Gardens which is home to many flora and trees and fountains.  I enjoy sitting in the area which houses the famous English Garden’s Burnett fountain dedicated to the writer Frances Hodgson Burnett (“The Secret Garden” remains to be my favorite book.) 

Crabapple and Magnolia trees gather around rectangular and triangular plots of daffodils, tulips, and countless other flowers. I remember as a little girl I loved this spot. The flowers were always changing depending on the season. I would squat down really close to the flowers and imagine these garden kingdoms. The flowers seemed like people to me. You could study a flower up-close and begin visualizing a face or a creature. (My favorite were the snapdragons, I loved how they would grin! Snapdragons aren’t out until later in the season though.) Ok, so I was a peculiar child with a vivid imagination but I am not ashamed to admit I still get lost in looking at flowers and trees and allow my mind to visualize the life and the strength buzzing within it. How can anyone not believe in magic or miracles when seeing it manifest from seed to plant?

 Outside the Garden is the Harlem Meer where the geese, ducks, and fishies play! Along it’s circle people of the city seem to slow down, take off their hustle and bustle caps and forget for a little while. (At least it seems like it, frown lines are hard to be found!) Kids play along the walkway and in a little playground to the east of the Meer. Folks lay out on various grassy areas to have picnics and catch some rays. People fish and/or meditate across the Meer. Despite seeing NYC buildings in the distance the city seems miles away.

I know I could not survive city without Central Park! So you city dwellers, find your nearest piece of nature and you non-city dwellers appreciate the nature outside your window and while taking in it’s beauty get lost in your imagination!

 

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Untitled Poem #1

 

I float among star studded streams of unlimited dreams

Sun beams forth

An Awakening

No room for reasoning

Just Reflecting and Being

 I blend with the stream seamlessly and all that is left are stars…

Let me introduce myself…..

I have decided to join the many and create a blog to show my art, my poetry and share many things I would really only share with those who I befriend. It is strange to make friends with the seemingly intangible ether people that would be you. But it is perhaps easier and I feel as though we are warm friends. No walls to put up before I get to know you better. So allow me to to introduce myself….My name is Ronnie Fielder and I am an Artist living in the famous concrete jungle of New York City: a city of endless stories, dreams, and fun under the moon and sun! (How is that for peppering up the usual cliche of singing NYC praises!)

When I was about 5 I remember my Mom and Dad taking me to Chinatown around my birthday to pick up some gifts for me. I remember getting my first watch, a digital knock-off Hello Kitty like watch. (Since then I always have a watch on my left wrist which has permanently left a “groove” around my wrist. You can feel it when you run your fingers along the sides of my wrist). I also received my first diary, a girly pink one with hearts on it and a lock and key. It had rainbow pages that changed every 25 pages or so from pink, to purple, to seafoam green. My mother instilled in me the importance of keeping some sort of journal and so I began writing down my thoughts, my reflections, my dreams, my doodles, my drawings. I may not have written every day but I would visit often and “speak” like I was chatting with a friend (other than my many imaginary ones!). While that diary has since made it’s way to the incinerator, (Teenage Angst’s idea. I can still see my Dad shaking his head to have thrown away a precious child archive that I could appreciate in my adulthood.) I have continued keeping journals (all that have survived Teenage Angst and all!).

I still plan to keep the tradition of journal writing alive but I have also decided to use the multi-media freedom of setting up this blog to showcase my art, my word, my vision. Believe me while I am not the quiet type, I am not usually one to talk limitlessly about myself. So it is a treat that I begin to give so freely and I am honored to have you spend time to take in my words. Please feel free to comment and share your stories, art, visions with me. This shall be a wonderful friendship!