31 Comments
User's avatar
Cave Buckner's avatar

Thoughtful, Duane. I'm drawn to collages, because they really make you think. I love the idea of layering materials, to emulate human psychology, to evoke deeper meaning to thoughts and actions, whether your prose leads or follows, or simply depends on how it flows, to create an emotional synergy you seem to have mastered. Thanks for sharing.

Duane Toops's avatar

Thank you so much Cave! I think you’d perfectly described teh very thing that makes collage so meaningful to me! I appreciate you my friend!

Jill McDougall's avatar

Well said!!

Duane Toops's avatar

Much appreciated! <3 <3

Jill McDougall's avatar

Yes I did just turn my laptop upside down to read the handwriting on that amazing little scrap of old paper!

Gorgeous words, gorgeous collages. As usual.

Duane Toops's avatar

That’s why you get me! haha!

Abbey Wade's avatar

Oh I did this same thing yep

Jill McDougall's avatar

Omg we are all birds of a feather!!

Abbey Wade's avatar

We absolutely are. What kind of bird are we?? Something beautifully weird and important but allows space for Duane to have quiet time

Jill McDougall's avatar

😂😂😂

We will have to think on this!!

Duane Toops's avatar

Oh I can’t wait to see where this goes!

Angel's avatar

I have never seen this explained before in a better way than you just did! Bravo!

Duane Toops's avatar

Wow!! Thank you Angel! I really appreciate that!

Manuela Thames's avatar

Love the first collage!!!

Duane Toops's avatar

Thank you!!

Abbey Wade's avatar

I felt this. Deeply.

Gorgeous everything as usual, my dear friend.

“Back to the moment when two hearts find each other in the darkness and start speaking.”

Such a visual and true knowing in that fragment.

❤️

Duane Toops's avatar

a true knowing in a fragment - that is stunning! I hope you'll save that!

Abbey Wade's avatar

Ugh ok fine I’ll write it down with the rest

Duane Toops's avatar

Well done! You’ll be glad you did!

Lisa Jensen's avatar

I love this image of two hearts pulsing together! It makes me think, too, how many things have to come together in just the way they do, how many lives must be lived in just this way or that, for a single collage/poem/creation to be exactly what it is. That paper must land here. That bird must land there. You must arrive, with your eyes open at just that moment. Maybe everything we create, if we could know all the entanglements, is actually made of many, many hearts, pulsing together across space-time.

Duane Toops's avatar

LISA!! YES! Nothing is ever just open. Our hearts are always legion, for they are many.

Kathryn Kcyama's avatar

“The aliveness was never pinned to completion.” A resonant meditation. Thank you.

Duane Toops's avatar

Thank you so much! So glad it resonates with you!

Invisible's avatar

Exactly, Duane! You’re amazing!

Duane Toops's avatar

Aww! Thank you Martha!

Donn Dobkin's avatar

"A figure of curiousity" really stuck with me. I can't say why, only that it did. Very cool.

Duane Toops's avatar

I love that! Thank you Donn! I love it when that happens. I appreciate it!

maria duran's avatar

that's it exactly! so taken with these collages

Duane Toops's avatar

Thank you Maria!! means a lot to me!!

Vanessa's avatar

That is absolutely it- exactly - the synchronization of pulses - the alignment- heading, together, towards the finish line

Duane Toops's avatar

Yes! There’s always something inherently collaborative at play!