I ran into Erika at the opening for the Mexican American Cultural Center here in Austin. She was there with her mom.

"Hey girl - you never got me to write a word on you."

"My bad. Here you can still do it."

I pulled out a marker (miracle of miracles that I actually had a marker on me) and handed it to her. She wrote "mami" in the crease of my arm.

The Color Full 100

LOVED your Word centuriothon! I also love occasional immersion in color galaxies, so I am offering you, in kind, the first 100 words of color association descriptives that i could freely extract from my brain (mostly right side), in 100 minutes, without mention or attachment of a primary or secondary color name. In atonement for sneaking in a few double words, I offer a few more words past the 100 mark. SCROLL DOWN BELOW, PLEASE.

Was fun on a lazy Saturday afternoon! Somehow, it made me hungry, too...

Love,

jeneric Jerry (Lyons)

THE COLOR FULL 100:

___________________

01-ivory

fire engine

cardinal

gold

silver

snow

charcoal

puce

aquamarine

10-bice

ochre

sienna

apple

caramel

chartreuse

fuscia

shrimp

lobster

oyster shell

20-coal

umber

sulphur

jade

pearl

jasper

moss

cream

cranberry

aquamarine

30-grape

cadium

carmine

alizarin

ultramarine

cerulean

paynes gray

umber

lemon

lime

40-naples

cobalt

beige

flesh

blonde

cantalope

margarine

amber

rose

scarlet

50-peach

walnut

hayfield

cucumber

dusk

azure

blood

clover

iron

rust

60-bamboo

camel

raven

ruby

cranberry

persimmon

flame

soot

pewter

canary

70-slate

cherry

bone

coral

turquoise

ebony

vermillion

smoke

mustard

bronze

80-tea

mint

rhododedrun

basalt

onyx

molten

limestone

avacado

sepia

fawn

90-emerald

turquoise

leather

brunette

hazel

tangerine

mustard

grass

corn

lava

100-robin egg

rouge

chocolate

coffee

midnight

Gerald Lyons

100

for Ana-Maurine Lara

La tarde que beo caer sobre mi rostro

wraps you in serpentine prayer.

The Body, luminous Palimpsest

of the Divine, struggles for

peace, surprise, possibility.

Family. Joy.

Epicurean site of faith,

enigmatic Temple of the Conjurer

summoning patience from summer’s

sleeping sombras (! Hola Neko!)

Effusive with hope, I go to you,

believe the prestidigitation of vespers:

Oh, pulse of the alma,

organic candle of The Beloved,

transmogrify me,

lost in omphaloskepsis.

Forget delay: Look for grace,

transcendence. Gratitude.

Acceptance. Transition from pride,

Weakness to remember reverence,

labor, the Inquisitive ideal.

Drink in health, hope, unity.

Move toward

Home.

Namaste

Reginald Harris, 2007

Ways to participate

If you want you can send me your stuff - zorashorse@yahoo.com and I'll post it!

1. Ask a stranger to write a word on you. Take a photo.
2. Pick a word out of a book. Write a poem using it.
3. Take five words from the 98 I have received, and write a poem with any combination of them.
4. Take three words from the 98 I have received, and re-arrange their letters to create a new word - completely invented.
5. Take a word that particularly strikes you and write a poem describing why.
6. Cut and paste any of the photos to create an image collage or art piece.
7. Make visual art out of the words.

The 100 words (well, 98 really)

Àbújà

brachiate

effusive

serpentine

prayer

Ran-anim hi

plegaria

weakness

carro

remember

believe

Hey how are you

Hi

patience

possibility

munkah

cooperate

gratitude

love

pride

summer

la glace

luv

malt

a-na

sleeping

labor

sombras

grace

tervyn

transition

reverence

hope

delay

transcendence

love

palimpsest

prestidigitation

vesper

epicurean

site

enigmatic

orgasm

temple

conjurer

bake

acceptance

faith

loser

shaft

beloved

possibilities

home

[dog’s paw print]

summon

Gezla

cancer

alligator

unity

divine

abalone

me

look

peace

transmogrify

joy

oremi

divine

family

omphaloskepsis

Mexica

go

ideal

namaste

inquisitive

forget

drink

joy

move

health

fuerza

nerf

struggle

malaika

wahalla

organic

la tarde que beo caer sobre mi rostro

candle

surprise

MADD

pulse

alma

love

Vick

luminous

Hola!

Mo bá Hánnàh pàde nínú yàrá kòmpútà

I wrote a note to myself: GET A WORD!!! And so, as I sat in the computer room at the Center for African & African American Studies at UT, I jumped to do it. I turned to the woman sitting next to me. She was quietly placing an electronic clock back in her bag. Bunmi is her name. I sat with marker in hand.

"Hi...I'm doing a writing project."

She looked at me inquisitively - as an odd sort of specimen that somehow brought the landscape into focus. She smiled and agreed to write something. With pen in hand, she asked me my name, and then proceeded to write a phrase out on paper.

"Well, actually, if you could write a word on me. On my arm, if you'd like."

"On you? Oh dear."

She thought again and then rolled her chair closer to me.

"Mo bá Hánnàh pàde nínú yàrá kòmpútà" she wrote, in Yoruba.

"It means `I met Ana in the computer lab' in Yoruba." I couldn't believe it!

"The very first word I received was in Yoruba. Where are you from?"

"I'm from Oshun state, in Nigeria. Who wrote the word?"

"Wura Ogunji. Her family's from Abeokuta."

And so I pulled the blog up on the computer and showed her. Bunmi smiled. Gave me her name and thanked me.

Thank you, Bunmi.

Today's the last day of this project. That means that tomorrow, I will not run around trying to get a word. I will not have to carry a marker in my pocket. My bag. My car. Just in case. I will not be taking a photo and then scanning it in. I will not be approaching a stranger with my stock quote.

Though I'm not routine in any sort of way in any aspect of my life, I did have somewhat of a "ritual" with this project. The ritual of uttering a phrase, collecting a word, capturing it in visual form, transferring that form into something virtual, kinesthetic.

I think I'm going to miss this. Though I have traces of words everywhere in my life: the photos I've collected in a composition notebook (which by the way was supposed to have 100 sheets of paper and only had 98), words that rubbed off onto the walls of my house, my pillow cases, bed sheets, clothes. Words that echo when I run into people and we recall each other through language.

Okay - I'm getting nostalgic. It's time to quit.

I thank everyone who dared to write on me and everyone who didn't, too. I thank all the witnesses who have followed this project to its completion, and have laughed with me at some of my follies. I don't know yet know how this project has changed me, but I know I'm feeling a lot less shy these days. I'm excited to see what people do with the words I have collected. And to watch the project expand in its own sort of way.

The next posting is all of the words that have come into my life in the past 100 days. All of them. Let's see where they go.

Peace. And Love. And Hola. And Possibilities.

Ana-Maurine Lara

The first guy I asked was completely skeptical. He looked over my head and said, "Nah - I've got to go do something." I was like, "Are you sure you don't want to write ONE word? It's day 99 of 100." "Nah."

So then I went up to a woman walking in my direction. She was holding about three different bottles in her hands. Note to self - don't ask people carrying a bunch of things if they're willing to juggle them in one hand to give you a word. But, surprisingly, Melissa was open to considering it.

"Will you write a word? It's the 99th day."

"What is this for?"

"It's just a writing project. Just one word. Tomorrow's the last day." I was begging.

She looked at Wu who was standing to my right.

"Is she serious? Is it true?"

Wu nodded emphatically - "Yeah it's true!"

"Okay."

"So, she took the pen and wrote "Hola!"

Thank you Melissa, for making my 99th day!