Each dandelion
Lives its tiny galaxy:
Sun, then moon, then stars.
[Picture: Dandelion Sun, Moon, and Stars, rubber block prints plus digital drawing by AEGNydam from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (See NydamPrints.com).]
Each dandelion
Lives its tiny galaxy:
Sun, then moon, then stars.
[Picture: Dandelion Sun, Moon, and Stars, rubber block prints plus digital drawing by AEGNydam from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (See NydamPrints.com).]
[Picture: Faithful Friend and Ghost, rubber block print with colored pencil plus digital, by AEGNydam from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (See NydamPrints.com).]
For those who have forgotten how to fly
It is not like riding a bicycle:
It is indeed possible to lose that sense
Of perfect balance
That lifts you
Into the embrace of sky.
Detail from Bright Butterflies, rubber block print with watercolor by AEGNydam, 2015 (one original left!);
Shadow Dragon, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2024 (one original left!);
Sing from the Heart, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2024;
Blue Jay, rubber block reduction print by AEGNydam, 2010 (originals sold out),
all from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025.]
[Picture: Assorted illustrations by AEGNydam from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (See NydamPrints.com).]
[Picture: Dreams, illustration by AEGNydam from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (See NydamPrints.com).]
[Picture: All in This Together, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2020 (Image from Bittersweetness & Light, but originals are still available at NydamPrints.com).]
It is possible
On a night of snow
When porch lights make yellow diamonds
Of fat cold flakes spangling the twigs,
Spangling the luminous blue silence,
To be broken by beauty.
To be broken open
Like an alabaster egg in April,
Hatching forth to giggling white blossoms
Scenting every incredulous bird-song breath
Of air turned giddy with life;
Hatching like front doors
Scattering their people to the sidewalks.
It is possible
On a red-gold afternoon
When every maple impersonates chrysanthemums,
Flinging implausible color to the piercing freshness of the sky,
And the festive crinkle of fallen applause to those who drag their feet,
To be broken by beauty.
To be broken open
Like a dry crack in crumbling earth
Unfolding to fertile black beneath an impetuous rain,
Exhaling mud-scented breath to grateful leaves
That dance like sparkling children in the sprinkler;
Unfolding like frail smiles
Fluttering along the check-out line.
It is all possible.
[Picture: Snowflakes, rubber block prints, and Leaves, digital by AEGNydam from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (See NydamPrints.com).]
Thin, twining words that thrust their roots between emotion’s masonry,
Dull, brazen words that glitter like a gong,
Pebbles of sound that sink at once but leave their spreading rings,
Deep, dusky words whose rings are blown of smoke,
Take these to build your house, and furnish it with words…
[Picture: Arches, collage by AEGNydam from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (See NydamPrints.com).]
2024 - The Botany of the Realms of Imagination
2023 - Alphabet Squared: an Alphabet of Block Printed Alphabets
2022 - How to Make a Mythical Creature
2021 - Mythical and Imaginary Places
2020 - Nursery Rhymes (and their Block Printed Illustrations)
2019 - On the Virtues of Beasts of the Realms of Imagination
2018 - Characters from My Own Books
2017 - Block Print Artists
2016 - Mythical Creatures
[Picture: Sustainably Harvested, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2020 (originals sold out), from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (See NydamPrints.com).]