A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song. ~Maya Angelou

This week's Creativity Exchange is a revisitation to the double exchange we tried once before. TheRacket calls it Layer Cake Exchange. I like that. It's where we each create a piece, then respond to that piece (like normal) but then we take that response and treat it like another original, stand-alone submission for exchange. Easy to understand, right?

Below you will get a chance to experience a bit of what we experienced. Go over to TheRacket's page to see the other half and perhaps a clearer explanation of the whole shebang. In both cases, you will see Parts I, II & III of each thread laid out from newest to oldest. Maybe you'll glimpse a theme and find its source. Perhaps not. Either way, please enjoy.

Words by TheRacket, images by me.

[drinks around a fire]

the warms & the cools
the optimists & the pessimists

the transparents & the opaques
the bitters & the sweets

an improbable cluster of sweat & tears

look closer
you said
as we watched the burning light

& soon i saw
their faces
like mirrors of glass

reflecting its warmth
from one to another

the ice

breaking off
into clinks of laughter

a rabble of impossible diversity
transformed into
a halo of true community

look closer you said
can you see?

[drinks around a fire]

the warms & the cools
the optimists & the pessimists

the transparents & the opaques
the bitters & the sweets

an improbable cluster of sweat & tears

look closer
you said
as we watched the burning light

& soon i saw
their faces
like mirrors of glass

reflecting its warmth
from one to another

the ice

breaking off
into clinks of laughter

a rabble of impossible diversity
transformed into
a halo of true community

look closer you said
can you see?