Monnara, from a new series July Mountain We live in a constellation Of patches and of pitches, Not in a single world, In things said well in music, On the piano and in speech, As in the page of poetry- Thinkers without final thoughts In an always incipient cosmos. The way, when we climb a […]
Poetry
- Art Making
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The Grace of Perfect Danger
Agamya 2 “May your imagination know The grace of perfect danger.” Those are lines are from the poem, For the Artist at the Start of Day, by John O’Donohue, the warmhearted Irish poet and former priest who died in his sleep at just 52 seven years ago. Writing this poem for anyone who spends their […]
The Sweet Unheard
Of all the poets who delve into writing, creativity and the nature of art making, Jane Hirshfield is the closest to my way of seeing things. I go back to her books over and over again. Now another to add to my library: Hiddenness, Uncertainty, Surprise: Three Generative Energies of Poetry. These three essays were […]
The Form in the Grass
A Message from the Wanderer Today outside your prison I stand and rattle my walking stick: Prisoners, listen; you have relatives outside. And there are thousands of ways to escape. Years ago I bent my skill to keep my cell locked, had chains smuggled to me in pies, and shouted my plans to jailers; but […]
- Art Making
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The Periphery, Whole Fragments and Ruminations
Nigrassa, one of the pieces included in the show at Chautauqua Institution this summer, “On the Surface: Outward Appearances,” that has been sold and taken up residence elsewhere. Ann Lauterbach, poet and educator, is the author of The Night Sky: Writings on the Poetics of Experience. As is usually the case, her insights about poetry […]
- Art Making
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It’s The Honey
Dolice 1, 12 x 12″ on wood panel Nigrassa, 40 x 40″ on canvas Both paintings are from the upcoming show, “On the Surface: Outward Appearances”, at Chautauqua Institution, June 16 – August 19, 2014 For us, honey is a gift; for the bee, it is labor. –Jane Hirshfield The poet Jane Hirshfield is a […]
- Aesthetics
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Everything Depends
Mar Jee 3, from a recent series I have been spending some time contemplating where working and mystery coalesce. Here are a few thoughts about that by way of some wise practitioners… Shaking the Tree Vine and branch we’re connected in this world of sound and echo, figure and shadow, the leaves contingent, roots pushing […]
- Art Making
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In Both But Neither
Boli (Photo: Brooklyn Museum) Bolis are abstract figures that are from the Bamana culture. The basic form, a bit like a simplified cow, is made from mud, eggs, chewed kola nuts, sacrificial blood, urine, honey, beer, vegetable fiber, and cow dung. The role of the boli is to regulate energy, whatever is moving from the […]
- Aesthetics
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Hazy Border to the Wonder-World
Blade, 6 x 7″, egg tempera on calfskin parchment by Altoon Sultan Wonder, to preserve itself, withdraws. It withdraws from the mind, from the willing mind, which would make of mystery a category. I remember being told a story about an old culture that believed the center of the forest was holy and could not […]
A Truing of Vision
The round object above is a Moroccan hand made drum. It had one slight tear near the edge when I brought it into my studio several years ago. With time two fissures began to make their way slowly across the taut animal hide, following no pattern I would have expected. This self manifested morphing drum […]