her hands the color of mediterranean olives oiled smooth young, nails jutting out of clear skin no lines no scratches no scars rich like changing tones of day
as she paints each move of the wrist fingers choreographed against the sound of color the brush circling sure hesitant marking every note across the page
sits, against a backdrop of anger and history thinking purple sketching lyric creating lines reaching out toward every horizon
how does she, one wonders, compose each line as if set to music without tone, coming together in the realm of present fragments turned whole, continuous
turning toward breathing deeply woven with layers of incarnation imagined possibilities in each shadow from the time before and into
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
space, or the shape of a mango
a 20 (or so) line poem
the sound of fall cutting through, chainsaw against orange leaf
each grain layered like little chinese dragons
at the new year
the taste of buttered wine at lunch
smelling sweet like grapes pressed firm
chittering distant or the mosquito in my ear
scratched, to the bone
a piece of golden green, refracted, shadows shifting against each changed light
the clever taste of single voices, shimmering clear
not each grain but the particular flakes of wild, golden, rustling
a moving away from the understood glow
maneuver of an autumn
feel this, pig lipstick
the painting, disturbed by sound, broken, echoed
"that one"
the red wheelbarrow of hilarity
falling rocks scrape the insides of intuition
taste the root vegetables, one flavor at a time
chandelier
we will march toward the tree line and circle flowers made of teflon
each leaf laughing against blue
troubled wonder
the flavor of a shade
spliced on the wind
the sound of fall cutting through, chainsaw against orange leaf
each grain layered like little chinese dragons
at the new year
the taste of buttered wine at lunch
smelling sweet like grapes pressed firm
chittering distant or the mosquito in my ear
scratched, to the bone
a piece of golden green, refracted, shadows shifting against each changed light
the clever taste of single voices, shimmering clear
not each grain but the particular flakes of wild, golden, rustling
a moving away from the understood glow
maneuver of an autumn
feel this, pig lipstick
the painting, disturbed by sound, broken, echoed
"that one"
the red wheelbarrow of hilarity
falling rocks scrape the insides of intuition
taste the root vegetables, one flavor at a time
chandelier
we will march toward the tree line and circle flowers made of teflon
each leaf laughing against blue
troubled wonder
the flavor of a shade
spliced on the wind
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Photos 2
Lines, by Don Brower
Color lines on rock, by Jill Darling
Fountain, by Jill Darling
Leaves 1, by Jill Darling
Leaves 2, by Jill DarlingSaturday, October 18, 2008
Kristin Prevallet
from [I, Afterlife] [Essay in Mourning Time]
The elegiac burden is the poem expressing, through the form it takes on the page, the broken minds which have shaped it. The poem is a state of both mind and landscape, and because it is not mappable, is capable of articulating a person's spatial distance. The poem, scratched out on the surface of the page, scratches then at the surface of the world "outside" of the poem. The success of this is articulating something difficult; perhaps even articulating something so well and so persuasively that readers are inspired to seek clarity in their relationship to loss, disappointment, or fear. The sadness of this is the difficulty of knowing that what the poem knows--or rather how it knows--will probably not change the world. And yet, people die every day from the lack of poetry in faith. In doubting the possibility of a tidy afterlife, I have come to compose a fragmented system of believing. I call this poetry.
The elegiac burden is the poem expressing, through the form it takes on the page, the broken minds which have shaped it. The poem is a state of both mind and landscape, and because it is not mappable, is capable of articulating a person's spatial distance. The poem, scratched out on the surface of the page, scratches then at the surface of the world "outside" of the poem. The success of this is articulating something difficult; perhaps even articulating something so well and so persuasively that readers are inspired to seek clarity in their relationship to loss, disappointment, or fear. The sadness of this is the difficulty of knowing that what the poem knows--or rather how it knows--will probably not change the world. And yet, people die every day from the lack of poetry in faith. In doubting the possibility of a tidy afterlife, I have come to compose a fragmented system of believing. I call this poetry.
Friday, October 17, 2008
words overhea(r)d
good meat good oil and salt
wine and the odoriferous
midwestern
idea of water
what looks like screaming, a rattle, a glass
wilting
going nowhere
a suite of statistics
screech
survey study reverse scene
walls hold sound
reside invite interior utter imitate
a response
rejects
the instant
pixel
wine and the odoriferous
midwestern
idea of water
what looks like screaming, a rattle, a glass
wilting
going nowhere
a suite of statistics
screech
survey study reverse scene
walls hold sound
reside invite interior utter imitate
a response
rejects
the instant
pixel
health/cares
after Sandy Tolbert
the treachery of argument a migration of carnations how will this murky adherence siphon each molecule, a proud migration tilted toward gravity, an unheard acoustic shift frames the artifact.
We digress, deviate.
The surface of erasure is porous, a hybrid vocation scanning the syllabic properties of discord.
Hear text.
Mark a location.
Fracture.
In every case verbs (voice) multiply, the sound of height a clarity of mixed images.
the treachery of argument a migration of carnations how will this murky adherence siphon each molecule, a proud migration tilted toward gravity, an unheard acoustic shift frames the artifact.
We digress, deviate.
The surface of erasure is porous, a hybrid vocation scanning the syllabic properties of discord.
Hear text.
Mark a location.
Fracture.
In every case verbs (voice) multiply, the sound of height a clarity of mixed images.
Friday, October 03, 2008
Palin, Poet
from Slate
"Small Mayors"
You know,
Small mayors,
Mayors of small towns—
Quote, unquote—
They're on the front lines.
"On the Bailout"
Ultimately,
What the bailout does
Is help those who are concerned
About the health care reform
That is needed
To help shore up our economy,
Helping the—
It's got to be all about job creation, too.
Shoring up our economy
And putting it back on the right track.
So health care reform
And reducing taxes
And reining in spending
Has got to accompany tax reductions
And tax relief for Americans.
And trade.
We've got to see trade
As opportunity
Not as a competitive, scary thing.
But one in five jobs
Being created in the trade sector today,
We've got to look at that
As more opportunity.
All those things.
"Small Mayors"
You know,
Small mayors,
Mayors of small towns—
Quote, unquote—
They're on the front lines.
"On the Bailout"
Ultimately,
What the bailout does
Is help those who are concerned
About the health care reform
That is needed
To help shore up our economy,
Helping the—
It's got to be all about job creation, too.
Shoring up our economy
And putting it back on the right track.
So health care reform
And reducing taxes
And reining in spending
Has got to accompany tax reductions
And tax relief for Americans.
And trade.
We've got to see trade
As opportunity
Not as a competitive, scary thing.
But one in five jobs
Being created in the trade sector today,
We've got to look at that
As more opportunity.
All those things.
Gloria Steinem on Sarah Palin
Click here to read the whole story: Palin: Wrong Woman, Wrong Message
from the article:
"Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.
"But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.
...
"So far, the major new McCain supporter that Palin has attracted is James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Of course, for Dobson, "women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership," so he may be voting for Palin's husband.
"Being a hope-a-holic, however, I can see two long-term bipartisan gains from this contest.
"Republicans may learn they can't appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment and should be the last to want to invite government into the wombs of women.
"And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can't be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.
"This could be huge."
from the article:
"Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.
"But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.
...
"So far, the major new McCain supporter that Palin has attracted is James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Of course, for Dobson, "women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership," so he may be voting for Palin's husband.
"Being a hope-a-holic, however, I can see two long-term bipartisan gains from this contest.
"Republicans may learn they can't appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment and should be the last to want to invite government into the wombs of women.
"And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can't be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.
"This could be huge."
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