Thought for the Day

It is terrible to survive/

as consciousness/

buried in the dark earth.

~ Louise Gluck

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Quoted from Louise Gluck, "The Wild Iris" in The Wild Iris (ECCO Press/HarperCollins, 1993) (This collection won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize.)

Louise Gluck, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2003-2004

Louise Gluck Profiles at Academy of American Poets and Poetry Foundation

Gluck published American Originality: Essays on Poetry in 2017.  Her most recent collection of poems is Faithful and Virtuous Night (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), which received the 2014 National Book Award for Poetry.

New Artist Watch Feature at Escape Into Life

Manal Deeb, Cordoba, 2018

Acrylic and Watercolor on Canvas

24" x 30"

© Manal Deeb

PLEASE DO NOT COPY IMAGE

When I first came across Manal Deeb's paintings on LinkedIn, I knew instantly I wanted to invite her to be featured in my monthly column at Escape Into Life. Today, I am pleased to say, I am showcasing her work in Artist Watch.

For Manal Deeb, who holds a bachelor degree in interdisciplinary studies in the psychology of art, women's faces, along with calligraphy, feature prominently in her multi-layered and mixed media paintings. Described by one art critic as a "Palestinian artist who paints life" in visual metaphors, she follows no particular school of art. Her subjects include feminism, identity, religion, and philosophy, among other interests.

You'll find in today's new Artist Watch column images of seven of Manal's paintings, her Artist Statement, and a brief biography, as well as her social media links. If you are in Virginia, plan a visit to Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, where you'll find Manal working in her studio, #1011 in building 10.

Thought for the Day

Light every morning dawns through the trees. Surely

this is worth more than one life.

~ Marilyn Nelson

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Quoted from Concluding Lines of "A Charmed Life" from Carver: a Life in Poems (Front Street/Boyds Mills Press, 2001), by Marilyn Nelson, Winner, 2017 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature (University of Oklahoma/World Literature Today)*

Marilyn Nelson, American Poet, Children's Book Author, Translator; Chancellor, Academy of American Poets; Poet-in-Residence, Cathedral of St. John the Divine; Professor Emeritus of English, University of Connecticut; Former Poet Laureate of Connecticut (2001-2006)

* An excerpt from "A Charmed Life" including the quoted lines is in Marilyn Nelson, "Bowled Over — A Life with Poem: The 2017 NSK Prize Keynote", World Literature Today, March 2018.

Hayan Charara, "Reinventing and Reimagining the World: A Tribute to Marilyn Nelson", World Literature Today, March 2018

Sarah Rebecca Warren, "Telling It Slant: A Conversation with Marilyn Nelson", World Literature Today, March 2018

Saturday Short

Today's short is a quick look at the award-winning and beautifully hand-illustrated Gorogoa (Annapurna Interactive, 2017), an interactive game created by Jason Roberts in which players move panels of art to "read" the storybook and solve the puzzle.

Read Allison Meier's "Gorogoa Is a Hand-Illustrated Puzzle That Reflects the Transformative Power of Imagination" at Hyperallergic.

Jason Roberts on FaceBook

Jason Roberts on Vimeo

Thought for the Day

Closing the distance between one's self and others opens us

as it breaks down barriers. Learning how to do that, in one's

art and in one's life, is the true freedom. It helps to lead us

out of suffering. It's an act of love. . . .

~ Margaret Gibson

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Quoted from "A Conversation with Margaret Gibson", Image Journal, Spring 2018, No. 96, page 63

Margaret Gibson, Poet; Author, Most Recently, of Not Hearing the Wood Thrush* (forthcoming September 2018)

* Read a selection of poems from the collection.

Margaret Gibson Profiles at Academy of American Poets and Poetry Foundation

Saturday Short

Today's short is the launch trailer for the documentary Whistle Words (Red Sparks Films), a film that traces how women with cancer reclaim  their voices; specifically it follows poet Charlotte Matthews's experience of breast cancer, diagnosed as stage 3, and of her post-treatment efforts to reclaim through her writing her sense of self. The trailer is based on Matthews's poem "The Greatest Show on Earth". Matthews's third book of poems is Whistle What Can't Be Said (Unicorn Press, 2016).

Additional film clips are available at the Red Sparks link above.

Read Nin Andrews's interview with Matthews at The Best American Poetry Blog (June 4, 2018).

Charlotte Matthews Poems at From the Fishouse, storySouth, StreetLight Magazine, VQR Online

Charlotte Matthews on FaceBook

Charlotte Matthews Project Website

Whistle Words Project

Whistle Words on FaceBook

Red Sparks Films on FaceBook

You Swim Until You Can't (Poem)

You Swim Until You Can't

      for Scott Hutchinson,
         lead singer, Frightened Rabbit

You swim until you can't
see land. So gone from shore

we become a foreign substance
in your eye you can neither rub

nor let alone.

Not meant for easy oblivion.
Not meant for that long slog

to eternity where you pledged
your forever presence to love

once everything's been worked out.

We hear no distress call, eye
no hand signaling how you'll go

missing from what some called
a messy life. Water sweeps away

even a trace of your footsteps.

© 2018 Maureen E. Doallas

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Scott Hutchinson (b. November 20, 1981) died May 10, 2018. Just 36, he left his last words in a tweet: ". . . I'm away now. Thanks."

The poem's title and opening line are a variation on "Swim Until You Can't See Land" from the Glasgow band's album The Winter of Mixed Drinks (2010).

Read Marc Hogan's May 14, 2018, article at Pitchfork, "Why Losing Frightened Rabbit's Scott Hutchinson Hurts So Much". Also see "Frightened Rabbit's Scott Hutchinson Dead at 36", also at Pitchfork.

Thought for the Day

[. . .] everyone's grief is different, and [. . .] differs in

in small and subtle ways, according to the circumstances of loss.

~ Richard Lloyd Parry

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Quoted from Richard Lloyd Parry's excellent Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone (MCD, 2017)

Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor, The Times, Foreign Asia Correspondent; and Author

Richard Lloyd Parry on FaceBook and Twitter

Saturday Short

. . . your voice is not a feather I can hold//

but a thought i draw/

across my  throat when I close my eyes—//. . . 

Today, Saturday Short brings you "Asterism", a film of a poem by Keith S. Wilson presented at MotionPoems in partnership with Cave Canem.

A selection of Wilson's poems is available at his Website.