Thought for the Day

The deaf don't believe in silence.

Silence is the invention of the hearing.

~ Ilya Kaminsky

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Quoted from Notes to "Deaf Republic: A poet writes deafness as a form of dissent against tyranny and violence," Multimedia Poetry Presentation, The New Yorker, February 11, 2019

Ilya Kaminsky, Poet, Critic, Translator, Professor (Kaminsky's most recent book is Deaf Republic (Graywolf Press, 2019).)

Ilya Kaminsky Profiles at Academy of American Poets and Poetry Foundation 

Read Garth Greenwell, "Still Dancing: An Interview with Ilya Kaminsky", Poets & Writers, March/April 2019.

Thought for the Day

[. . .] to fully live,

we must take the path and

keep sweeping it.

~ Mark Nepo

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Quoted from Mark Nepo, "Being Here" in The Way Under the Way: Three Books of Poems (SoundsTrue, 2016)

Mark Nepo Website

New Artist Watch Feature at Escape Into Life

Kaetlyn Able, With Only Butterflies to Brood, 2018

Scratchboard Drawing and Mixed Acrylic Painting Media on Claybord

12" x 18"

PLEASE DO NOT COPY IMAGE

I'm delighted to present in my new Artist Watch column at Escape Into Life the exceptional work of Kaetlyn Able, a Bozeman, Montana, artist who looks to old photographs and wildlife images for inspiration.

Kaetlyn's thematic ideas reference American and European folk tales, the history and mythology of the American West, and human connections to nature. Her experiences as a mother and as a breast cancer survivor have helped shape her most recent work.

Today's Artist Watch column features eight images of Kaetlyn's mixed-media work, her Artist Statement, which explains aspects of her artistic process, and a brief biography.

Thought for the Day

It is easy to be beautiful; it is difficult to appear so.

~ Frank O'Hara

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Quoted from Frank O'Hara, "Meditations in an Emergency" in Meditations in a Emergency (Grove/Atlantic, 1957; reissue 1996)

Frank O'Hara (1926-1966), American Writer, Poet, and Art Critic

Frank O'Hara Profiles at Academy of American Poets, Modern American Poetry, and  Poetry Foundation

Thought for the Day

God comes to you disguised as your life.

Blessings often arrive as trouble.

~ Teddy Macker

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Quoted from Teddy Macker, "A Poem for My Daughter" in Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems (Grayson Books, 2017), eds. Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby R Wilson, page 113

Teddy Macker, Poet, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Translator; Lecturer, Creative Writing and Literature, University of California at Santa Barbara

Teddy Macker Profiles at Academy of American Poets, Orion Magazine, and White Cloud Press

Interview with Teddy Macker at Santa Barbara Independent

A Poem at Escape Into Life

Today is International Women's Day, and the international online arts magazine Escape Into Life is celebrating with poetry and gorgeous art by Artist Watch artist Pooja Campbell. 

The honored poets are Risa Denenberg, Rose Hunter, Angela Narciso Torres, Luisa A. Igloria. I am so pleased to note that I also share a bit of space with these wonderful writers. 

My poem "Free-Diving's Queen" is dedicated to Natalia Molchanova, a Russian champion free-diver and multiple world record holder who vanished on August 2, 2015, while teaching a free-diving course on an island near Ibiza, Spain. She was only 53 years old. In 2013, the extraordinary athlete became the only woman in her sport to break the 100-meter barrier.

International Women's Day: Poems & Art at Escape Into Life

Mortal | Ever-Living (Poem for Ash Wednesday)

Mortal | Ever-Living

Mark on our foreheads
the ancient sign

Out of the ashes
we each have come

from earth that yields
the bread we eat

to earth that receives
the wine we make

From life to death to life
we come

of dust to dust returned
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Also see my "Prayer for Ash Wednesday", "Ash Wednesday", and "fear not the rub of ash".

Thought for the Day

[. . .] only the arts are forced to justify their place

in our schools. We never demand [. . .] justification

from the sciences, from history, or from math.

~ Ellen Winner

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Quoted from Monica Moses's Interview with Ellen Winner in American Craft, February/March 2019, pages 70-73

Ellen Winner, Ph.D. (Winner, a developmental research psychologist and professor at Boston College's Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences and Senior Research Associate at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education, is the author, most recently, of the highly rated How Art Works: A Psychological Exploration (Oxford University Press, 2018). She directs the Arts and Mind Lab, which explores cognition in the arts in typical and gifted children, and adults.)

Ellen Winner Profiles at American Academy of Arts & Sciences and Harvard Graduate School of Education