Thought for the Day

. . . We are all immigrants from the past, and home lives 

inside the memory, where we lock it up

and pretend it is unchanged.

~ Dina Nayeri

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Quoted from Dina Nayeri, The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You (Canongate Books/Catapult, 2019), page 346. The book was a finalist for the 2019 Kirkus Prize.

Dina Nayeri, Award-Winning Novelist, Essayist, and Nonfiction Writer; Fellow, Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination, 2019-2020

Thought for the Day

. . . what is this loneliness we long for in that someone /

no one else can be, . . .  /

but who was there, whatever the moment was?

~ Stanley Plumly

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Quoted from Stanley Plumly, "Planet" in American Poetry, November/December 2019, pg 22

Stanley Plumly (1939-2019), Award-Winning Poet and Prose Writer; Maryland Poet Laureate; Director, Creative Writing, University of Maryland at College Park

Stanley Plumly's posthumous collection of poems is Middle Distance (W.W. Norton, August 2020).

Profiles of Stanley Plumly at Academy of American Poets, Literary Hub, Poetry Foundation, University of Maryland Department of English

New Artist Watch Post at Escape Into Life

Ellen Von Wiegand, Of Wild Weeds, 2019

Linocut, 55.5" x 35.5"

© 2019 by Ellen Von Wiegand

PLEASE DO NOT COPY IMAGE

February's Artist Watch feature at Escape Into Life introduces the beautiful linocuts of Ellen Von Wiegand.

Largely self-taught in linocut, Ellen developed her interest in printmaking while studying the linocuts of Picasso and Der Blaue Reiter group at Christies, where she earned a master's degree in contemporary art; however, the inspiration for her prints is primarily traditional Japanese printmaking and Greek and Roman black figure pottery.

Today's Artist Watch column showcases nine of Ellen's linocuts, her Artist Statement, a brief biographical profile, and social media sites on which Ellen's work appears.

Thought for the Day

The heart is like a mirror. If it is cleansed of the dust

and fog, whichever way or object you aim it at

the reflection of it would be reflected in the mirror.

~ Haidari Wujodi

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Quoted from Mujib Mashal, "In a Quiet Corner, an Old Afghan Poet Polishes 'the Heart's Mirror'" (Online), The New York Times, October 25, 2019 (Print: "At Kabul's Public Library, Using Verse to Make Sense of a World of Conflict", October 26, 2019, Sec. A, pg 5)

Mujib Mashal, Senior Correspondent, The New York Times

Thought for the Day

i am running into a new year /

and i beg what i love and /

i leave to forgive me.

~ Lucille Clifton

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Quoted from Lucille Clifton, "I am running into a new year" in The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 (ed. Kevin Young and Michael S. Glaser), BOA Editions, 2012, page 158

Lucille Clifton, 1936-2010, Award-Winning American Poet, Writer, Educator; Poet Laureate of Maryland, 1979-1985

Reginald Dwayne Betts, "In Praise of Lucille Clifton", The New York Times, October 2, 2019