Sunday, March 27, 2022

Thought for the Day

Maybe the only gift is a chance to inquire,
to know nothing for certain. An inheritance
of wonder and nothing more.
~ William Least Heat-Moon
_____________________________

Quoted from William Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways (1982, 2012), E-book; Epigraph, Chapter 19 of Florence Williams's Heartbreak (W.W. Norton, 2022), page 226

William Least Heat-Moon, American Travel Writer, Historian

Florence Williams, American Journalist, Author, Podcaster

Sunday, March 20, 2022

Thought for the Day

Poetry
is  the moment of your presence
written
when you leave
~ Alireza Roshan
___________________________

Quoted from Alireza Roshan, "Seven Poems from Iran" in World Literature Today, Autumn 2020, page 16 (Translations of the poems are provided by Erfan Mojib and Gary Gach.)

Alireza Roshan, Iranian Poet and Author

Thursday, March 17, 2022

New Artist Watch Feature at Escape Into Life

 


Steven Kenny, The Ribbons, 2015
Oil on Canvas, 40" x 28"
 
 © Steven Kenny

PLEASE DO NOT COPY IMAGE
 
 
It is with much delight that today's new Artist Watch column at the international online arts magazine Escape Into Life presents the gorgeous work of painter Steven Kenny.
 
In his paintings, Steven focuses most often on the human figure paired with elements found in nature. The relationships he creates with these pairings address not only how humans function with each other and Earth but also how we steward our own emotional, intellectual, and psychological landscapes. To view his paintings is to engage on journeys of self-exploration and discovery while at the same time being able to appreciate the work for its mystery and extraordinary beauty.

Today's Artist Watch showcases seven images from a current (2021) body of work and includes an eighth from an earlier period (see image above). Also included are Steven's Artist Statement, a biography, and Steven's social media addresses.

Monday, March 14, 2022

How Spring Comes in Ukraine (Poem)

 
How Spring Comes in Ukraine
 
Is this how spring comes —
the neck of the sunflower
broken, vipers escaping
from behind museum glass?
 
A warm spell has followed
the first days of Lent
preceding the first days of war. 

Maria Prymachenko has stopped
making pictures.
 
In Kyiv, her yellows and blues
fall from the eyes
of two-headed chickens.

The shelling makes even
her eared beasts to lie down.

Things no longer go well
here. The villain speaks with
his claw of iron,
hobbling the painter's hand.

Her canvases aflame,
the arsonist moves west,
ash just another mark
on the foreheads of soldiers.
 
Yes, peace talks
amid the mayhem,
and lynching's finally a hate
crime in America.
 
Listen, there are rumors
of prayers.
 
Below no no-fly zone
even some Russians flee
when bombs grow instead
of flowers

_________________________

The last words in italics are the title of a painting by Maria Prymachenko (1909-1997), a self-taught, Ukrainian folk art painter. Some dozens of Prymachenko's paintings were destroyed when the museum in which they were housed (Ivankiv Local History Museum) was burned to the ground. See Rebecca Bengal's article "Russian Forces Destroyed the Wild and Beautiful Art of Maria Prymachenko", Vice, March 1, 2022; and Jasmine Liu, "Ukraine Accuses Russia of Burning Down a Museum", Hyperallergic, February 28, 2022.

Also see: Emily Cochrane, "Congress Gives Final Approval to Make Lynching a Hate Crime", The New York Times, March 7, 2022.

Sunday, March 13, 2022

Thought for the Day

When there is no desire,
all things are at peace.
~ from Tao Te Ching
_____________________________

Quoted from Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (trans. by S. Mitchell), Chapter 37
 
Lao Tzu, Chinese Philosopher (also known as Laozi), 6th C BCE

Saturday, March 12, 2022

Late Winter (Poem)

Late Winter

Palm trees in El Paso
are haloed in snow
 
rarer in mid-March
than the Russian tanks
 
bombarding a Mariupol shoe
factory, the psychiatric
 
hospital, a maternity ward,
apartments emptying to
 
missiles. A hotel sauna, 
a subway — deepest space
 
underground — targeted 
humanitarian corridors
 
hemmed with smoking autos,
plastic bags and rolling
 
luggage left behind.
Unknowing, toddlers
 
learn a new version
of the old game of hide-
 
and-seek among little Putin's
soldiers. The trains run
 
east with food and water.
The trains run west with
 
mothers, wives, the too-
old, the under-eighteen.
 
What would help most is
another poem from Ilya,
 
read aloud in the square
in Odessa; not sandbags,
 
not Molotovs, but arms
to run into, fingers brushing

the blush from soft cheeks
on this late winter morning.
 
Rev. 3-14-22

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Thought for the Day

Love is nothing but a mattress made of needles.
~ Tom Sleigh

____________________________

Quoted from Tom Sleigh, "Up the Hill" in The King's Touch: Poems (Graywolf Press, 2022), page 19

Tom Sleigh, American Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Distinguished Professor in Hunter College MFA Program
 
Audiovideo Recording of "Age of Wonder" (For others from Sleigh's new collection, go here.)