Fish Eye

Spine 1 & 2- Lest we forget how fragile we are

Recently, my life partner was thrown from a horse she was working with. She broke her back- I found her in the pasture, crumpled, face down and not moving. She has struggled back from that lowest point miraculously and will walk again, will do all again.

My thoughts have been infiltrated with the weeks of Doctor chatter about spinal injury, paralysis, trauma, and titanium. The imagery below is a manifestation of this infiltration. The blue vertebrae is "L1'- the one that was shattered. Titanium rods were installed with screws in T12 and T11 as well as L2 and L3.
























As I thought about this piece (watercolor and ink) I remembered that a spine-like image had appeared in my mind's eye once before, long ago. I dug out that drawing, created in 1994. I caught my breath upon closer inspection... the metal plate in the drawing was at L1.
























Whether an early premonition or an eerie coincidence, the imagery has become deeply significant, as have recent events and the miracles that have steadily followed them.

it is only our vanity bleeding

"Happiness comes more from loving than being loved; and often when our affection seems wounded it is only our vanity bleeding. To love, and to be hurt often, and to love again--this is the brave and happy life."

~ J. E. Buckrose [Annie Edith Jameson] (1868-1931),writer

Manse

Born in a house of glass
I.C.U. for an entire childhood
as ushers and vestrymen
monitored
the babies.

Cool walls, first props for first steps
smudged with the grease of growth-
later, tapped upon curiously
then pounded upon furiously
as adolescence settled in.
Looking out.
Seeing in.

They would not be satisfied.
The monitors.
We would not be Gods
or God’s children
or even angels.
But neither would we hang
from someone else's cross
for someone else’s guilt.

And we left the glass manse
by the back door.
Escapees.
Defectors.
Exiles.
Refugees.
But I still have the key
to remind me
of failing to be
PK
or PC.

Love Songs

blackened the swan
I blackened the swan
I blackened the swan
my swan
is gone.

murdered the fawn
I murdered the fawn
I murdered the fawn
'twas wrong
so wrong.

a queen with a pawn
a king eats the spawn
a knight dies at dawn
love songs
love songs.

Pink on Frenchmen Street

My Bodhi

Appears in Festival of the Trees #32.

The High Goal of Art

“The high goal of art: Simply and gracefully describe experience-knowledge of the world- that we had not known before.”

A quote by John Szarkowski talking about A. Stieglitz in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art New York

Standing Stones

Branded

seared skin newly shorn
indelibly heat branded
mark sheep for slaughter

Nails

How many tempters must you have
so many suitors comprise the salve
you smear in wounds
of paradise lost
of star-crossed souls
of compounded costs
of tallying tolls
of crashing the gates
of wretched shoals
becalmed in the straights
of narrows
of nemesis
of nevers
of nativity
of needing
of nails
nails
nails.

Fish 2

Screen Lace

Feo