Thursday, May 13, 2021
BEAUTY: Painting--Heidrun Rathgeb
I love the sweet, naïve, pensive sense in the simple, domestic scenes of printmaker and painter Heidrun Rathgeb.
Top to bottom: Boy In The Bath; Coming Home At Dusk; Hermine; Judith and the Neowise Comet; L Asleep; Lights Off; Mirror; Threshold
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
"Chernobyl" by GusGus and Bjarki
I am moved by this fascinating song and video for "Chernobyl" by GusGus (previously here) with Bjarki. The visual narrative is touching and the song is like a soundtrack, propelling our heroine along on her painful journey of memory.
https://www.gusgus.com/
I was in Europe the summer of 1986, the summer of Chernobyl. It was my first trip abroad. There had also been some terrorist attacks (back when such things were relatively uncommon) and between these two dangerous events, the tourist turnout that summer was quite low. I recall having a lot of elbow room in England, France, and Italy. I enjoyed relatively uncrowded streets and very short lines, if any, at museums and cathedrals. But there was an advisory against eating any seafood as the radioactive cloud from Chernobyl had drifted over the open ocean and contaminated the marine life...sadly, I was unable to dive into one of Venice's famed Frutti di Mare feasts.
If you were not around then and are not familiar with the details, I highly recommend watching the HBO limited series "Chernobyl." It is a stunning cinematic achievement that captures quite well what went on. The series won a slew of awards including an Emmy and a Golden Globe.
https://www.hbo.com/chernobyl
https://www.gusgus.com/
If you were not around then and are not familiar with the details, I highly recommend watching the HBO limited series "Chernobyl." It is a stunning cinematic achievement that captures quite well what went on. The series won a slew of awards including an Emmy and a Golden Globe.
https://www.hbo.com/chernobyl
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
BEAUTY: Collage--Laura Weiler
Regular readers know I like and create collage art (previously here) but I am quite picky about what type...and Laura Weiler's work intrigues me. I like how she incorporates the deckled edges of ripped paper and newspaper into her compositions, providing an extra three dimensional texture. I suspect I could learn from her technique of using a plain color block as her ground for some images. And the fact that she uses only vintage imagery and antique newsprint completes the feeling of her work.
Monday, May 10, 2021
BEAUTY: Photography--Fiorella Baldisserri
Italian photographer Fiorella Baldisserri's approach is that of a photojournalist and her series Morris the "Cinemaio" is entirely charming and nostalgic (some of these images take me right back to the dark and hushed excitement of the little, red-velvet-draped movie theatre in the tiny town in upstate New York where I grew up). In this series, she documents the sole owner and operator of a cinema in a small town in the province of Bologna, Italy. Morris Donini is dedicated to the magical world of film but like many people in many different professions, he has struggled during COVID. She writers about her series below:
"Cinema has always been Morris Donini’s dream. Everyone knows and loves him as Morris the 'cinemaio', the artisan of the cinema. In this year of forced closure due to the pandemic, he decides to keep showing movies in an empty theater. In the darkness of his cinema, Morris sits on an armchair or on the floor at the back of the room, as he used to do during normal times, as if he is savoring lights and atmospheres that only images can give. He keeps the doors open to allow the inhabitants of the small town to hear the voices and the music of the stories projected, while flashes of light come out as reflections that send a message: cinema exists, the show goes on. Resilience is also and mostly this: Morris (and sometimes his dog), as a sole spectator in a moment of great difficulty, with closed cinemas but with rents to be paid, with strength and determination, hoping that lights won’t switch off forever. Since his childhood, Morris drew cinemas in school notebooks with his flans for posters and his film reviews. From an early age, dreams are created and they later become ideals to be pursued. By chance he met the owner of a cinema in a small town in the province of Bologna and since then, every day, he asked him to become part of that world as he wanted to experience the atmosphere of the room, with its red velvet fabrics, the armchairs and the magical screen. In return he offered to run small works. Years passed and on the death of the owner he was asked to manage that cinema. Morris was 29 and without a second thought he accepted. Today he directs three provincial cinemas: cinema to give cultural identity even to small towns. Morris pursued an ideal of life that with patience and dedication became a reality. In Italy, cinema business has undergone a drastic reduction of more than 70% in terms of presences and incomes, causing an estimated loss of more than 25 million spectators: a collapse that has never been seen or even hypothesized since the birth of this sector which today is an industry."
https://www.fiorellabaldisserri.com/morris-il-cinemaio/
"Cinema has always been Morris Donini’s dream. Everyone knows and loves him as Morris the 'cinemaio', the artisan of the cinema. In this year of forced closure due to the pandemic, he decides to keep showing movies in an empty theater. In the darkness of his cinema, Morris sits on an armchair or on the floor at the back of the room, as he used to do during normal times, as if he is savoring lights and atmospheres that only images can give. He keeps the doors open to allow the inhabitants of the small town to hear the voices and the music of the stories projected, while flashes of light come out as reflections that send a message: cinema exists, the show goes on. Resilience is also and mostly this: Morris (and sometimes his dog), as a sole spectator in a moment of great difficulty, with closed cinemas but with rents to be paid, with strength and determination, hoping that lights won’t switch off forever. Since his childhood, Morris drew cinemas in school notebooks with his flans for posters and his film reviews. From an early age, dreams are created and they later become ideals to be pursued. By chance he met the owner of a cinema in a small town in the province of Bologna and since then, every day, he asked him to become part of that world as he wanted to experience the atmosphere of the room, with its red velvet fabrics, the armchairs and the magical screen. In return he offered to run small works. Years passed and on the death of the owner he was asked to manage that cinema. Morris was 29 and without a second thought he accepted. Today he directs three provincial cinemas: cinema to give cultural identity even to small towns. Morris pursued an ideal of life that with patience and dedication became a reality. In Italy, cinema business has undergone a drastic reduction of more than 70% in terms of presences and incomes, causing an estimated loss of more than 25 million spectators: a collapse that has never been seen or even hypothesized since the birth of this sector which today is an industry."
https://www.fiorellabaldisserri.com/morris-il-cinemaio/
Sunday, May 9, 2021
BBC Style: Maximalism!
'Cluttercore': the anti-minimalist trend that celebrates mess
By Bel Jacobs
3rd May 2021
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| Image credit: The Apartment, Copenhagen |
"I've always been fascinated by all types of objects: toys, illustrated books, postcards, porcelain," says Spanish artist Juanjo Fuentes, who is telling BBC Culture about his fantastical home in the historic centre of Malaga, in which almost every surface is covered by a joyous array of baubles and curios. "I get things from flea markets and I've always been the one keeping the family objects. And I'm very lucky because my friends offer me the objects that belonged to their relatives – they are more minimalist than I am," he laughs.
The rooms are filled with gorgeous abundance: light and pattern, inspiration for both the eye and the mind. Artworks, exchanged with fellow artists, swell the walls. It's no surprise that, when the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) was looking for artists to illustrate the act of creative curation, they paired Fuentes with British photographer Martin Parr: "Both collections are generated by compulsive collecting and mass results." That was 2012. Now, nine years later, Fuentes' beautiful eclecticism feels more relevant than ever.
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| Artist Juanjo Funetes's home in Spain is full of interesting and beautiful curios (Credit: Juanjo Fuentes) |
The pandemic has changed the way we relate to the world, re-igniting a love of loungewear as well as indoor glamour, outdoor spaces and even our ideas of society. And it has changed the way we relate to our homes. Once, spaces that we only saw at the top and tails of days have become busily multifunctional: nurseries as well as offices, battlegrounds as well as sanctuaries. For some, that meant clear outs – charity shops are bracing themselves for the flood of second-hand goods – but for others, that has meant surrounding themselves with things they love.
"People are taking this self-swaddling approach, particularly now," says Jennifer Howard, author of Clutter: An Untidy History. "We want to feel safe, we want to feel comfortable, we want to feel protected and taken care of – stuff can act like a literal cocoon." Social media has anointed this new movement #cluttercore, totting up more than 13 million views on TikTok at the time of writing, and more than 7,000 mentions on Instagram. After decades of being told to put our things away, here finally is a trend that celebrates disorder, challenges restraint, and puts maximalism front and centre.
Those imagining week-old cups of tea and discarded pizza boxes associated with the word "clutter" will be disappointed. Even famous scenes of disarray such as artist Francis Bacon's bombsite of a studio wouldn't cut it. Cluttercore offers vibrant (but never grimy) explosions of colour and texture, patterns and prints, kitsch against classic. "'Clutter' suggests something chaotic to me, so it's fascinating to see this sort of intentional approach to clutter," muses Howard. "It's more creative chaos."
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| The eclectic style of interior designer Lulu Lytle is said to be admired by Carrie Symonds, the UK PM's fiancée (Credit: Soane Britain / Lulu Lytle sample image) |
Exuberant mismatching
Fuentes's home is a case in point: a lush exercise in exuberant mismatching in which every piece has its place. In last autumn's issue of Modern House, Alison Lloyd of luxury accessories label Ally Capellino offered readers the "organised clutter" of her home, with its decorated eggs and found objects and the odd quirky touch, like a branch suspended over a fireplace. In this spring's World of Interiors, British designer's Matthew Williamson's Balearic retreat displays a "joyful maximalism". In everything, he asks: "Can I increase the happy factor?"Founded by Tina Seidenfaden Busck, The Apartment, a design gallery located in an 18th-Century building in Copenhgaen, offers a similar visual joie-de-vivre. Hailed in a recent article in the Financial Times as "one of the pioneers of the mismatched, love-worn look", Busck is a former Sotheby's employee turned art consultant. The Apartment is designed to look like a private home, albeit one that is constantly changing, from which you can purchase anything you see: from the art to the furniture. Nothing "matches" but everything looks spectacularly desirable.
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| The Apartment in Copenhagen is a design gallery and a pioneer of the eclectic, maximalist look (Credit: The Apartment, Copenhagen) |
And social media provides inspiration. Take the beautiful New Jersey home of @1920craftsman, whose sleek wooden floors are brightened with vintage glass accents and foliage; mid-century cane-work armchairs with burnt orange seats are a Facebook marketplace find, a vintage glass lightshade was bought in second-hand shop. "For me, these objects tell a story and capture the story of our home. They're a reflection of us."
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| "Joyful maximalism" is how fashion-and-interiors designer Matthew Williamson describes his aesthetic (Credit: Matthew Williamson for Belmond la Residencia) |
It couldn't last forever; apart from anything else, keeping one's house spick and span is hard work. "One personal organiser I interviewed mentioned that a lot of her clients who aspire to minimalism find they just can't live that way," reflects Howard. "Life is not full of spacious surfaces without stuff on them." Advocates of cluttercore, she says, "admit that they have a lot of stuff but that they're going to take pleasure in that and arrange [their items] in ways they like. As a counter aesthetic to the minimalist hegemony, that makes sense to me."
Sometimes, it's good not to do what magazines tell you to. Cluttercore turns ordinary people into curators. It takes real creativity to think about what goes where and what each item says about the other. Plus, decluttering can possess bleaker undertones. "I have a running list of theories," writes Howard. "People organise and declutter to distract themselves from the seriousness of living in the Anthropocene and its existential threats – a burning planet, the Sixth Great Extinction – inoculating us against the pandemic of anxiety." You'll never tidy your house in the same way again.
And there are yet other benefits to maximalism. Richer nations throw away tons of stuff every year, often dumping unwanted items on poorer countries who lack the infrastructure to dispose of them properly, decimating local landscapes. In this context, cluttercore becomes a revolutionary riposte to the explosion of "stuff" driving just some of the problems Howard outlines.
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| The walls of Fuentes's apartment are adorned from top to bottom with works by fellow artists (Credit Araceli Martin Chicano) |
De Castro's experience makes it clear: just because an item doesn't spark joy right now, there's nothing to say it won't in the future – which is all the more reason to keep it in front of you. Does Fuentes ever pack away unused items? "It never happens. I know exactly where everything is. Sometimes, as a joke, my family hides things – but I realise instantly." How does living among his objects make Fuentes feel? "I wouldn't know how to live without them. They all have a story. They are part of my life."
Link to original article:
Saturday, May 8, 2021
"The Sea" by Jordan Hunt
Absolutely mesmerizing.
Jordan Hunt (previously here) sings "The Sea" which, dear readers, rips me apart. He says, "When you are classically trained, you’re taught that music is the point. But I’ve grown to believe that an emotional connection with the audience is much more important. Trained singers can be impressive, but you also need that nugget of rawness to draw you in. Without that, there’s no substance, just performance. Iconic singers have both."
Jordan Hunt (previously here) sings "The Sea" which, dear readers, rips me apart. He says, "When you are classically trained, you’re taught that music is the point. But I’ve grown to believe that an emotional connection with the audience is much more important. Trained singers can be impressive, but you also need that nugget of rawness to draw you in. Without that, there’s no substance, just performance. Iconic singers have both."
Like the other songs and videos from his extended play release "Long Lost," this is exquisite, not only sonically and lyrically but visually as well.
https://www.jordan-hunt.com/
https://www.jordan-hunt.com/
Friday, May 7, 2021
BEAUTY: Photography--Daniel Freeman
English photographer Daniel Freeman loves to travel across the United States capturing images of small towns and villages at night. The atmosphere is lovely and lonely with a single streetlight or neon sign illuminating empty streets and sidewalks...
He has released a collection of these mysterious, moody images in a book called MIDNIGHT ON MAIN. To buy a copy, see the link at the bottom.
https://danielfreemanphotography.co.uk/galleries/usa-at-night/
He has released a collection of these mysterious, moody images in a book called MIDNIGHT ON MAIN. To buy a copy, see the link at the bottom.
https://danielfreemanphotography.co.uk/galleries/usa-at-night/
Thursday, May 6, 2021
Happy National Day of Reason 2021!
Celebrated the first Thursday of every May, today is the National Day Of Reason. It is more important now than ever to promote reason and truth; we (our country, our government, and Democracy itself) barely survived the last four years of the last administration yet there are still huge groups who continue to believe in bizarre conspiracy theories that threaten the fabric of our lives. There is a large segment of the citizenry since who don't care about facts or reality or obvious consequences such as spreading a deadly pandemic. We need Reason, Logic, and Action, not thoughts and prayers.
The National Day of Reason was created by the American Humanist Association and the Washington Area Secular Humanists in 2003. In addition to serving as a holiday for constitutionalists and secularists, the National Day of Reason was created in response to the perceived unconstitutionality of the National Day of Prayer.
The National Day Of Reason site says:
NOW, MORE THAN EVER, AMERICA NEEDS A DAY OF REASON.
With the religious right’s influence in Congress, and with the threat to our judiciary looming large, there has never been as important a moment in which to affirm our commitment to the constitutional separation of religion and government, and to celebrate reason as the guiding principle of our secular democracy.
During the past year we have witnessed the intrusion of religious ideology into all spheres of our government, with such assaults on the wall separating church and state as:
Faith-based initiatives in federal agencies that give preferential treatment to religious organizations which proselytize and employ discriminatory hiring practices;
Restrictions on important scientific research on the basis of religious objections;
Attempts to introduce biblical creationism and its alter-ego “Intelligent Design” into our public school science curricula;
The appointment of judges who willingly place their religious beliefs above our laws;
Battles over the display of the Ten Commandments and other overtly religious icons in schools and on courthouses;
Religiously motivated restrictions on access to reproductive services and information.
As in previous years, this year’s National Day of Reason coincides with the congressionally mandated and federally supported National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 6, 2021. We thank all who value the separation of religion and government & join us in commemorating this year’s Day of Reason, and in building awareness for this important cause.
For more information about The National Day Of Reason, visit the website:
http://nationaldayofreason.org/
The National Day of Reason was created by the American Humanist Association and the Washington Area Secular Humanists in 2003. In addition to serving as a holiday for constitutionalists and secularists, the National Day of Reason was created in response to the perceived unconstitutionality of the National Day of Prayer.
The National Day Of Reason site says:
NOW, MORE THAN EVER, AMERICA NEEDS A DAY OF REASON.
With the religious right’s influence in Congress, and with the threat to our judiciary looming large, there has never been as important a moment in which to affirm our commitment to the constitutional separation of religion and government, and to celebrate reason as the guiding principle of our secular democracy.
During the past year we have witnessed the intrusion of religious ideology into all spheres of our government, with such assaults on the wall separating church and state as:
Faith-based initiatives in federal agencies that give preferential treatment to religious organizations which proselytize and employ discriminatory hiring practices;
Restrictions on important scientific research on the basis of religious objections;
Attempts to introduce biblical creationism and its alter-ego “Intelligent Design” into our public school science curricula;
The appointment of judges who willingly place their religious beliefs above our laws;
Battles over the display of the Ten Commandments and other overtly religious icons in schools and on courthouses;
Religiously motivated restrictions on access to reproductive services and information.
As in previous years, this year’s National Day of Reason coincides with the congressionally mandated and federally supported National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 6, 2021. We thank all who value the separation of religion and government & join us in commemorating this year’s Day of Reason, and in building awareness for this important cause.
For more information about The National Day Of Reason, visit the website:
http://nationaldayofreason.org/
Wednesday, May 5, 2021
"El Invento" by José González
This one sideswiped me...I was not quite prepared for the brevity and the absolute, tender beauty in such simplicity.
José González (previously here) sings the all-too short "El Invento," his first song in Spanish, inspired by the questions his young daughter asks about the world.
http://jose-gonzalez.com/
José González (previously here) sings the all-too short "El Invento," his first song in Spanish, inspired by the questions his young daughter asks about the world.
http://jose-gonzalez.com/
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Monday, May 3, 2021
Currently listening to...
...the epic "Swords and Knives" by Tears For Fears. I just can't get this song out of my head. Ever since I went on a little Tears For Fears kick a few months ago (here), their music has been swirling around in my head. And the texture, movement, and gravitas of this song is rich and heavy.
A waking world of innocence
So grave those first born cries
When life begins with needles and pins
It ends with swords and knives
Oh dangerman, oh dangerman
Your blade fits like a glove
When forged in steel time cannot heal
That blood red bond of love
In times of trouble you're an open book
With the change in the way you look
And it's sad love's not enough to make things better
Turn the tables, we'll burn the fables
Lies beneath the visions and daydreams
Fooled by now, we mystify the past
Like a dream, like it never happened
When life begins with needles and pins
It ends with swords and knives
God save those born to die
https://tearsforfears.com/
A waking world of innocence
So grave those first born cries
When life begins with needles and pins
It ends with swords and knives
Oh dangerman, oh dangerman
Your blade fits like a glove
When forged in steel time cannot heal
That blood red bond of love
In times of trouble you're an open book
With the change in the way you look
And it's sad love's not enough to make things better
Turn the tables, we'll burn the fables
Lies beneath the visions and daydreams
Fooled by now, we mystify the past
Like a dream, like it never happened
When life begins with needles and pins
It ends with swords and knives
God save those born to die
"Zero" by Ólafur Arnalds
Wowsa, just take a look at this video for "Zero" by modern composer Ólafur Arnalds. I have been so interested in what drones can do for film, from a photography perspective, and did not even think of what drones can do for lighting! As the dancers move through the forest in this video, they are lit by some local stationary lights, but the motion and atmosphere come from the shifting lights overhead on a drone, making the shadows of the branches swirl around them. UTTERLY MAGICAL.
https://olafurarnalds.com/
https://olafurarnalds.com/
Sunday, May 2, 2021
"Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" by Cocteau Twins
It's May...
Here is "Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" by Cocteau Twins (previously here).
https://cocteautwins.com/
Saturday, May 1, 2021
IMPORTANT: Notice to Oh, By The Way FollowByEmail Subscribers
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"Convocations - Meditations" by Sufjan Stevens
My god. I am nearly speechless. The angel Sufjan Stevens (previously here) has released a collection of ambient tracks that are some of the most profound sounds I have heard in a long while.
It may be tempting to reduce Convocations into a longform ambient anomaly within Sufjan Stevens’ vast catalogue. It is, however, neither an anomaly nor entirely ambient. This is not a side project. From his numerous dance scores for New York City Ballet to instrumental albums such as Enjoy Your Rabbit, Aporia, and The BQE, Stevens spends at least half his working life making largely instrumental music, as he has for decades. And though the first ten pieces, dubbed “Meditations,” unfurl as gorgeous states of reflective new-age grace, this is by no means an ambient enterprise. Stevens invokes the lessons of Morton Subotnick, Maryanne Amacher, Christian Fennesz, Brian Eno, and Wolfgang Voigt here. As musically erudite as it is emotionally experienced, Convocations can be dissonant, vertiginous, rhythmic, repetitive, urgent, or calm—that is, all the things we undergo when we inevitably live through loss, isolation, and anxiety.
Indeed, Convocations moves like a two-and-a-half-hour requiem mass for our present times of difficulty, its 49 tracks allowing for all these feelings to be felt. The album is divided into five sonic cycles, each replicating a different stage of mourning. Convocations occasionally soothes and sometimes hurts; when it’s done, you’re left with a renewed sense of wonder for being here at all.
In fact, Stevens made Convocations in response to (and as an homage to) the life and death of his biological father, who died in September last year, two days following the release of The Ascension. It is, then, ultimately an album about loss, and an album that reflects a year in which we have all lost so much. One could easily compare this project to Stevens’ album Carrie & Lowell, which he wrote following his mother’s death. But this is something entirely different. A new time, a new season, a new life lost, a new reckoning, a new kind of isolation, grief, despair, frustration, confusion, and the search for happiness and hope for the future. This is not a personal record, but a universal one. Convocations is built on a shared experience that seeks to be honest about how complicated grief can be in these difficult times—the pain, the anxiety, the unknown, the absolute joy of memory. This is also an album made in lockdown, when we were all cloistered in whatever space we had. So long as the science and statistics hold, Convocations arrives just as we begin to emerge from a year whose losses we will calculate for a lifetime. It is, then, right on time, as we begin to process our grief and try to carry on with it.
It may be tempting to reduce Convocations into a longform ambient anomaly within Sufjan Stevens’ vast catalogue. It is, however, neither an anomaly nor entirely ambient. This is not a side project. From his numerous dance scores for New York City Ballet to instrumental albums such as Enjoy Your Rabbit, Aporia, and The BQE, Stevens spends at least half his working life making largely instrumental music, as he has for decades. And though the first ten pieces, dubbed “Meditations,” unfurl as gorgeous states of reflective new-age grace, this is by no means an ambient enterprise. Stevens invokes the lessons of Morton Subotnick, Maryanne Amacher, Christian Fennesz, Brian Eno, and Wolfgang Voigt here. As musically erudite as it is emotionally experienced, Convocations can be dissonant, vertiginous, rhythmic, repetitive, urgent, or calm—that is, all the things we undergo when we inevitably live through loss, isolation, and anxiety.
Indeed, Convocations moves like a two-and-a-half-hour requiem mass for our present times of difficulty, its 49 tracks allowing for all these feelings to be felt. The album is divided into five sonic cycles, each replicating a different stage of mourning. Convocations occasionally soothes and sometimes hurts; when it’s done, you’re left with a renewed sense of wonder for being here at all.
In fact, Stevens made Convocations in response to (and as an homage to) the life and death of his biological father, who died in September last year, two days following the release of The Ascension. It is, then, ultimately an album about loss, and an album that reflects a year in which we have all lost so much. One could easily compare this project to Stevens’ album Carrie & Lowell, which he wrote following his mother’s death. But this is something entirely different. A new time, a new season, a new life lost, a new reckoning, a new kind of isolation, grief, despair, frustration, confusion, and the search for happiness and hope for the future. This is not a personal record, but a universal one. Convocations is built on a shared experience that seeks to be honest about how complicated grief can be in these difficult times—the pain, the anxiety, the unknown, the absolute joy of memory. This is also an album made in lockdown, when we were all cloistered in whatever space we had. So long as the science and statistics hold, Convocations arrives just as we begin to emerge from a year whose losses we will calculate for a lifetime. It is, then, right on time, as we begin to process our grief and try to carry on with it.
—Grayson Haver Currin
The first of the five volumes, "Meditations," was released on April 8, 2021 and all ten tracks are posted below. "Meditation I" makes me weep.
The first of the five volumes, "Meditations," was released on April 8, 2021 and all ten tracks are posted below. "Meditation I" makes me weep.
The other four volumes, "Lamentations," "Revelations," "Celebrations," and "Incantations," are scheduled to be released by May 6, 2021.
https://sufjan.com/
Friday, April 30, 2021
"A Long Time Coming"
In honor of National Poetry Month, I have shared examples of my work on Fridays in April.
For our final day of National Poetry Month 2021, I share with you a new poem, "A Long Time Coming."
A Long Time Coming
I see her as I drive by, headlights saturating a woman
by the side of the freeway, on the grassy triangle
surrounded by trees between the on and off ramps, her arms
outstretched as though basking in an invisible sun, palms open
and up as if weighing her options, eyes closed, face to the sky.
Despite the snow and dark, she wears an ankle length summer dress,
her bare brown arms and shoulders glowing in the beams from my grill.
I may see all this in a second, but she has been standing here a long time.
I have passed no car that could belong to her, and wonder where she came from, how she got here,
but a police cruiser has already slowed, parked, the blue red hiccupping in the black.
The officer walks toward her and I see in my rear view mirror how he simply stops,
falls forward in the snow, without any attempt to break his fall, settling face down,
neither of them moving as they grow smaller, fade into the night.
©JEF 2021
For our final day of National Poetry Month 2021, I share with you a new poem, "A Long Time Coming."
A Long Time Coming
I see her as I drive by, headlights saturating a woman
by the side of the freeway, on the grassy triangle
surrounded by trees between the on and off ramps, her arms
outstretched as though basking in an invisible sun, palms open
and up as if weighing her options, eyes closed, face to the sky.
Despite the snow and dark, she wears an ankle length summer dress,
her bare brown arms and shoulders glowing in the beams from my grill.
I may see all this in a second, but she has been standing here a long time.
I have passed no car that could belong to her, and wonder where she came from, how she got here,
but a police cruiser has already slowed, parked, the blue red hiccupping in the black.
The officer walks toward her and I see in my rear view mirror how he simply stops,
falls forward in the snow, without any attempt to break his fall, settling face down,
neither of them moving as they grow smaller, fade into the night.
©JEF 2021
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