Monday, October 29, 2018

Abigail Rodriguez-Meneses's "Sugar & Spice" after Connie Bostic




Abigail Rodriguez-Meneses photographed at the Art of Poetry Catawba Valley tour of Hickory Museum of Art on October 13, 2018.


SUGAR & SPICE
by Abigail Rodriguez-Meneses
after 8th Grade Picnic by Connie Bostic

Mother nature reveals its appearance floating in water 
Displaying a free flowing bright red fluid
Circulating and intertwining within the skin of her hand.
Through it all, stands a pale woman expressing an
Act of openness and realness.
Should you strip away the pond,
The result would be a woman going through
The terrible beauty of womanhood.
Should you strip away the woman,
The result would be the aftermath of a terrible shark attack.

It is difficult to distinguish whether the woman is discontented to be
In the water as her body language speaks otherwise.
The facial expression delivered on the woman's profile suggests
A regular blank look. However, the movement with her hands delivers
An expression of freedom and calmness. The mixture of the two exhibits
Level out the reality of menstruation and the various moods that follow.  

Monday, October 22, 2018

Brianna Friday's "Concerto" after Ella E. Richards


On Saturday, October 13, 2018, Brianna Friday kicked off the tour at Hickory Museum of Art with her poem, inspired by Ella E. Richards. The painting is located in the Dear Paul Letters exhibit in Whitener Gallery.  


CONCERTO
by Brianna Friday
after The Violinist by Ella E. Richards

When she draws her bow and plays
Sliding, somber trills arise

Worn and weary so she seems
Without an accompanying melody

Although at rest, her weapon’s poised
Her prestige persists

For in her eyes and smile
Are remnants of the former chorus

Monday, October 15, 2018

Brenda Smith's "Four Extra For Survival" after Lewis deSoto


Brenda Smith photographed at Hickory Museum of Art on October 13 for Art of Poetry Catawba Valley's second tour of a Unifour art institution in 2018. 


FOUR EXTRA FOR SURVIVAL    
by Brenda Smith
after Paranirvana by Lewis deSoto

I cannot say you blocked my path
massive though you are.
I can pass around you, beyond you
but I cannot ignore you
reclining on the hard wooden floor
soles of your feet staring us in the face
your eightfold path turned twelvefold.
You have too many paths, large Buddha,
too many spokes in your wheel.
You, the incarnation of the
twenty-first century journey
with its too many paths
diverging in a vacant lot.
This is what happens
to the trailblazer sometimes.
You launch out with a new wisdom
and lose your way in concrete
the city swallowing your meditation
the way it swallows nature.
No green to be found.
No soft path to tread.
You need those four extra spokes
to keep the sidewalk from bruising your feet
as you walk the cities of the world
heart wounded by what you see.

So here, exhausted, you lie.
The best place you could find.
Art, a sanctuary in the modern world
a bit of peace in the cacophony
of millennial life.
Sleep well, brother Buddha, 
for now.



15 poets contributed to the event's 20 ekphrastic works which are on display with the art works that inspired them. Many thanks to Hickory Museum of Art for hosting us! Subscribe and stay posted for future events.

Monday, October 8, 2018

Join Art of Poetry Catawba Valley's Tour of Hickory Museum of Art, Saturday, Oct. 13


Join Art of Poetry Catawba Valley as we tour Hickory Museum of Art on Saturday, October 13, 2018.  15 poets have contributed to the 20 ekphrastic poems selected. The works will be shared in front of the art that inspired them.

The tour begins at 2 pm in the front lobby of the museum. Admission is free and open to the public.  Hope to see you there!

Monday, October 1, 2018

Jane Shlensky's "Fly Me" after Owen-Murakami and Van Ameyden





FLY ME
by Jane Shlensky
after Kites by Ginger Owen-Murakami 
and Vicki Van Ameyden

No one—not even she—remembered
her in that dress, too white and delicate
for people who work in soil, too prissy
for a boyish girl who liked rough games
and climbing to sky branches of Old Oak.
But here she is, the one picture of her 
in white lace and patent leather pumps,
stored away in a trunk, the yellowing dress
wrapped in tissue paper below it.

“Do we really remember such early events
or do we only think so because of pictures of them?”
she asks, looking into each of our faces. 
That spurs us to reminisce of Old Mack, 
the horse pictured with us astride him bareback, 
of Dan and Jeanie, the collies who half-raised us, 
of stern-faced aunts and red-faced tippling uncles, 
of a family band playing after cookouts,
those same brothers singing harmony, 
of catching fireflies and tadpoles 
with running hordes of cousins, 
each memory raising up others like smoke,
faces long harbored, experiences long edited,
floating images that exist nowhere 
but in the albums in our heads.

All that laughter at recovering
what can never really be gone, 
part and parcel of us, finding 
and embracing our Selves of long ago, 
fills us with longing and joy,
for here we are, growing old far apart,
but still tethered by some ghostly cord
that holds us fast as family, 
each fluttering on whatever wind that shaped us,
each flying in this willing quadrant of sky.

Melissa Hager's "Love Is" after Sarah Jayne Kennedy

LOVE IS...  by Melissa Hager after Two of Us by Sarah Jayne Kennedy Drawing a line in the sand to judge who's i...