June 22, 2011 – Via Negativa

June 22, 2011 by Luisa A. Igloria

Familiar

This entry is part 2 of 93 in the series Morning Porch Poems: Summer 2011

Like a letter someone writes in the early hours,
as rain turns all the windows to skin.

Like the ink that streaks across the vellum
surface, ending in a flourish or a dash.

Like the light that filters upward from the ground
as mid-day heat; or condenses in beads of sweat.

Like a blur, like a wing, like a shard;
like a face passing behind the shutters.

Like the sky that’s often mistaken for weather;
and the world beneath it going where it goes.

In response to an entry from the Morning Porch.

June 22, 2011September 29, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Import/Export

This entry is part 4 of 20 in the series Highgate Cemetery Poems

Six fresh oranges
in the short grass
on the grave of the founder
of an import/export company,
born in Aleppo.
A toddler strains against
his mother’s grip: Ball!
How to explain
the Silk
Road, the souk,
the once-unassailable
hospitality of merchants?
How to explain torture,
a feast of agonies called
the magic carpet?
A cricket plays his hit single.
Ball. Ball.
Such longing!
In Syria, they say
a narrow spot can contain
a thousand friends.

June 22, 2011March 6, 2014 by Dave Bonta

Clive Hicks-Jenkins retrospective exhibition: official opening now on video

I’ve shared videos of the May 6 poetry reading for The Book of Ystwyth, but the main event was the opening of Clive’s 60th birthday career retrospective exhibition at the National Library of Wales the following afternoon. And fortunately I didn’t have to worry about videoing that one; they had a professional filmmaker there to do it for them. This is the result.

Watch on YouTube.

Following Andrew Green’s introduction, Clive’s own remarks focus on the central role of place, love and community in his work:

Being a painter isn’t just about standing in the studio and making still lives and landscapes and narrative paintings. It’s about the people you surround yourself with, people who cluster around you, the people you love.

Would that all gifted artists and writers took their social obligations so seriously.

The exhibition continues through August 20th. If you’re anywhere in the U.K., don’t miss it! It’s a huge exhibition and well worth the time and effort to go see it, I think. Browse the works on Clive’s website and his blog posts about the exhibition for a preview.