Art + Word

Poem Therapy 2:57 P.M. 24 September 2012: effect shrewd preferences - Evie Shockley

effect shrewd preferences
Evie Shockley

the screed seen here blesses
        the sweet, the meek, the gentle,
                the serene. let eyes ensembled
peep the news sheets: ere
        december descends, we'll elect
                the next pres, reps, etc. when
we welter, cede the wheel,
        we let greed-questers enter
                (well-dressed jerks!). they send
themselves the green we need,
        help themselves fleece the sheep
                we be. we're the perfect prey!
the press sleeps the sleep we
        deserve, then bleeds berserk
                text between celeb tweets. we'd
best reject the mess, steer
        the fleet between these repellent
                hells. veer! swerve! reverse!
here's the pledge: we'll expect
        better press. elect the decent
                men, the keenest shes. revere
sense. never feed spleen lest
        we weep endless weeks, red-
                eyed, bereft. let excellent pens
represent the experts' ken, help
        peeps remember key elements.
                let's select well. we'll revel yet.

---

Can it just be over yet?

Here's the thing, after last week, I don't want to hear another word. Not. One. Word.

But, that is wishful thinking. Both sides are ratcheting up their game plan, resetting, polling, texting, emailing, tweeting, Facebooking, calling.

It really feels like we're getting sprayed with perfume by those annoying sales clerks who stand at the entrance of department stores with decanters, squeezing and squeezing, chasing after us when we try to avoid them.

Hang on. One month and one week left.

Music & Poetry Mash Up: You Can Do It Without Me - Father John Misty + Exquisite Politics - Denise Duhamel & Maureen Seaton

sales job denny pinkham

You Can Do It Without Me

+

Exquisite Politics

The perfect voter has a smile but no eyes, maybe not even a nose or hair on his or her toes, maybe not even a single sperm cell, ovum, little paramecium. Politics is a slug copulating in a Poughkeepsie garden. Politics is a grain of rice stuck in the mouth of a king. I voted for a clump of cells, anything to believe in, true as rain, sure as red wheat. I carried my ballots around like smokes, pondered big questions, resources and need, stars and planets, prehistoric languages. I sat on Alice's mushroom in Central Park, smoked longingly in the direction of the mayor's mansion. Someday I won't politic anymore, my big heart will stop loving America and I'll leave her as easy as a marriage, splitting our assets, hoping to get the advantage before the other side yells: Wow! America, Vespucci's first name and home of free and brave, Te amo.

Artist of the Day: Vintage Mugshot - Larken Design

vintage mugshot larkendesign

I want to know what she was arrested for. Don't you?

My guess is pilfering books from the local library.

This trio would be perfect in my upstairs family room.

Have you seen the recent Amish mugshots? They are not to be missed.

---

artist bio: Larken is a design collaborative formed by an architect and graphic designer. Larken produces objects ranging from jewelry to posters. The work we produce has strong graphic and spatial qualities focusing on geometry, repetition, pattern and a play of color and shadow.

The First Day of Fall Wish List: Vintage & Homemade Gifts

The first day of Fall, the Autumnal Equinox is coming a little late this year. Instead of arriving on the 21st, the sun will cross the celestial equator on the 22nd.

The days are shorter. The mornings and evenings are chilly, but the days are still blistering hot. Summer's flowers still bloom. The first frost is still weeks away. Leaves have yet to turn red, orange, and yellow, or fall from thier branches.

Apples and pears are heavy on the trees. Squash and pumpkins are abundant.

The days of sunning on the deck have become evenings of staying inside, wrapped up in a blanket with a stack of books, sipping cinnamon coffee.

Fall is a mix of mischief, memory, trepidation, and comfort. Mischief because of the trickster Halloween holiday. Memory because of Day of the Dead ancestor ceremonies. Trepidation because winter is just around the corner. Comfort because of warm fires and soft blankets, and all the comfort food.

I mark the season by making stews and creamy vegetable soups served with crusty bread.

Here's my wish list:

fox hunt misfitleather

vintage photos americathebeautiful

day of the dead skull cookies sweet treats

organic dress marisilia21

wrap up with a good book scarf storiarts

cinnamon coffee blend pastryandcompany

handbuilt coffee mug justwork

instant book collection patinaposh

wish blanket handknitblankets

soup tureen red earthenware gwenfryarpottery

chicken potato soup nomarkatall

couscous caprese souperspices

handmade wooden tasting spoon tworibka

rosemary focaccia bread mix earth market

Poem Therapy at 8:35 20 September 2012: Palea -Tory Dent

Palea
Tory Dent

Only my mouth taking you in, the greenery splayed deep green.

Within my mouth, your arm inserted, a stem of gestures, breaking gracefully.

Into each other we root arbitrarily, like bushes, silken, and guttural.

Palaver, we open for the thrill of closing, for the thrill of it: opening.

The night was so humid when I knelt on the steps, wet and cold, of prewar stone.

A charm bracelet of sorts we budded, handmade but brazen, as if organic.

I cannot imagine the end of my fascination, emblazoned but feather-white too.

The gold closure of this like a gold coin is, of course, ancient.

Why can't experience disseminate itself, be silken and brazen yet underwater?

A miniature Eiffel Tower, an enameled shamrock, a charm owned by its bracelet.

---
The language of this poem is beautiful.

I can accept the possibility that I am a charm owned by its bracelet.

The title brought to mind the image that each of us are encased in the other, in all those we love, those we detest, those we pass on the street, just as a simple bud of wheat is encased in the chaff. Even our experiences and perceptions are bundled in layers of emotion, thought, filter, perspective.

Language itself, the words, are layered with multiple meaning, and then how the words are spoken, the intent behind the word, even the voice adds a new depth.

Truly, how can experience disseminate itself?

Artist of the Day: The Alley - Darjeeling Unlimited

the alley darjeelingunlimited

Have you ever taken a Polaroid picture?

I have a collection of vintage Polaroid cameras. When I'm out thrifting I feel especially lucky if I find a Polaroid camera. Lucky for me, and for you, The Impossible Project is offering compatible film, and cameras.

So, if you've never taken a Polaroid picture, or experienced the excitement of shaking the film, waiting for the picture to appear, here's your opportunity to shake it like a Polaroid picture.

Speaking of opportunities: I've been seriously thinking about starting a new blog with a specific focus, (unlike this blog which is really like my written journals - filled with ideas and drawings, musings, grousing, the previous night's dream, rants). The new blog will feature a daily photo and an essay of 100 words. By the end of one year, I will have a collection of images and thoughts.

What opportunity do you have up your sleeve?

artist bio: This photo shop features online art photography by two French photographers. This collection of artwork is a visual soundtrack of our travels. We offer high quality prints, black and white, colour, single shot or stories. A winter stroll in Paris, a cup of tea in Darjeeling during monsoon, a life-changing encounter on Russia's Transsiberian, an afternoon of cloud-watching in New Zealand. Pick your moment. Pick a journey.