I’m still reeling from the news that Brandeis University has announced the closing of the Rose Art Museum. Once a bastion of painterly painting under Carl Belz’s visionary directorship, the Rose has been a cherished art destination for me for many years. The building, designed by Philip Johnson, is small and not one of Johnson’s […]
Whistling Wind
Balancing intuition against sensory information, and sensitivity to one’s self against pragmatic knowledge of the world, is not a stance unique to artists. The specialness of artists is the degree to which these precarious balances are crucial backups for their real endeavor. Their essential effort is to catapult themselves wholly, without holding back one bit, […]
Small Animals
My friend LP continues to feed my poetry habit. She posted the following poem by Larissa Szporluk on her site over the weekend. I immediately went scurrying through the web for more information about S’s work. So following the poem posted below is an excerpt from an interview with the poet from Perihelion. The sensibilities […]
Poetry and Politics
His Springboard Resolve For his firmness is most fog horn. For he’s darning our fraying hem with fine thread; for he’s following a plan. Be it a progression from detention to due process. Be it a declaration of Middle-East and market collapse mazes unmazed. Be it settled. From this day forward, a little less fetus, […]
- In Memoriam
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Laying to Rest
Deep, Bog, Night, by Fred H. C. Liang I bought this painting by Fred Liang last year after my mother died. It was part of a gorgeous show of Liang’s work at Bernie Toale’s gallery in the South End of Boston. From the minute I saw it, I felt as though I had found the […]
- In Memoriam
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Adieu To Bonnie
Tonight I said goodbye to my friend of 30 years, Bonnie Horne. She was a hero in the truest sense. Battling not one but several cancers over the last 10 years, she defied the odds and the expectations of her small garrison of doctors at Dana Farber over and over again. She braved multiple operations, […]
Nothing But Gifts
You talked but after your talking all the rest remains. After your talking—poets, philosophers, contrivers of romances—everything else, All the rest deduced inside the flesh Which lives & knows not just what is permitted. I am a woman held fast now in a great silence. Not all creatures have your need for words. Birds you […]
- Art Making
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Truth, Lies and Dodges
I had a conversation yesterday with LP (Lisa the Poet) about speaking the truth whether it be in poetry or in the visual arts. She went to the same lecture by Jenny Saville that I have written about here (although at the time we did not yet know each other) and felt immediately at home […]
Meeting Without Surprise
Anterooms Out of the snowdrift Which covered it, this pillared Sundial starts to lift, Able now at last To let its frozen hours Melt into the past In bright, ticking drops. Time so often hastens by, Time so often stops— Still, it strains belief How an instant can dilate, Or long years be brief. Dreams, […]
Wintering
Wise beyond her years, my friend Nicole wrote these words to me today: Loving people is impossible. We shine our weakly powered headlamps into the jungles of each other and the light never seems to penetrate to the heart as we desire. It just can not get there. I suppose that’s the wisdom of praying […]