Event: Artists and Poets
As a part of the Artists' Cooperative Gallery of Westerly's 25th anniversary, the gallery will be holding a special event on September 9th in collaboration with Rhode Island poets, musicians, and storytellers. Local poet Pat LaRose wrote two poems for this event that were inspired by two of my works. Her poems "Touchstones to the Past" and "Under the Sea" are shown below.
Touchstones to the Past
To open the treasure box of memories
first, heft the key opening your heart.
Gently remove and caress each object.
Touch a furry remnant of a lonesome
child’s lucky rabbit’s foot.
In quilted patches of felt,
muted green and bright pink,
stories of lost days swirl.
Scraps of lacy doilies, now shredded,
once comforted old grey heads
against cushioned chairbacks.
Evocations of grandmotherly faces,
aunts in abundance, arise ghostlike.
A wealth of spiraled DNA unfurls
as generations upon generations
populate the country of remembrance.
Under the Sea
Great blue whales glide
rise breathe dive
jellyfish float
through vast waters
lost Atlantis buried for eons
cold abyss
creatures with spear-shaped denticles
swarm over ocean depths
somewhere below
volcanoes flow spewing lava
turning the sea green
here all these worlds survive
theirs is a freedom
unmatched on land
where there are
many ways to drown.
The Artists Plus Poets event will take place at 7 Canal Street, Westerly RI, on September 9th at 5:30pm. Click here for more information about the event.