Chang & Cameron – November 2022

Mark Cameron and Julia Rose Chang traded art and words. Mark shared this piece, titled “Camp Small #2” with Julia:

In response, Julia wrote this poem:

radiator thoughts

winters full of mint pastilles and frozen freshwater lakes that pull at our ankles
every rock that’s washed ashore on that beach, laden with time
each day feels like this, heavy and worn
but steady, traveled
i think my fingers can’t turn another page
and i’ve bitten them to the bone
and as long as my feet don’t take the step off the edge, i think i can make it
staying in the shallow end with my seaweed muddled clogs and warm radiator thoughts and
pickled hope
dreaming of the day the sun will come up again

i’m waiting for the light, shivering while this passes

* * * * *

Julia shared this poem with Mark:

How can you say that words will never hurt you

How can you say that words will never hurt you

I’ve heard words thrown my way
That felt like a door slammed shut
Or like a gasp, a flinch

And words last
Like goosebumps, and a sore throat
like heartburn

Although I keep teaching myself
A lesson on how not to
Take it personal

I write the words
And I’ll hug myself
And do the forgetting of any syllabled jabs
I happened to take coming your way

Because he struggled in anger
And chose to lash out at me

And she wrung her fingers together
Frustrated at the sound of my clacking
Spitting a dangerous game

And Miss Jackson in the third grade
Told me that I was a writer
That my words have power

So I chose to put this down somewhere
Having taken that to heart   

In response, Mark made this image, titled “Tenderness”: