Wynn & Stephen – Feb. 15

Carol Stephen and Nancy Wynn traded art and words. Nancy shared this image, entitled “Prolongational Existence,” with Carol:

In response, Carol wrote this poem:

What Is Still Beautiful

Look past surface layers, below the blue-veined skin
of age, see what is still beautiful, still nourished
by richness of memory in the bones

like the spangled wings of a great fritillary
patterned in intricate traceries, delicate layers
of chitin and scale, a muted diffraction of light.

Make no pale comparisons to youth.
Woman and caterpillar have shed their
shallow surfaces, stepped free of their first skin,
in metamorphoses to steal away all breath.

* * * * *

Carol shared this poem with Nancy:

the I in the hurricane

the eye
reflects itself down upon sand,

rolls in upon itself to riff
and rollick along the coast,

a scatter of grains, a wind, 
sand in the eye, the sandy eye,

the I and aye, the why of waves
tall as houses, ghost-grey clouds

all billow and fret. wet where wet
should not be. can you walk on water?

will you? will you? will you 
defy the eye, stand at the wall,

dare the sea to take you in.
20 souls.

20. their ship offered to the sea.  
We only call them souls
  when they are lost at sea.

In response, Nancy created this piece, entitled “The ‘I’ in hurricane”: