Karkar & Gelman & Purvis – May 2012

Dina Karkar, Annelyse Gelman and Meredith Purvis traded writing and artwork. Dina shared this painting, “Lighthouse in Busan,” with Meredith:

In response, Meredith wrote this poem:

Become Colossus

Foot forms to stone,
toes wrapping centuries-smoothed
grayness, the soft underbelly of
my sole matched by slow curve of rock.

I could stand here forever.
Water washing over my feet,
a potter’s fingers smooth clay
into clay, uniting skin with stone.

My face will not wrinkle,
my hair will not gray,
my frame will not bend
under the years to come.

A colossus made of time,
eyes scanning the sea,
waiting for something
eventually lost.

* * * * *

Annelyse shared this poem with Dina:

4,000 Blackbirds Drop From the Sky

At 10pm on Friday, December 31, 2010, thousands of blackbirds fell upon Beebe, Arkansas. The cause of their death is unknown.

Say they rained, but make no
mistake: the clouds did not open.
Plague of blue sky, red wings.
Witnesses agree: some sort
of phenomenon happened.
Shivering asphalt, fly ball,
luckless luxury of choosing
where to fall. In a vacuum,
feathers are just dead weight –
beckoning to housewives
from the sidewalk, demanding
to be let in out of the rain.

In response, Dina made this painting, “a bird apocolypse,” (click to enlarge image):