Samorodova & Cormier — November 2021

Melissa Penley Cormier and Julia Samorodova traded art and words. Melissa shared this trio of images titled “Plantmatter: Polaroid Type 55 Portraits” with Julia:

In response, Julia write this poem:

Flowers Die Quietly

Flowers die quietly,
without any affected “Good heavens.”
Neither priests nor doctors
come to flowers’ beds.
Flowers die standing upright,
becoming dead grass.
Flowers die in silence.
Some of them die at night,
covered in wet fog.
Some of them die in the morning.
Flowers switch their lives off
like we switch off chandeliers.
It’s because autumn comes
to any Sorrento.
Even though they
are unlikely to ask you–
bow down
at their roots.

(Translated by Sergey Gerasimov from Russian)

* * * * * *

Julia shared this poem with Melissa:

It’s November 

It’s November.
I am thankful that it has shared with me:
cereals of snow, white millet,
sieved dust.
Despite all distances,
blinking like an ultrasensitive eye,
a blue star watches me
sitting in the back of a car.
Singing along with the nearly dead springs,
I’m plummeting down into winter.
Soon, so soon the New Year
will walk over the earth.
We’ll have a party, Olivier salad,
the sour smell of some booze,
fireworks in the concrete yard,
clouded with prickly cold,
and a stranger all in tinsel,
will put, without asking,
a coat on my shoulders.
And I’ll be thankful.

(Translated by Sergey Gerasimov from Russian)

In response, Melissa made this image titled “Plummeting”: