SAYING IT

By Poet Philip Booth, Castine Maine

Say it. Trying
not to say it. Not
to answer to

logic, but leaving
our very lives open
to how we have

to hear ourselves
say what we mean.
Not merely to

know, all told,
our far neighbors;
or here, beside

us now, the stranger
we sleep next to.
Not to get it said

and be done, but
to say the feeling, its
present shape, to

let words lend it
dimension: to name
the pain to confirm

how it may be borne:
through what in
ourselves we dream

to give voice to,
to find some word for
how we bear our lives.

Daily, as we are daily
wed, we say the world
is a wedding for which

as we are constantly
finding, the ceremony
has not yet been found.

What wine? What bread?
What language sung?
We wake, at night, to

imagine, and again wake
at dawn to begin: to let
the intervals speak

for themselves, to
listen to how they
feel, to give pause

to what we're about:
to relate ourselves
over and over, in

time beyond time
to speak some measure
of how we heart the music:

today if ever to
say the joy of trying
to say the joy.

RIDGEFIELD GUILD OF ARTISTS

August in Provence, BJ Lloyd

RIDGEFIELD GUILD OF ARTISTS. LIST OF NAMES, WEBSITES, CLICK TO SEE. IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR INSPIRATION, THIS IS LIKE WHAT'S BEHIND CURTAIN ONE.

MONK ON MAC

Fabulous juxtaposition of monk, mac and Hermes orange!

The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog

To be blessed
said the old woman
is to live and work
so hard
God's love
washes right through you
like milk through a cow

To be blessed
said the dark red tulip
is to knock their eyes out
with the slug of lust
implied by
your up-ended
skirt

To be blessed
said the dog
is to have a pinch
of God
inside you
and all the other dogs
can smell it.

By Alicia Suskin Ostriker

BEAUTIFUL BACK

From Errant Aesthete: "These large, elegant and most mysterious paintings of the necks and heads of women are a reflection of Christian de Laubadere's fascination with the sophistication and sensuality of women, past and present.

Medium: Paper using lead pencil, smoke and charcoal. Printed and embroidered fabric

PARACHUTE FLOWERS

Parachute flowers for a Monday.