Thursday, September 25, 2008

Paul Grech

I had a hard time picking just two of Paul Grech's works. In fact, here are links to three more: I just love his musical series. And of course, I can't leave out Einstein.

Beethoven's 5th
by Paul Grech

Trio 2
by Paul Grech

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A couple of art quotes:

There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
~ Pablo Picasso

Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.
~ Frida Kahlo

Friday, September 19, 2008

Postcards, Comics, and Poetic Justice

I've posted Michael McClintock's work before (see Jan 2008), but he and his wife Karen McClintock have new Poetry & Art postcards. Here are two:
You can write MM at MchlMcClintock (at) aol.com.

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A fun poetry assignment -- making a poetry comic book! On Apple's Edcommunity, there's a lesson plan which stars students as poetry super heroes. The students work in groups to write a comic (in verse) and take digital photos of themselves in poses that illustrate their story.

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Thinking about "Poetic Justice"...

Have you heard the term "poetic justice"? It originally referred to the idea that fiction should have things work out properly -- good guys should be rewarded and bad guys should be punished. Today it is used to mean "strikingly appropriate reward or punishment," such as when villains are hurt by a situation they created themselves. I heard about a group that calls themselves "Poetic Justice League 4 America," which is such a cool name that it's too bad someone took it already!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Art In and From Nature

Heather Jansch creates striking sculptures! She answers questions about how she makes them here.

Fortune Filly
by Heather Jansch

Apollo on the Beach
By Heather Jansch

Along similar lines, there is an online site called The Green Museum that has info about artists who produce environmental art, including Betsy Damon. Ms. Damon creates public art events and large-scale art parks like "The Living Water Garden," in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China.

The Living Water Garden
By Betsy Damon
Young park visitors play on the flow forms, sculptures that aerate the water before it enters the constructed wetlands.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Willing to Count Anything or Anyone

OK, so I'm not featuring Shakespeare today, but I like this picture anyway:

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Two delightful poem excerpts this week. The first is by Mary Cornish and is included in Poetry 180. Billy Collins initiated Poetry 180 "to make it easy for students to hear or read a poem on each of the 180 days of the school year. I have selected the poems you will find here with high school students in mind. They are intended to be listened to, and I suggest that all members of the school community be included as readers. A great time for the readings would be following the end of daily announcements over the public address system." Sounds like a great idea.

Numbers
by Mary Cornish

I like the generosity of numbers.
The way, for example,
they are willing to count
anything or anyone:
two pickles, one door to the room,
eight dancers dressed as swans.

I like the domesticity of addition--
add two cups of milk and stir--
the sense of plenty: six plums
on the ground, three more
falling from the tree.

And multiplication's school
of fish times fish,
whose silver bodies breed
beneath the shadow
of a boat.

Read the rest at Poetry 180

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Poet Charles Simic is wonderfully original as he describes why he would like to be a stone...

An excerpt of Stone
by Charles Simic

From the outside the stone is a riddle:
No one knows how to answer it.
Yet within, it must be cool and quiet
Even though a cow steps on it full weight,
Even though a child throws it in a river;
The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed
To the river bottom
Where the fishes come to knock on it
And listen.

You can read the whole thing here.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Muzzle on the Wheel

The Man Next Door Is Teaching His Dog to Drive
by Cathryn Essinger

It all began when he came out one morning
and found the dog waiting for him behind the wheel.
He thought she looked pretty good sitting there,

so he started taking her into town with him
just so she could get a feel for the road.
They have made a few turns through the field,
him sitting beside her, his foot on the accelerator,
her muzzle on the wheel. Now they are practicing
going up and down the lane with him whispering

encouragement in her silky ear. She is a handsome
dog with long ears and a speckled muzzle and he
is a good teacher. Now my wife, Millie, he says,

she was always too timid on the road, but don't you
be afraid to let people know that you are there.

The dog seems to be thinking about this seriously...

Read the rest here . I also love Essinger's Wild Card.

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It's already started, but you can jump on in -- During September, PoeWar is having 30 Poems in 30 Days . Each day, John Hewitt posts a poetry prompt to get you thinking.

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MsMac has been working on a list of Top 100 Poetry Books. Check it out.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Creatures Of The Sea, In Glass and Paper

The Museum of Wales has a lovely web site, including these phenomenal glass works by the Blaschkas. "During the late 19th century, Leopola Blaschka (1822-1895) and his son Rudolf (1857-1929) produced beautifully detailed glass models of bizarre sea creatures for natural history museums and aquaria all over the world."

Highly magnified model of a single cell radiolarian
By Leopola and Rudolf Blaschka

Sea anenomies displaying a territorial dispute. Here S. troglodytes fires stinging cells at A. mesembryanthemum who has ventured too close.
By Leopola and Rudolf Blaschka

Female Paper Nautilus (Argonata Argo) after repair.
By Leopola and Rudolf Blaschka