Weekly Edition #12
The Joins by Chana Bloch
[Kintsugi is the Japanese art of mending precious pottery with gold.]
What's between us
often seems flexible as the webbing
between forefinger and thumb.
Seems flexible, but it's not;
what's between us
is made of clay,
like any cup on the shelf.
It shatters easily. Repair
becomes the task.
We glue the wounded edges
with tentative fingers.
Scar tissue is visible history,
the cup more precious to us
because
we saved it.
In the art of kintsugi,
a potter repairing a broken cup
would sprinkle the resin
with powdered gold.
Sometimes the joins
are so exquisite
they say the potter
may have broken the cup
just so he could mend it.
Art by Laura Racero
Other poems I read this week: (Read the full poem in the link)
"my lady ain't no lady
she doesn't flow into a room—
she enters and her presence is felt.
she doesn't sit small—
she takes all her space." -My Lady Ain't No Lady by Pat Parker
"When we can’t find my sister, we know
she is under the kitchen table, a book in her hand,
a glass of milk and a small bowl of peanuts beside her.
We know we can call Odella’s name out loud,
slap the table hard with our hands,
dance around it singing
“She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain”
so many times the song makes us sick
and the circling makes us dizzy
and still
my sister will do nothing more
than slowly turn the page." -Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
"this letter
I didn’t send
how surprising
to find it now.
All this love I must have felt." -heart/mind by Laura Kasischke
"No one grumbles among the oyster clans,
And lobsters play their bone guitars all summer.
Only we, with our opposable thumbs, want
Heaven to be, and God to come, again.
There is no end to our grumbling; we want
Comfortable earth and sumptuous Heaven.
But the heron standing on one leg in the bog
Drinks his dark rum all day, and is content." -Wanting Sumptuous Heavens by Robert Bly
Recommended Listening:
Tom and Jerry at MGM - music performed live by the John Wilson Orchestra
We're going to be friends - White Stripes
Links of the Week:
Oneirnauts (The Dream Travellers)
David Lynch in "Curtain's Up", from Stella McCartney
Picular (Google for colours)
Web Design Museum + Museum of the Moon
The Mail That Was Smuggled to The Moon
I have a new website! www.thealiporepost.com
Happy reading! :)