15 October 2015
Time does indeed fly and – almost unbelievably – here we are publishing our first anniversary edition. It’s been a lot of fun collaborating, batting around ideas, connecting with new contributors and producing a rather remarkable body of work over the course of the last twelve months.
Safe to say we are all grateful to be able to make a contribution – modest as it may be – to peace and understanding. We are grateful too for the readers who make this work worthwhile. We’re especially grateful to those readers who participated in 100,000 Poets for Change (100TPC) this year. Thank you! More on that soon. Meanwhile … for our anniversary issue, the theme is Visual Arts: Shape, Color, Movement and Meaning …
The American graphic designer, Milton Glaser, has said that art is “terribly important” as a survival mechanism, as a means of cultural survival. Good art, he says, “makes us attentive.” It inspires us to re-engage with what we think something or some circumstance is and see it for what it truly is. It seems our poets have decided to comment on art by using it as inspiration for poetry. Not surprising that. In the light of Glaser’s words, I think this “appropriation” of art for poetry helps to make an even stronger statement of culture and values and moves us closer to the truing of our vision. “Why ask art into life at all,” asks poet Jane Hirschfeld, “if not to be transformed and enlarged by its presence and mysterious means?”
And so this month we present diverse works of art largely commented upon in poem – ekphrastic or otherwise – or used as a jumping off point and moved into new directions. In some cases the art is the poet’s own photographs or digital art.
New to our pages this month is professional photographer Donatella D’Angello with a set of poems in both Italian and English (translations in collaboration with Michael Dickel) as well as with her photographs, which inspired the poet in Michael. Our wonderful cover photo (the header) is courtesy of Donatella. You can enjoy more of her work HERE. Michael tells me “the photos are as shot in the camera. She borrows techniques the Futurists used for motion-studies of long exposures (and subdued lighting, often) and moves into and within the frame (or has her subjects move, but I used all self-portraits in the post).”
Italy stars in three pieces. Two are by Michael Watson who shares photographs and meditations from a trip to Italy. The third is a piece by Michael Dickel on his trip to Salerno this past June for the 100TPC summit.
We are also pleased to introduce Professor Aprilia Zank. Aprilia is a photographer, poet and literature professor who coordinated the National Beat Festival in Munich this year. We hope to share more of her work here in the future.
We start with the graphics produced around the world to promote 100TPC and move on to Priscilla Galasso’s “Art, Time and Love,” which is as thoughtful and characteristically provocative as her work always is. You’ll find two of Naomi Baltuck’s wonderful photo-stories, artwork by Corina Ravenscraft, and a flash fiction piece by Liliana Negoi … All alongside the aforementioned wealth of poems. Enjoy … Let us know what you think.
On behalf of The Bardo Group and Beguine Again and in the spirit of peace and community,
Jamie Dedes
THEME
VISUAL ARTS: SHAPE, COLOR, MOVEMENT, MEANING
Design Art: 100TPC Posters
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Posters are followed by some photographs of Mimes for Change in Egypt and then Michael Rothenberg’s flag to welcome refugees. (These are not the same posters that we displayed in a slideshow on the blog.)
Lead Features
Art, Time and Love, Priscilla Galasso
~ A Dragon’s Day ~, Corina Ravenscraft
An Autumn Photo from Spring, Michael Dickel
Salerno Like a Painting, Michael Dickel
Regretting Its Death by Drowning, Jamie Dedes
Fiction
bonds, Liliana Negoi
Poetry
Parallel Worlds, John Anstie
Decline, John Anstie
Battle Horse, John Anstie
Three Poems (Italian and English), Donatella D’Angello (translations with Michael Dickel)
her power leaps, Jamie Dedes
Cassandra, Jamie Dedes
A dream walker hands you the door, Michael Dickel
White Angel Feathers, Michael Dickel (with photographs by Donatella D’Angello
Framed, Joseph Hesch
Fields of Lavender, Joseph Hesch
a beautiful enigma, Charles W. Martin
war’s cold night, Charles W. Martin
Not That I Really Know, Charles W. Martin
GENERAL INTEREST
Essay
the land remembers, Michael Watson
Cinque Terra, Michael Watson
Photo-Story
Two Subjects (and one important thing to remember), Naomi Baltuck
Turning Night into Day, Naomi Baltuck
Special Feature
Imagine the Beats (Readings, Photography, Music), Munich, German, Aprilia Zank
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Jamie Dedes' THE POET BY DAY Webzine 