Talk Talk

CLEAN

Illustration Friday’s challenge this week is “CLEAN.” Modern design looks very clean to me. I found a jpeg of a painting I like (Concourse by William Lachowicz, c.1959) and hung it in this virtual room I drew. I’m no designer but it was fun “painting” the walls and “framing” and “unframing” the art work and incorporating it into the room.

Robin Robertson

Robert Hunter (Grateful Dead lyricist) said a poem in a selected works is like an orphan, it’s not the same as it is in the book from which it came. Well, he said it better than that, here, but my point remains--the poem is out there all on its own without its relations. This is how I have to look at Robin Robertson’s poem “On Pharos” as I have not yet read his book, Swithering.

On Pharos

Four hollows and four seal-skins
on the beach, by a cave, their stink
undercut by the faint scent of ambrosia;
some tracks, of wild boar and panther;
the scales of a serpent; the hair,
perhaps, of a bearded lion;
torn leaves from a tree
when there were no trees anywhere near;
and, round a puddle of fresh water,
scorch-marks in the sand
and the signs of a struggle.
Seemed quiet enough now, though,
so we went and got our towels from the car.

I laughed on my first reading, a good sign, I think to get an emotional, instinctive response--it means that this poem resonates with me. Uh, oh, I thought, but what could it possibly mean, then? The note below clued me in to the mythological references and from that the poem opened itself to me…that we don’t remember the lessons of the gods. This poem for me is a Cassandra.

Note:

In Book IV of the Odyssey, Menelaus, King of Sparta, recalls being becalmed under the spell of the gods on the island of Pharos. He meets Eidothea, who advises him to capture her father Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea: a prophet who so dislikes being questioned that he will assume any form to avoid his questioners. Menelaus and three companions lie in wait, covered in freshly flayed seal-skins, and surprise the sea-god on the beach. They hold him tight as he changes successively into a variety of animal, vegetable and elemental forms before returning to the human. Proteus is then obliged to break the binding spell and free the waters.

Skyline

It began as the outline of buildings seen against the sky but I guess my eyes became accustomed to the light. Here's this week's submission to Illustration Friday for the theme: SKYLINE.

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July!

& Steve Tyler performed with the Boston Pops--

who'd a thunk it!

Fourth of July Weekend

Hello blog readers,

On the menu last night: Fish Fingers (Dolphin), home-made, of course; Shrimp and Grits; Double-Chocolate Cake with milk (or wine, in my case).

Tonight: Barbecued ribs in a chipotle sauce and chicken wings. A fruit torte or if you don't like that you may have left-over cake.

We're in the Keys celebrating 4th of July. Wish you were here!

Carol and Caroline (see picture)