Community and Creative Process

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I have lived in artistic communities since early adulthood. I love the energy, feel it even when I am alone in my room. There is affirmation of the value of creating within an art community. There is knowledge that process is important. The energy in a community where people participate in the creative process helps generate ideas, even as we disagree  about the relative value of specific pieces or particular forms of art.
Art for me has been a means of keeping an even keel in a crazy world.
Often when I create, whether a poem, a painting or a song, I don’t fully understand the symbols and juxtapositions of ideas until much later. Art is not a way to recreate reality, but distorts reality in order to fully portray it, like a curved glass will focus the sun’s rays on a single point, and result in a fire.

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photo of Baltimore rapper Wealth making a music video in Savage, Maryland.

 

To My Husband

I don’t really care

if you wash the dishes

in the dishwasher

even after

I’ve washed them and placed them

in the drying rack.

I don’t really care

that my desire to buy

large pots

and dirt

and throw seeds in them

to see what comes up

annoys you.

What is most important

is the knowing of each other.

The small things

are who we really are.

When I was sick and despairing,

you comforted me,

forced me to eat,

and stroked my hair.

When you come home to me,

I listen to your stories

your sorrows, worries,

triumphs and joys.

We still sleep

entwined,

my arms wrapped around

your strong back,

or your leg snuggled

between my thighs.

And thus we know each other

past the superficial conversations

of friends

and casual lovers.

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It is at

It is at
Forest
Edges
Where we see
Most clearly.

Shadow laid on shadow
Cut by sunlight
Bare branches
Life tightly sealed inside
Bark and layered rings
Counting years past

All cast
Against
Cerulean winter
Sky so clear
I can almost see
The infinite
Stars
Beyond.

notice (after rain)

rain

drops

fill

with sun on grass,

miniature prisms

sparkling

cherry,

daffodil,

jade.

fence

lit

gold

at

regular

intervals,

interstices

gradually decrease

w/ distance.