“Gala”: From Poetry to Painting to Broadside–Art Opening March 17

Biting into a gala apple
fresh from the farmers market
mountain grown he said
evening of the fall equinox
I taste crisp sweet sharp
sudden memories of the
second weekend of that love.

Driving into San Francisco from Reno
many years ago now this week
chauffeured by my estranged spouse
he leaves me on your curb to find
taped to the mailbox keys
to your studio in an envelope
marked “Pingie” my baby name.

Letting myself inside for greetings by
lilies dahlias merlot galas
the presence and absence of you
I inhale this welcome and settle
shower off the residue of
my husband apply clarifying
mask and deep conditioner.

Soaking the barbs away at home
in your tub reading Love Medicine
you surprise me in this state
join me in showering away
conditioning masks pollutants
finding it unnecessary to
cover any nakedness.

Dawning Monday to being in love
I am advised of the dangers
of falling too far too fast
and no I didn’t heed the warning
and yes gravity strikes hard
Newton’s Law of Loving
still bruises galas this autumn.

This is a broadside based on one of the paintings hanging in my current show up now at Kama Sutra’s Closet in the El Jardin Courtyard in Ventura. The opening is Thursday and YOU are cordially invited! We will also be celebrating the launch of my new book, Middle of the Night Poems from Daughter to Mother :: Mother to Son which comes out tomorrow from en theos press.

The body painting uses apples impressed in the fabric as well as my body which I painted in the golden fall colors and mottled bark of a sycamore tree, then wrote the poem alongside; for an October group show at Ventura’s Art City, it hung above an accompanying installation of apples, fall dried flowers, sycamore branches and leaves. For the ArtLife broadside which was published in the October 1996 issue and was the second one I did, I photographed the painting, used white out to cover the now illegible words I had written on it, printed the painting using brown ink and then the text in blue. The broadsides are signed and numbered and available as is one of the two original paintings I did at the same time.

If you click on the image, it will enlarge and you can see more detail. I’ll try to post an image of it hanging at the show soon (subscribe so you won’t miss it!)

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