POETRY AT THE RIFFE!

DEAR READERS: March 27, 2009 I'm writing from a not so good space in illness, but I want you to know about an event at the Verne Riffe Center Gallery, 77 S. High St., on Sunday, March 29 at two p.m. --- Maybe I'll be there, maybe not.

MIMI CHENFELD, FRED ANDRLE, WIlLIAM FABRYCKI, (with me, Liz!) are THE UMBRELLA POETS OF COLUMBUS, and they will give a reading honoring poetry and the visual arts. DAVID FRANCIS SMITH and CRAIG MCVAY will be guest poets. The current RIFFE GALLERY exhibit is Visual Dialogues, which presents art from Germany and Ohio.

Here's my prosaic offering: (abstractions exist on their own merit, but I boldly let these tell short short prose poems to me!)

I.
MY FEELINGS ASSUME COLORS AND SHAPES
when I look at Green #5 by Jana Morgenstern!
Behold: Circles, tubes, abdominal curves, the intestines
of a gorgeous April.
I'm searching for spring! --- I'll love stepping barefoot!
Ah, they are so green, these curves and shapes of art.
As I stand here writing, I can taste spearmmint!

************

II.
BLACK #7 BY DETLEF SCHWEIGER
is my Dresden Ink Blot dress! --- It's so NOW!
Cut on the bias from a piece of charcoal!
Look, I'm a cold-hot-charcoal-piece-of-fabric
when I slip it on.
Years ago, my first art teacher, Miss Josephine Lee,
in Fostoria, Ohio, taught me about
dyeing Queen Ann's Lace, taught me
about Coco Chanel's little black dress.
Taught me how to use my imagination!
And so, today, I muse, "I'll write some
designer lines for Black # 7 by Detlef Schweiger.
I'll tape a map of Ohio to my left shoulder
and locate the Riffe Center in Columbus, Ohio!
--- And look, --- an orange dagger, a good luck patch!
And look, I can see haute couture against mottled snow!
Voila! I can feel stylish and chic
and do anything I want to, and go where I want to go
in my little BLACK #7 ULTRA DRESS!"

Here are some more of the abstractions in the Visual Dialogues exhibit. Click on each image to see a larger version.