Joanna Brouk found!

light
light

light of morning
the fairest light, the fairest light
has come

softly, I feel its coming

night has given
night has given
a place to morning
breath returns and moistens
the grass the birds feather

no longer do I hide
no longer do I hide
gone into darkness

light has come

Back in 2004, I found a collection of poems and forgotten artwork, from the halcyon days of Berkeley in the early 70's.  The art and the poems were from a collaboration between myself, and two of my friends, Felicia Miller and Joanna Brouk.  I published them in my website, and in 2006, Felicia found me, and our friendship resumed after 30 some years.  I went to visit her in Puerto Rico, and saw in Washington D.C.  as well.  Felicia passed from this world in January of last year.  

 
A few weeks ago, the other long lost friend, Joanna, wrote to me!  As it turns out, Joanna lives in a town near San Diego, and we've since spent several wonderful days together.  Wow, almost 35 years have passed..........and yet, it's still Joanna!  Interestingly, because of my posting her poetry on my website, she was contacted by someone who is re-issuing and archiving some of her music from those early days, including work that was presented on the "Hearts of Space" program in Berkeley.


Joanna is a composer, and a writer........funny, like Felicia, she had forgotten all about the poems I treasured, and I'm delighted to re-offer them to her.  I still love her series of poems that I illustrated so very long ago (the series can be found at the link below).   In them,  Joanna moves, like a stream, through the rythems of season, current, night and day, to an ecstatic experience of  the Sun's return.

And here is a link to Joanna's music, from a KPFA broadcast ("Hearts of Space") in 1972.

http://www.archive.org/details/OTG_1972_10_25_2

I thank Spider Woman for weaving our lives together once again.

A Jakaranda Moment

 

I find that I have nothing to write although I sit here wanting to write something.  I drove beneath a Jacaranda tree, flowering off a busy, smoggy street in Glendora. It's that time of year in Southern California, the Time of the Jacaranda.

 Photo by Scott Contini

 Imagine a brilliant  shower of violet blooms, falling like glorious purple snow.  Generosity of  World to give us such gifts. Purple trees!  Miraculous, here, at the bus stop.

 I'm not sure I can say anything that would do justice to the Flowering of the Jacaranda Tribe............I looked throughout the web for poems about Jakaronda, and found many - almost all, departures for what the tree reminded people of.  But I can't imagine such a phenomenon as  reminding me of anything except itself.......I stand beneath the Jakaranda tree, it's falling purple blossums,  my mouth open.  Speechless.

photo by www.irvinehousingblog.com

Suki's Poem

On Being an Artist

The rose window fractured
by a fierce wind
shards on the grass
till he came along
collected the fragments
crafted a kaleidoscope

Fractured
by the tornado of life
for two years I lay on the rug
my thoughts scattered
Now I must turn my mind around
create beauty from the ruins

Suki from her Blog

**The Watts Towers were created by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia between 1922 and 1955.  A construction worker, he created it from bits of ceramic plates, discarded construction materials, anything he found.  He did not consider himself an artist, and when, at the age of 75 he left Los Angeles, he deeded the lot the Towers were on to his neighbor. 

"The Watts Towers survived. A thriving community art center now sits beside them and Simon Rodia’s namesake jazz festival just celebrated its thirty-third anniversary. It’s as if Rodia, who approached his magnum opus like it was a private madness, had the greater good in mind all the time."

Catherine Wagley, DVisible Magazine