Ekphrasis IX 2022 Virtual Exhibition
SET 5. Visual Artist Initiators and their Writer Responders
M. CLAIRE FORTIER, Flowers for Ukraine. Response by poet MAUREEN EPPSTEIN: Five Sunflowers.
N. SHARON GARNER: Lone Tree at Sunrise, Cade Cove. Response by HOLLY TANNEN: The Sheltering Tree.
O. STEPHEN GARNER: Windowlit, watercolor. Response by poet ELIZABETH VRENIOS: Workin Girl.
SET 5. Visual Artist Initiators and their Writer Responders
M. CLAIRE FORTIER, Flowers for Ukraine. Response by poet MAUREEN EPPSTEIN: Five Sunflowers.
N. SHARON GARNER: Lone Tree at Sunrise, Cade Cove. Response by HOLLY TANNEN: The Sheltering Tree.
O. STEPHEN GARNER: Windowlit, watercolor. Response by poet ELIZABETH VRENIOS: Workin Girl.
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Initiating artist CLAIRE FORTIER:
Flowers for Ukraine , oil on canvas. 
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Response by poet MAUREEN EPPSTEIN:
Five Sunflowers
1. Whistle of incoming missiles mother and child stumble to safety 2. Burnt sunflower seed meal acrid in skeleton of grain terminal 3. Clinging to each other father and son watch rescuers dig through rubble 4. Volunteers offer bowls of pasta golden as sunflowers children smile 5. Rusting Russian tanks litter gray farmyard a single sunflower rises |
SHARON GARNER: Lone Tree at Sunrise, Cade Cove, photograph.
Responding author, HOLLY TANNEN: Sheltering Tree.
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My friend and I have had our shots, so we decide it’s safe to invite him in. We sit on either side of the big oak table, watching steam rise from cups of pu-erh and chamomile tea. He reaches across the table and hands me his tea bag. The little tag on the end, like all flat surfaces nowadays, is inscribed with an inspirational quote
Friendship is a sheltering tree - Samuel Taylor Coleridge I put the tea bag on one of my altars, pick up my dulcimer, and pluck a tune Friendship is a sheltering tree Shielding us from wind and rain The next day I sit beneath our tree, trying to think of a line and a rhyme. A pair of geese passes overhead, honking Flying birds call you and me Till the day we meet again So few hours together, so many hours apart. I swipe a line from a wassail song |
Friendship is a flowering tree
Bud and blossom, branch and fruit and extend the metaphor Kind and kindred souls agree Green the stem and deep the root He says, “People tell me our friendship is weird. I say, ‘It ain’t weird, it’s wove’ ” Weird comes from Anglo-Saxon wyrd, destiny. In Norse mythology, Urd is one of the Norn queens who tend Yggdrasil, the world tree. Its roots connect all life; the Norns weave human lives together Likely and unlike combine Weird and woven, fierce and free Tomorrow I’ll hike out to the tree and sing to myself as dark clouds bring the rain Twining rhizome, ancient shrine Friendship is a sheltering tree. |
Initiating artist STEPHEN GARNER: Windowlit, watercolor.
Response by poet ELIZABETH VRENIOS: Woikin' Goil.
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Lower the shade, will youse Dearie? I don’t like that sun in my eyes or the neighbors Peerin’ in. Put your cash on the chair Sweetie, wanna take your shoes off Too? Gimme a bourbon then. Ya know, I’m sorry for all those goils who have to woik early every day. ooooo Careful! Not so hard Dearie - you’re Killin’ me. |
