artiste – Page 4 – panache, perhaps

Good thoughts shining (hand-lettered image; poem).

Published on 09/03/201209/03/2012 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

(one of lisa congdon’s hand-letterings)

I love Roald Dahl and people’s faces.

I cultivate good thoughts and hardy

winter greens. I’m in Cape Cod, until

I’m not, then I’m in Vermont with fall

arriving fast and cadmium. Ellie loves

cadmium so I learned it, too. Now I love

red like I used to, now I still love purples,

now I wait for days to change here like

they don’t out west; I try my best to callous

fast for winter, it keeps me layered thick

in lengths of daylight lessening. I’ll shine

my face with a piece of cloth until it glows

like apples on a branch so thick with fruit

it arcs a loop to ground, it touches earth.

The map is on the wall (photograph).

Published on 07/20/2012 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

The map is on the wall. Now the packing happens.

If I’m gone from this blog for a couple of days, it’s because we’re packing and we’re leaving this home and we’re headed on the road. Roadtrip “updates” (poems, impressions, photographs, souvenir descriptions) will appear here whenever possible.

Apologies to Farmer #1 for the less-than-gorgeous portrait.

Dreams of City Lights…

Published on 07/07/2012 by taylor mardis katz1 Comment

I’M SO EXCITED TO GO TO CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE IT’S LIKE CRAZY

(above: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joanne McClure, and Michael McClure at City Lights)

“Summer Song” (poem by William Carlos Williams).

Published on 07/04/2012 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

Wanderer moon

smiling a

faintly ironical smile

at this

brilliant, dew-moistened

summer morning,—

a detached

sleepily indifferent

smile, a

wanderer’s smile,—

if I should

buy a shirt

your color and

put on a necktie

sky-blue

where would they carry me?

***

photograph: “Le velo du Printemps” by Robert Doisneau, 1948.

I’m a sucker for a sexy poem (Margaret Atwood’s).

Published on 06/30/2012 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

A poem can be small.

Published on 06/14/2012 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

“I am drunk but miss you all the time”

Sometimes nonpoets

write better poems

than poets

“I want to shake out a fat broom” (poem by Alice Walker) (hand-lettered).

Published on 05/23/2012 by taylor mardis katz2 Comments

It’s funny to me that I don’t even know Lisa Congdon and yet I post things she’s made, like the above Alice Walker. I guess that’s what blogs do, let us be in touch with people we wouldn’t otherwise. I like it when people tell me that they read my blog–it’s always a confession. If you’re reading this, thanks for reading this. When you tell me that you read this, I get pretty joyful.

Sideyard success. Serious joy.

Published on 05/14/2012 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

The sideyard was so much fun. I was this happy:

Except I was wearing a blue crown with curled ribbons longer than my hair, a patterned poncho, and wings made out of leaves (made by Jen), and not a clown costume. As Frankie puts it,

best thing about the sideyard poetry readings:

the folks walking past on the other side of the hedge

on their way to friday-night-party

catching clips of outloud poetry

and the quick image of

a writer in the light

as they pass

What was also wonderful was how many people there were (estimates are in the high 90s), and the flower bouquets with artichokes in them (made by Ellie of course):

and how everyone got so drunk that no one bought books like these:

and perhaps the greatest miracle of the whole event is that not a single neighbor yelled at us. And people bought Misha’s photographs! And I didn’t even have a hangover the next morning! And the next morning was Saturday, and Ellie and I split a mushroom and bacon fritatta covered with blue cheese with whole wheat toast and raspberry jam. The end.