Art Is Meant to Arrest

Week 25

Art Is Meant to Arrest

Tweets

            1.   Even though you have no training in art appreciation, as

                  in my case, your eye and heart can go out to a painting.

            2.   Taking some time, unhurried, thoughts, feelings, can

                  come to you as if asked to imagine in some harmless

                  game.

            3.   You can ask artists what they had in mind when they

                  crafted something and they may say they don’t know or

                  can’t remember.

            4.   So it’s up to you to determine for yourself what the

                  message and meaning are.

            5.   Catherine has been my friend for almost a dozen years.

                  She’s to the right on the wall beside our bed.

            6.   She’s ever silent and makes me wonder.

            7.   I wish she could tell me how it all turned out.

Painting

Catherine, 

each day my eye

goes to you.

Naked, your long back

to me, resting on

your lower limbs,

left foot tucked under

your bottom, settled,

as many women,

your left arm resting

on your knee.

Fresh from the

band of youth,

retaining Spring,

a picture of lily-like

concentration

along a thin firm line,

your light hair gathered

in a bun, a possible

severity. There is a

redness in your side,

a recent wounding? Are

you a Madame Butterfly

of Russia? An

American Southerner,

melancholy in a day room,

fresh from a bath,

warm air flowing

over your shoulders?

Or is there just the

slightest smile of

anticipation

as you look down?

Some kind of

preparation?

Yes, that’s it.

What

do you face?

Tweet


© 2012 Allan Cox, Allan Cox & Associates Inc. All Rights Reserved.
_____________________________________________________________

That Thing!

Week 24

That Thing!

Tweets

            1.   It’s true isn’t it? If you’ve announced, people want to see

                  how you do.

            2.   It’s not that they love you, necessarily; they want to see if you can deliver.

                 

            3.   Their motives vary and are their own. Best not to take

                  your bows, even when you succeed. That makes the

                  mark more.

            4.   The more significant question is what is your It? That’s

                  your heavy homework.

            5.   What is it, really, you need to do and not look the other

                  way?

            6.   What has intruded lately, that has you thinking about it?

                  That’s your own hound of heaven.

            7.   Make sure the it is under your skin. This is the only way to live!

It

How will you

do it?,

she asked.

He didn’t know

and said so.

It depends

on the it,

he said.

Since hearing

that exchange,

I’ve wondered

about my it,

there,

waiting.

Tweet


© 2012 Allan Cox, Allan Cox & Associates Inc. All Rights Reserved. ________________________________________________________

How Would You Like to Define Fear?

Week 23

How Would You Like to Define Fear?

Tweets

      1.   Philosopher Alfred North Whitehead said the measure of

            a civilization is the increased number of tasks it can 

            perform without thinking.

      2.   For my part, I’m on record for saying truly superior

            executives are so good they don’t know it.

      3.   Have you noticed that the more you talk about doing

            something, the less likely it is that you will ever do it?

      4.   There are times, though, plenty of them, when the heat’s

            on and everybody knows it.

      5.   That’s when even the expert is scared, make no

            mistake.

      6.   Even though she comes through it, seemingly without

            effort, we see the act itself—courage in isolation—is what

            upholds.

      7.   That is not for the newcomer, no matter how talented; it

            comes, even if she be young, from night-sleeping in the

            swamp.

Routine

The night video shows

the fear and courage

seeped clear through the

sophisticated maneuvering

of fliers being guided,

landing their planes

in a rough sea.

Swells abrupt and high

from an angry host

can send the massive carrier

bobbing like a match stick

just as an aircraft with its pilot—

skilled as a old weaver—

makes its final approach.

Tense faces chewing gum,

compensatory laughter

and wondering eyes

make up the pinpoint soul

of the navigation quarters.

Cheers erupt when the

safe landing occurs, perhaps

after an aborted attempt

or two, to avoid

crashing into the ship

in a fierce upswing.

The pilot descends

to friends below,

takes of his headgear,

big smile—astounding to

me—his baby face,

holds up a hand, shaking,

says, still smiling,

“most scared I’ve

ever been in my life.”

© 2012 Allan Cox, Allan Cox & Associates Inc. All Rights Reserved.

_____________________________________________________ 

Tweet

Sometimes Your Ears Have Eyes

Week 22

Sometimes Your Ears Have Eyes

Tweets

            1.       There are some things in life we just put up with. They

                       may annoy but not enough.

            2.       Name a sound that sets your teeth on edge. How does it  

                       affect your body?

            3.       It’s surprising how much we can sense by tone and pace

                       when we can’t truly make out what’s being said.

            4.       Lean into a conversation—what, not who, is talking?

            5.       Why is it that the question she asked me on the subway

                       sticks with me?

            6.       Why don’t tirades work?

            7.       How is it that flowers like simple daffodils, bound with a

                       rubber band, deliver a kiss with just a handoff?

Overheard

Sounds from the TV

in the other room—

I can’t make out the words

and don’t want to,

but here they are,

anyway, abrasive

as coarse wool.

Oh, those voices

so pitched and fervent?

This is the soft medium,

after all, because

unlike radio, the

harsh one, we

have the picture—

the one worth

a thousand words.

At the completion of

the current news spot,

told at its urgent,

stentorian best,

I again won’t

make out the words,

but the signoff cadence

will be unmistakable:

This is Russ Jones reporting

for Albatross News

© 2012 Allan Cox, Allan Cox & Associates Inc. All Rights Reserved.

______________________________________________________

Tweet