Sunday, June 24, 2012

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?







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

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Sunday, June 17, 2012

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.






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

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Sunday, June 10, 2012

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.
_____________________________________________________ 

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Sunday, June 3, 2012

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.
______________________________________________________





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