Sunday, September 4, 2022

Pandora's Amphora #3

 Ed Werner's Off the Wall Sculpture Show


OFF THE WALL ... Ed Werner was one of the first folks I met in Telluride. In fact, I held my first poetry reading in Telluride while house-sitting his and Lisa's rental in town on North Spruce Street. And later the old Telluride Writer's Guild put on a gala poetry event in Fall Creek at his home there ... 



But he moved to Ridgway when he and Lisa split up and has been living there for the last couple decades ... His sculptures have always been challenging pieces -- well made but full of irony and sometimes dark energies... 




His recent show at the Trace Gallery in Ridgway was no different. Less new pieces and more things he's pulled from his collection of pieces he's had in storage for many years. But nevertheless impressive.







I've always loved his work for his critique of American culture and his precision fabrication skills. For many years he did fine carpentry in Telluride and the region from his workshop in Fall Creek.  More photos from his show appear at the end of this column.


CHILE VOTES NO ... Itki was a sad day for progressives in Chile as the country overwhelmingly voted down a new Constitution to replace the one crafted by the dictator Gen. Pinochet and, unfortunately, still now in effect after this election. Read what the Guardian of Britain had to say about itki HERE.

QUOTABLE ... "My favorite definition of poetry has always been from Ezra Pound: 'language charged with meaning.' slightly repurposed from ABC of Reading; packing twice, maybe ten times as much into as many words as the party smalltalk line. A poet might use tropes and allusions to accomplish this, but ultimately the most powerful tool they can use is the musical sound of the words themselves" ... By Colorado poet Uche Ogbuji, from his newsletter, Loomiverse 

TALKING GOURD ... Found this lovely poem online at Silver Birch Press’s “How To Heal the Earth” series. Mistakes are how we learn and Mary McCarthy does both in a most moving way. We had a passionflower vine at one of the houses I lived at as a youth. It is a stunningly beautiful plant. Find out more about Silver Birch Press HERE.

Gulf Fritillary on Passionflowers (Photo by Gwillhickers).

MY MISTAKE


When an army of hungry

orange and black caterpillars

stripped bare half

my passion flower vine

almost overnight

I saw nothing but

their ravenous appetite

their warning armor

of black spikes.

I pulled them off

one by one 

the way I would pluck

big green hornworms

from my tomato plants,

and crush them with

a booted foot.

Too late I learned

these were the larva

of the Gulf Fritillary

butterfly, a beauty,

and passion flower vine

not merely its favorite

but its only host.

How could I refuse them

their necessary food

after planting milkweed

for the monarchs,

shunning pesticides

and fertilizers,

learning to love

those humble plants

whose virtues go unnoticed

because they are not showy?

I had no excuse

for extermination,

doubly wrong

because even this hungry army

can only curb, not end

the rampant growth

of its chosen host

limiting its kudzu ambitions

enough to allow recovery–

While my murderous efficiency

could upset the essential

balance, worm and vine,

lives so absolutely

intertwined.

Mary McCarthy is a retired Registered Nurse who has always been a writer. Her work has appeared in many journals and anthologies, most recently in The Plague Papers, edited by Robbi Nester, The Ekphrastic World, edited by Lorette Luzajic, the latest issue of Earth’s Daughters and Third Wednesday. She has been a Best of the Net and a Pushcart nominee. Her digital chapbook is available as a free download from Praxis magazine.




Meredith Nemirov facing camera and her artist partner Jorge  Roberto Anchondo on the far right  were among the many attendees at the Trace Gallery for Ed Werner's show during Ridgway's First Friday Art Walk.


2 comments:

Comments welcome and civil dialogue encouraged