Inspired
Poetry inspired by my time with Anthony Brandl
I recently caught up with my friend and artist Anthony Brandl. We have a conversation about the role of art and philosophy in our communities in episode 15 of the podcast.
Throughout the years my creativity has ebbed and flowed. I’ve put my career in front of my writing and poetry. With my personal revival of creativity and revisiting the poetry I wrote 10-plus years ago, I read through much of the poetry I wrote during the years Tony and I were laying on the floor of my den reading and writing. As I mention in the intro to our conversation, I am eternally grateful to Tony for encouraging my creativity. Naturally, as a result, he inspired poems I wrote between 2010 and now.
The poems that follow here are birthed in that friendship in one way or another. I include some backstories for context.
Just 1 Memory
suggested, enacted
adjusted exposure
crooked sky
threading,
tulip tree betrayal
Dear-
I thought you said-
the aftermath of experience is choice.
Tony and I spent days on end at Brookgreen Gardens in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina. It is one of my favorite places in the world and holds the most beautiful memories for me. We often would spend the day strolling the gardens photographing sculptures then spend the afternoon under a tree in one of the fields; writing and napping. This poem, Just 1 Memory was born from one of the photography sessions and this Tulip Tree we laid under and snapped pictures.
For the Winged
Dawning dissonance
Coax the matriarchal sun
Your ritual rite
Haiku. I wrote this over 10 years ago while sitting on the deck with Tony listening to the birds carry on during and early morning.
Cemetary of Stories
cannot believe I went back for some of that stuff-
stuff-
like things.
did you whisper ‘innocuous’?
perhaps-
perhaps everyone you know is just that-
and all their bullshit stories deserve
non-descript burials.
perhaps-
everyone you know just isn’t that.
Tony explains how the story blocks that make up the Rabbit Hero work so that each individual can create their own Rabbit Hero Saga. He once gifted me a story block with the title of Cemetary of Stories on the back, I wrote this in response.
Tony and I would take long walks throughout the low country of South Carolina and the coast of North Carolina. Getting out in nature and taking a walk, moving your body helps circulate blood, thus helping in unblocking your creativity; but it also gives you a new perspective and an opportunity to live the life experiences that will color your creativity. Photo Credit: Rebecca Dehl
White Owl Sculpture
sun baking his spine a bleached white-
hollowed out blackbird-
guess I shouldn’t have taken the shortcut
home-
to find the package
you called to say would be waiting-
wisdom, you said, I could hold in the palm of my hand.
Purchased Photograph
I caught Libby smiling, before dawn.
The stove’s guiding light offers to reveal the abstruseness of her.
Libby- leaning against the far wall- smoking the same cigarette from last night, from the day before, from decades before, the one from our childhoods.
* * *
He bought her- black n’ white, Sunday’ing in the park or waiting for the fireworks, on a grass mat, content, smiling- from the backroom of a shop we ducked into.
Tony and I found a photograph of a young woman in the back of an antique store. I still have this photograph, that had been blown up by someone who loved this woman to about 13 by 11. We know her name was Libby because it is handwritten at the bottom. Libby is currently boxed up in my storage unit. She was the inspiration for a short handmade chapbook Tony and I made one summer and these are a few of the poems her photo inspired.
Libby
She was two parts- merry
two parts- tired.
Winding would-be-lovers through city streets, catching her own reflection in their eyes, with the savoriness of poetry & cigarettes.
This is the truth, whether you admit it or not, Libby is every mysterious woman we will ever meet, but exactly who you are looking for.