Inspired by Painting

Sometimes you find an artist who expresses your deepest feelings, even feelings you didn't have a name for before.  Lin Liang Feng is one of those artists for me.  These are words inspired by his latest paintings posted on AliveNotDead.

Who are you to paint such things?

Tell me tonight in my dreams,

I will be waiting.

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Kite Day

Yesterday I flew a kite for the first time in over 30 years.  I'm not sure I ever had this much fun flying a kite before.  I work in the administrative section of a children's early intervention and mental health program, serving children birth to five.  One of our programs is a child care center for children 2-5.  In this center, we have 50 percent of the population who is typically developing (meaning...Read more

Dark Blue History

Some days we belong to our past more than to the present.  Depending on our relationship with the past, memory can be a a pleasant place to revisit, or it can be a barren land that you tried to leave years ago.  I wrote this poem grappling with the hold emotion from the past has over me and my sadness over still being a prisoner of this past from time to time.  It is a poem written from a place of little hope.  I used to dwell there full time. These days I only visit  occasionally and, thankfully, it feels like an alien land that is no long...Read more

Rouge

I just saw Stanley Kwan's "Rouge", starring Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung, again tonight.  Such a heartbreaking tale of tragic love and fate.  The story of the whore, Fleur, and her lover, Master 12 is such a tender and tragic story.  Every scene with Fleur and Master 12 in the world of pre-WWII Hong Kong is filled with light, color and vivid sound.  All of the scenes set in modern times are grey, one-dimensional, dim and hollow.  What passes for modern love is so pale in comparison (quite literally) with the depth of passion felt by the ot...Read more

Wanting what I cannot have

I have noticed that I have felt dissatisfied at different times today.  Whenever I'm aware of that slightly frustrated feeling of things not being right, I stop and check in to see what's really going on with me.  Then I notice this common refrain: "I want".  But the things I want today are not easy to attain.  They take time and money that I just don't have right now.  In terms of money, I may never have the money required to fulfill many of my wants, such as travel, buying books, collecting art.  I have spen...Read more

Daniel Lanois

Daniel Lanois is one of my favorite musicians.  His music has always combined an earthy sensuality with spiritual yearning.  In his most recent works, he has given greater prominence to his spiritual side.  The music on "Shine", "Belladonna" and "Rockets" inspired me to write these three poems.  If you follow the links to Danny's website and listen to the compositions before reading the poems, I think the imagery will be a bit more intelligible.  It was difficult for me to write about something belonging to the...Read more

Shanghai of your dreams

Three Alivenotdead artists collaborated on a fascinating photo series inspired by prewar Shanghai of gangsters, scoundrels, fast women and broken dreams.  Photographer Wing Shya,  stylist Sean K, and printmaker Danny Chau (also a photographer in his own right) have created a gorgeous series of photographs setting dramatic and beautiful scenarios in  Xintiandi, Shanghai . The subdued  lightening and sepia toned images  invoke films such as Shanghai Grand and Temptress Moon. 

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Into the Soul of Tango

Since Friday evening I have been immersed in Argentine Tango.  Not the tango you might have seen on Dancing With the Stars (in its various international permutations) but the real social dance as danced in Buenos Aires.  My local tango community hosted the lovely and talented Alicia Pons, milonguera extraordinaire, for a weekend of workshops and milongas (social dances).  I have been dancing Argen...Read more

It's Spring

Today I heard my first spring peepers.  This means it is really spring.  Spring peepers are small chorus frogs that come out on mass when the ground reaches a certain temperature and congregate in shallow pools of water (ponds and drainage ditches, mostly) and sing their hearts out calling for a mate.  Thousands of them singing together make a deafening high-pitched chirping roar that can be heard a quarter mile away.  The first daffodils are blooming in my yard, as is the bush honeysuckle.  Quince and forsythia are also in bloom around town....Read more

Allen and Son Barbecue

Allen and Son Barbecue is a local barbecue joint near Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  It is famous for its traditional pit-cooked Eastern North Carolina style barbecue.  North Carolina is home to the most scrumptious barbecue I have ever eaten.  There are a few requirements for something to be considered Eastern North Carolina style barbecue.  First off, barbecue is always pork, ideally pit roasted ...Read more