Part 2, Poets Speaking To Poets

This is my second poem included in the anthology “Poets Speaking To Poets: Echoes and Tributes” – the brainchild of editors Robert Hamblin and Nicholas Fargnoli and is a tribute to poet Jane Kenyon. It first appeared in my chapbook “Irresistible”. Imagine my surprise to be handed a brochure about the artist Jane Kenyon during a walk one day!  Referenced in the first stanza are various titles from her striking works and in the second are titles and lines from the poet – fun to do and which would be evident to any reader already familiar with the poet’s work; however I wanted to give equal footing to the lesser known artist, whose exhibition theme echoed so many of Jane Kenyon’s poems. The artist didn’t begin her career in visual art until 1993, two years before the poet died. Though the poet was born in 1947 and the artist in 1953, they probably didn’t know each other. You can find out more about the artist here

The book is a wonderful collection of poems that talk to each other through poets past and present. It’s available on Amazon here and also here.  

Jane Kenyon Lives Again

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as an abstract painter in my neighbourhood,
“Yielding to Transience” the theme of her
current exhibition, according to the pamphlet.
It’s that simple, the only life we have we’ll lose
in a neon nose dive or the drift of gradual surrender.

My Jane, who briefly entered and briefly spoke
in poems—having it out with melancholy—
said Let evening come and it did, under cover
of leukemia, far too soon. Wish it were otherwise.
A moody harvest, those notes from the other side.

Now there’ll be a conflux of Janes when I see
one’s art, read the other’s poem. A conjuration—
open sesame into the chambers of two hearts.
The amazing echoes, bone’s signature marrow
waving its wand again, sweet Om on the tongue.

Another poem from my chapbook “Irresistible”, available from Finishing Line Press here and also from Amazon hereAnd do check out this link to the artist Jane Kenyon’s site: hereShe also has a Facebook page, titled Jane Kenyon Art Studio. Of course I had to write a poem about this synchronicity – what’s in a name anyway?

 

 

 

Just in Time

“Just in Time”, Painting by Lenore Conacher

My poem “Just in Time”, inspired by this painting by Lenore Conacher, is now up at https://mockingheartreview.com/volume-2-issue-3/lynne-burnett/ with many other gems. Many thanks to editor Clare Martin for including it! Lenore Conacher was a Gibsons, BC artist whose work I had the good fortune to see firsthand and whose “Time” series led to a collaboration of sorts: 17 poems for 17 paintings!