In Response
a secular artist’s prayer
I listen
to these stories
you have come
to tell
with your songs
and your poems
and your dance
I listen
to these stories
that you’ve worked
with your clay
and your paint
claimed
with your chisel
I listen
to these stories
that you’ve caught
with your lens
or your brush
or your words
stitched
with your cloth
and wrought
with your iron
or your silver
or your gold
that you’ve cast
with your light
and your silence
and your sound
these stories that
you’ve drawn
with your body
and your voice
and your heart
I listen
to these stories
to feel something new
to hear
or see
or think
something new
some
thing
new
perhaps
remember
re member
something new
I listen to these stories
to be
something new
* * *
I listen
to these stories
that
I
can tell
with my clay
and paint
and light
with my silence
and my sound
that I can weave
with my body
and my voice
and my heart
I make
these stories
I can tell
that you might feel
something new
that you might
hear
or see
or think
something new
perhaps
remember
re member
something new
I tell
these stories
that
we
might
be
some
thing
new
November 2010
IN RESPONSE
Extracts from IN RESPONSE, an anthology of my poetry
During an innovative workshop or a creative activity like dancing, images and impressions sometimes bubble up to the surface unbidden.
My training is in theatre and improvisation; performance is my dominant mode of artistic expression. I have an impulse to perform these thoughts; to speak the words aloud.
illustration
by Sally McKay © 2011
photograph
by Heather Hansen © 2011
in response | two
kintsugi
in Japan
there is an ancient
tradition of repairing
an earthenware vessel
with a seam of gold
fragile precious pot
made new
stitch stitch stitch
when I mend myself
when I put the pieces
back together
when I close the site
of an excision
or an accidental cut
the edges never
meet just right
there will always be a mark
a silver keloidal seam
or deep tissue cording
I will not be the same
I cannot be unchanged
I will bear the
scarification
of damage done
June 2018