"Suspend" oil and silver leaf, 10"x10" by Bridget Bossart van Otterloo, inspired by the poem below: 

Sic habebis glorium totius mundi*

by Rhonda Morton

Black widow rounds her legs above her head,

a halo circling delicate fangs.

She suspends judgment.

For now.

She is simply waiting

to spin me, you,

into a straight and knotted fate.

The great neuroscientist

Karl Friston is her friend.

He says

everything alive acts

to reduce the difference

between expectation and experience.

Karl and the widow agree:

we are here

to eliminate

surprise.

Fate is a blanket over our heads,

a suffocating repeating weave,

indecipherable dots and dashes

burned onto our souls.

How much glory can I stand?

How much grace?

What happens if I drop a stitch,

dive into the pitch,

collapse a different wave?

I could pledge the gumption

to become

a blue crescent moon spooling from the sun.

Ribs breathing golden arrows.

A pyramid whirling back to angel spit and dust.

I look at where the thread goes.

As above, so below.

I throw away the needle.

Choose to scatter thistle seed instead.

*You will understand the glory of the whole world

 This poem and painting are part of a "Year Long Celebration of Poetry" project organized by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes, culminating in our current exhibit. Please join us for a closing Reception on Thursday, July 11, 2019.

 

 Game of Telephone

Conversations in Poetry and Art

On view through July 14, 2019

Reception: July 11, 2019

6-8pm

Carey's Brew House

The classic childhood "game of telephone" has been given an artful twist in the unique exhibit, Game of Telephone: Conversations in Poetry and Art.

To kick off National Poetry Month in April of 2018 The ARTS Council worked with poet, Michael Czarnecki, who wrote a poem to start a year-long Game of Telephone in the arts. Michael's poem was given to a visual artist who created a piece inspired by the poem and then the visual art was given to the next poet, who created a poem inspired by the artwork. This continued on for a year with the artists and poets seeing only the piece that came immediately before them.

The culmination of this project is on exhibit at Carey's Brew House in Corning with a reception on Thursday, July 11th from 6:00 - 8:00pm. Everyone is invited to this free event. All artworks will be available for purchase. Come see what one poem turned into over the course of a year!

Free and Open to the Public

Featured Poets Akua Lezli Hope Casey Winston Connie Sullivan-Blum Edward Dougherty Lafayette Wattles Michael Czarnecki Rhonda Morton Steve Coffman Featured Visual Artists Amelia Fais Harnas Bob Ievers Bridget Bossart van Otterloo Bronson Burdick Chris Walters Laura Charles Yolanda Daliz