2018
Drawing is being born, and the artist is the child,
already on to other things.
Canvas 1,180
[ 17 ]
Now and Then
Or the time after the war my father walked the horse and plow several miles to the north side of town and another farm to do a job for two dollars — that plow there behind the house, surrounded by next year’s bluebells, if you can imagine them — or him, smiling at his good fortune and at the vineyard beyond — less one brother. Or just the other day, […]
And You Will Be Blessed
Somewhere, in this very moment, there is a peach ripening, and somehow it will find you and drive you mad. And you will be blessed to forget the rest, everything you have thought, and done, and feared, and said. If this seems a riddle, it is. If you prefer strawberries, go right ahead. That is where joy comes in. It is like standing in a waterfall while receiving guests. Come […]
And Man first appeared in Primitive: Selected Drawings in Pixel, Pencil & Pen, in 2010.
It was slightly altered and shared online in its present form in 2017.
And Man
[ 14 ]
And Man
River Country
We parked in the lot near the immense black walnut tree. Its shade is dense this time of year, the moss on its massive trunk and lower branches still green. We’ve seen it in all seasons. We’ve seen it bare in winter, and in its golden profundity in fall. And it’s clear in its presence that wisdom isn’t something one seeks, because it is here. And only the mind is […]
Canvas 927 and Canvas 928 first appeared in Recently Banned Literature.
They were later included in the Fall 2017 issue of Akitsu Quarterly.
Another drawing and a very short poem will be published in the Fall 2018 issue.
Canvas 927
Canvas 928
[ 12 ]
Two Drawings
Joyous, Loud, and Something Else
Coffee on, I was reading near the open front window this morning at a little after four, when a robin started singing, either from the lush volunteer cedar near the walk, or from the roof, or from the tall juniper directly across from the window and behind the dahlias. I couldn’t quite tell, but its voice was so joyous and so loud, all I could do was stop and listen. […]
Glen Ragsdale, Detail, 1973
This is a detail from an untitled painting by a close friend of mine, Glen Ragsdale. It was done in 1973 when the artist was seventeen, about a year before he died of cancer. When he finished the painting, he framed it and sold it to my parents for forty dollars because he was short about that much money for his car insurance. After he passed away, a showing […]
Long Train
By winding path and riverbed, prickly plant and honey shed, the thoughts you thought you hid, but can’t. [ 9 ]
Ink and Pen
How a bird about to sing, instinctively seeks the highest branch. How a bell about to ring, shivers at the hand. How a joy about to be, has always been. How you are the bird, the song, the branch, the bell, The sound, the hand, the joy, The now, the when. And how, and then, in one last breath, You put it down, and pick it up, and […]
William Michaelian 