A child makes a few marks and is showered with praise.
“Such promise! I’m amazed!”
A grown man must be famous, dull, or refined.
“What is it? Why is he wasting my time?”
Canvas 1,235 — June 15, 2019
[ 421 ]
Drawings
Some are flowers, bleeding at the stems.
Some are frost on windowpanes.
Some are haunted, some reserved.
A westbound bus on a sun-blind curve.
Some look back when you least expect it.
A lightning flash. A winding path.
A baby bird.
Canvas 367 — March 4, 2014
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Some Are Flowers — Canvas 367
In 2017, on the tenth day of June, two drawings were made.
I have no other record of that day — unless, perhaps,
I were to go back and examine the month’s bank statement.
If we went anywhere, or spent any money,
I like to think it was for strawberries.
Canvas 921
Canvas 922
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Canvases 921 and 922
To take a lifetime to write it, even when it appears quickly and suddenly on the page.
To discover how deep are its roots, and how bright its leaves.
To see the space around it, the light behind it, and the shadows it casts.
To listen to it breathe.
To marvel at its strength, in a savage and brutal age.
To die for it, if that’s what it takes.
To read through the fire, and write from the grave.
Canvas 1,207 — May 10, 2018
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The Sentence — Canvas 1,207
In front of his house, near the door,
a neighbor not far from here
has small replicas of the statues on Easter Island.
Every day, I walk a lifetime through the sand to find them.
Among the Ruins — April 16, 2009
Canvas 917 — June 1, 2017
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Among the Ruins — Canvas 917
Es él distinguida por la vida imaginaria —
o, “Sin molinos de viento, su mundo no es más que un sombrero divertido.”
(Con disculpas á Cervantes)
Canvas 913 — May 30, 2017
[ 405 ]
Canvas 913 — With Apologies
Well done, ax-man, friend. Now look closely.
Beneath the bark of my experience are my growth rings.
And I will be back again.
Canvas 501 — January 1, 2015
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Canvas 501 — Tree Spirit
Canvas 389 — As a Cloud
As a Cloud If I identify with the idea of myself to the point of paralysis, the world becomes a bottle of pills at my bedside, one to be taken every four to six hours for the duration of my illness. My breath is labored, my vision skewed. Visitors leave tsk-tsking and shaking their heads. If I see myself as a cloud, and watch as I change shape and fade […]
Canvas 910 — Gratitude
Gratitude To fall up, as any bird might that has just been nudged from the nest. May 10, 2019 [ 381 ]
Canvas 686 — A Growing Fool
A Growing Fool On the rare occasions it was warranted, I was thrilled to wear a tie my father had long since banished to a far corner of the closet, so much out of style it was that it was a new style all its own, wide and long enough to serve as vest or bib, wild enough to please the choosiest of adolescent clowns. I had big shoes. […]
William Michaelian 