Revival

March 19, 2018April 28, 2018 ~ Mia ~ Copper Cranes ~ 88 Comments

Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963). Photographer Unknown

Revival
Death of a Messenger

A never-ending performance
Of the darkest night
Has its swan song
With vapid glee
The black curtain’s enormity
Comes down
To an ovation, withstanding
The joys of life
Culminating in pulpit suits
Hats and bourbon
Decent and indecent
Upright and lipstick
Face down and flat out
Clouds of camphor and hypocrisy
Waft through stale air
As ghosts in need
Slip through cracks
Empty-handed, giftless
Greeting Gods
On the other side of tomorrow

“I am terrified by this dark thing that sleeps in me.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Collected Poems

Sylvia Plath reading ‘A Birthday Present’ * *

The Understudy

March 12, 2018May 13, 2018 ~ Mia ~ Copper Cranes ~ 67 Comments

Ellen Rogers Photography

The Understudy

Waiting for sleep to take hold
My mind circles like vultures
Canvassing for a carcass
I scribe myself in line and lifelines
Glossy black and blue
Over flat white: hesitant and anemic
I swing like a bladed pendulum
Between false certainty
And self-doubt while wondering
If I’m my own greatest creation
My own worst critic
Or my own careless curator
Stumbling in awkward curtsy
Trading secrets for currency

“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath *

For more about photographer Ellen Rogers please click on the link to visit the wonderfully surreal world of Mr. Cake to see his post, “Bewitched”.

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Venus de Milo

March 4, 2018April 29, 2018 ~ Mia ~ Copper Cranes ~ 44 Comments

Photographer Sally Mann

Venus de Milo

Front and forward
In vintage light
Her alabaster skin
And sun-kissed hair
Glowed brighter than the rest
There’s no denying
Among the crowd
Of same-old, same-old
She stood out
At five, late afternoon
Poised with confidence
Obvious swag and personality
Born with provocative gesture
Shoulder thrown back with la-di-da motion
Hip turned out in told-you-so pivot
Brows tipped down
In thoughtful calculation
She was and always would be
The cat that swallowed the canary

“I like to make people a little uncomfortable. It encourages them to examine who they are and why they think the way they do.”
― Sally Mann

Video — “Sally Mann” *

Fortieth Day

February 26, 2018April 28, 2018 ~ Mia ~ Copper Cranes ~ 61 Comments

Francesca Woodman Untitled Rome 1977-78. Perhaps it should be titled, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”

Fortieth Day
100 Words

Thaw, the fifth and final season, follows in muffled white steps behind Winter. It wakes like a charging bull with a caustic rage, unleashing pent-up black thoughts, sullied emotions, and questions of sanity: leaving you fully exposed to blind spots told in epitaph. It’s the cruelest season with the chilling betrayal of your own frostbitten hands beating you down, down to nothing, down to less than nothing. When you realize you’ve had enough you find yourself channeling the iconic genius, Francesca Woodman hanging from the door casing before a final leap of faith into the unknown: leaving a void forevermore.

“The joy that isn’t shared dies young.”
― Anne Sexton

Video — “ARTIST ROOM – Francesca Woodman” * *

Dove

February 19, 2018April 28, 2018 ~ Mia ~ Copper Cranes ~ 66 Comments

Photographer Sarah Moon

Dove

With fragile ankles
We turn on pointed toe
Extricating ourselves
From the lukewarm rubble

“I can bear any pain as long as it has meaning.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

Sarah Blasko – “Bird On A Wire” *

East

February 12, 2018June 21, 2018 ~ Mia ~ Copper Cranes ~ 64 Comments

Photographer Erich Hartmann

East

Reduction, a man-made affliction: the queue that holds abundant room for cruel intentions and harsh realities. Snapshots of the transparent and apparent blanket everything with a blasé gesso malaise when properly prepared hushes questions of right, leaving blank stares as empty armless hugs, known as the huddle: an odd semblance of warmth. The Deplorables distinguished as righteous, the righteous disguised as deplorable share in the madness and madness: a never-ending role of one in the sameness.

“It’s sickening how The Machine treats the individual parts.”
— June Gloom, The Gray Zone

Balthazar – “The Man Who Owns The Place” *