Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Linda at TeacherDance for Roundup.
It's the story of Alabama outsider artist Lois Wilson (1905-1980) and her journey—from sharecropper beginnings to the trash piles of New York City and back to Fayette, Alabama, where 2,500 of her works are housed. Lois created art from discarded items: plastic lids, table legs, drawer parts, even a toilet seat!
Anything can be art.
Meanwhile, today's ArtSpeak: WOMEN poem is after Yayoi Kusama's Mushrooms. Talk about whimsy! I think Lois and Yayoi are somewhere right now creating art together.
I have previously shared poems after art by both these women:
When I Ride My Bike in Spring (Lois Wilson)
A Polkadot Poem (Yayoi Kusama)
Thanks so much for reading!
Forest Wake
moon or no moon
mushrooms pop their tents
while some of us sleep,
some of us keen
they work in determined silence
soon a campfire ring
blazes the trail—
drifters
dancing with the dead
Oh, I love the title "Forest Wake" and how your poem gorgeously leans into the dual meanings, Irene! Congrats on your micropress project, which also looks amazing!!! xo
ReplyDeleteI do think Lois and Yayoi are finding each other somehow--probably on the Piazza della Iconoclastas! (Not sure why I think the afterlife speaks Italian, but I am sure that I don't.) I like how you hint at the drifting spores of mushrooms--the dead and the live. Your micropress project looks very fun!
ReplyDeleteHow interesting to hear about Lois Wilson -- have fun tomorrow sharing about the new book!! Love your mushrooms poem; Kusama's work is so distinctive and I like how you've added another layer of meaning to this piece. Love the idea of mushrooms popping their tents. :)
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