That nothing remains but honey-colored marble and red cinnabar is at least a sign of life. Why have I spent all of this time writing? Don’t I have the courage to do what has to be done? Continue Reading »
Ivory highlights in cinnabar water, silver shimmers when I touch the surface with my fingertips. A gull drifts too close and I look up into sunlight, splintered into smithereens. Like an arrow from a bow the pink hibiscus blossoms die within a single afternoon. Whitecaps spike the wind, all afternoon they leap as water drips from the stone,… Continue Reading »
Today, while we were driving on the backroads of Tinos, I saw a sign for a temple to Aurora, goddess of the dawn, and I suddenly remembered an overnight bus ride thirty years ago to meet my family for Christmas in St. Louis, Missouri. Two books about journeys I’d always wanted to read were Homer’s… Continue Reading »
Must I doubt before I know, or will doubt kill all knowing? —Nizami Arudi (c. 1110, Persian) I want her to be other than she is. I want her to be who she is, but I want her to be other than who she is. Continue Reading »
I can identify Beethoven’s piano sonatas playing in the apartment three roofs distant. Her window is open and she is preparing dinner, slicing onion by the sink. The fat notes of the sonatas float through the open window and drift over the dusty rooftops to my porch, overlooking the Acropolis, just before sunset. If I… Continue Reading »
Look, and pass by.—Dante We walked to the summit, the pewter bay below us a mirror for the sun. At the very summit we could see coming toward us, turned white by the setting sun, raindrops. It was dry this morning but what of that? No matter how high we climb we cannot get above the… Continue Reading »
Written on My Porch, Overlooking the Parthenon For the Greek tragedians it was tragedy, tragedy, tragedy and then a satyr play. Continue Reading »
All things feel.–Pythagoras The bay is calm tonight— the crescent moon swims half an hour before it slides under. It will be brave again tomorrow but tonight it has been conquered by a wave. Continue Reading »
Leaving Athens Must I doubt before I know, or will doubt kill all knowing? —Nizami Arudi (c. 1110, Persian) What I leave behind is nothing more than my reflection in her mirror. Continue Reading »
Outside the permanent exhibit of the work of Sol LeWitt at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, there’s an hour-long film about his work. Throughout most of the interview, LeWitt is reticent and a bit bored and uncomfortable at being encouraged to talk about his art. He only gets excited at three points. The first… Continue Reading »