poetic inquiry (1)

And once inside, this photo captures much of what I found evocative during my stay so far in this space... The art piece (3 by 4 ft) of a black bear and human hand with a blue berry... on knee level.... This was the image that I found difficult to engage for the first while but then by day five I was able to get into it... I like the reflections on the glass cover over this print (entitled: "Blueberry", Oct. 1981, 8/10 print, artist illegible but begins with a 'W')....

Yes, this large print has one piece of color, a small blueberry in blue color in the human hand.... now, just take time if you will to imagine and interpret what this image might be communicating. I found it had so many many layers it was overwhelming.... but as usual, I just begin to work with it using spontaneous reflective writing and then began to add in the quotes I had recorded from many of Pete's books taken at (near) random from his shelves.... 

The following is the poetic inquiry (one of a series, I suspect) where I take the "random" quotes on fear and fearlessness that I found in Pete's book collection and then interspersed them with my own reflections on the "Blueberry" art piece in the living room. I am quite happy with the result in this first of what I'm calling BLACK N' BLUE MAN-I-PULATION. You can see what you get out of this poetic collage.... let me know if you like. I may write more in depth about this later. 

Black n’ Blue[1] Man-i-Pulation-1

 

They streamed fearless

from the forest[2] chanting

it is bravado

to believe that we are now immune to these killers[3]

 

desireless—virtually unmoved the beast of fears

shadows over the in-sighting of its seller

man-i-pulation

black-blue eco-stabilitation

a million, no a billion

years

well

 

without

the

hand

of the

free

 

As we continued up the long aisle

the choir began

to sing

‘Be Not Afraid’[4] as artist-curator

animal-human

tandem taught

 

the

lessons:

at the level

of our

knees

 

growth and resilience

an e-con-amie

singing:

have you ever been afraid of growing up?[5]

 

this in itself was enough

autoethnographically speaking,

enough

enough

enough

to evoke in us

children

a deep

sense

of pity and fear[6]

 

spherical terror-laden

stained of natural

blue ink

 

on the eyebrow

 

of the white-saited sheets….

 

 

 

 

delicate evolved

homo-fingerlings

holding

the

blue pearl

of want

a man-i-pulation

 

desireless instinct

population-- one

left

 

only

this

one

earth

 

archetypal

proportion

 

--relational

 

--this fear about inequality

won’t

wash

either[7]

 

much fear is

learned

 

animals also

learn

fear

to

avoid

pain[8]

 

many island species have calmly

met

 

their doom

through

 

fearlessness[9]

 

 

 

-R. Michael Fisher

June 5, 2015

 



[1] Inspired by the home library, the art piece (“Blueberry” by artist ‘W’(?), Oct. 1981, print 8 out of 10) in apartment 709 of Pete Sarsfield, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.

[2] Excerpt (p. 150), from Whitt, L. (2010). Tecumseh’s return: the quakes of 1811-12. Prairie Fire, 31(3), 149-50.

[3] Excerpt (p. xii), from Garrett, L. (2000). Betrayal of trust: The collapse of global public health. NY: Hyperion.

[4] Excerpt (p. 19), from Corkum, T. (2010). Notes toward a film about my childhood. Prairie Fire, 31(2), 17-27.

[5] Ibid., p. 19.

[6] Excerpt (p. 162), from Mitchell, J. H. (1990). Living at the end of time. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

[7] Excerpt (p. 259), from Gould, S. J. (2003). The hedgehog, the fox, and the magister’s box: Mending the gap between science and the humanities. NY: Harmony Books.

[8] Excerpts (pp. 53, 50), from Masson, J. M., and McCarthy, S. (1995). When elephants weep: The emotional lives of animals. NY: Delacorte Press.

[9] Excerpt (p. 61), from Livingston, J. A. (1994). Rogue primate: An exploration of human domestication. Toronto, ON: Key Porter Books.

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