NATIONAL POETRY MONTH: 2017
MARY C. LEONARD
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After Seeing
Figures, Colors First: Fransje Killars Mass Moca © Mary C. Leonard My memory--the fabric shop the cutting table,
the dusty choke of fabric bolts Mom's voice, don't forget, nose to end of arm for a yard! Not the neon pink stripes of this installation not the green and black hearts, in long lines of aqua poplin Not the textured lime lace not the mannequins veiled in saffron silks This-- our sewing room gingham and rickrack skirts packs of Vogue and Simplicity This-- pinning the thin skin of patterns the whirr of the Singer sewing machine and standing doll-still for fittings This-- be careful of how the fabric runs, Be careful of plaids, they have to line up! I exit the exhibit, wrapping my head in an aqua and emerald scarf, throwing the ends over my shoulders. letting it go crazy in unmatched plaids. |
The WORD For Spring - En/Ein
(From Chapbook: Twenty-first Century Flint) © Mary C. Leonard Blue divides land from sea and the Dead Sea divides Israel from Jordan and in this composition, acrylic on canvas, Farouk Hosyny, Egyptian, divides with a black slash like a road, a wadi, an en, an ein.
Remarks I am out of it. We hiked at Ein Gedi and I held my breath as I climbed up rocks, focusing on sky, clouds, anything out of range, but the sun was too close and my own body betrayed me with dizziness as if I were both Arab and Jew living on the edge. I am out of it. We hiked along the black slash of the wadi and I could feel myself losing balance as if I were walking on circus stilts across a divide and the upside down V of my legs, ^, slipped away like language between enemies. Wadi--An Arab Word (Water once ran in this dry riverbed. Now rocks plummet to a depth of black space.) En/Ein--Hebrew for spring Berekha--pool Ermeq--valley Gesher--bridge Ma’yan--spring Mappal--waterfall I am out of it. I choke on these words, stumble over Chalcolithic ruins, wild goats, hydraxes, ibexes, 6000 years. Saul pursued David here. The guidebook says, This is just a mini-tour. Gesture The black slash divides the canvas but thrusts upward like the trunk of a tree, rooted in an earth hiding ruin over ruin, and the blue gesture moves to frame and soften, circling back like an arm of life. And that small black v pushes me into the white space of the distant clouds. A false security. Language And conflict is like the code of tic-tac-toe, pencil marks of x’s and o’s played to the death, and all that remains is a black slash. And those V’s? I drew birds as V’s in first grade, graceful, small, large, always in black crayon pressing them hard, so that they could fly, in and out of the birdhouse, the sky, imitating the language of teachers who reduced birds to V’s. In this composition, the black V is a simple mark at the center, leading my eye to a white space, as if to say, For one moment, can’t we see beyond our histories, fall like brothers into the clean white of folded clouds? |
Mary C. Leonard is a poet, humorist, teacher and journalist. Her poems, essays, short fiction, and mixed genre pieces have been published in numerous journals, including Hubbub, The Chronogram and Blotterature. She is also the author of four chapbooks. Mary was a finalist in the Hill-Stead Museum's Poetry Contest, and she won first prize in the Lucy Cady Lamphier Contest. Mary has recently been selected as a winner of the Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize. Winners will be participating in a reading on Sunday, May 7th, 2017 at 1:30 p.m. at the Town of Colonie Library, just outside of Albany, NY.
Mary has been a dedicated teacher for decades and is known to leave an indelible impression on her students. She has taught at every level, from public high school to Trinity College in Hartford, CT. Since 1988, she has been an associate of the Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College, where she taught incoming freshmen in the Language and Thinking program from 1990 through 1998. She also teaches a summer program for students in grades 10 through 12 at Bard College at Simon's Rock. The Young Writers Workshop is now part of the National Writing and Thinking Network, the largest consortium of summer writing programs in the country.
Mary has been a dedicated teacher for decades and is known to leave an indelible impression on her students. She has taught at every level, from public high school to Trinity College in Hartford, CT. Since 1988, she has been an associate of the Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College, where she taught incoming freshmen in the Language and Thinking program from 1990 through 1998. She also teaches a summer program for students in grades 10 through 12 at Bard College at Simon's Rock. The Young Writers Workshop is now part of the National Writing and Thinking Network, the largest consortium of summer writing programs in the country.
For more of Mary's work, see "Love Letters" published in Compose.
