By Mary Dezember
A Review from Dr. Dezember’s View

Strong poetry, at its essence, is a musical, soul-event revealing originality and insight.

• The musicality of originality can come when the poet dedicates time to crafting.

• The musicality of insight can come when the poet allows the poem to lead.

Poet Hiram Larew accomplishes both.

Hiram’s fifth collection, Mud Ajar (Atmosphere Press, 2021), is a stellar achievement in the musicality of originality and insight.

You can discover these poems in any or all of the following four ways, all of which are a delight:

1. Listen to the audio book recording narrated and produced by T. A. Niles.

2. Read the poems aloud yourself.

3. Read the poems silently and allow your eyes to “hear” the music.

4. Read the poems in the book as you listen to the recording by T. A. Niles.

By Mary Dezember, Ph.D.

From Dr. Dezember’s View

Old Town Albuquerque, central to the arts and culture of Albuquerque, has a long tradition of mural art.

As an Old Town area resident, an arts scholar and arts and creativity advocate, I was shocked to learn that:

• the tradition of Old Town Albuquerque mural art is being threatened,

• two particular murals are being targeted for destruction,

• all murals might be destroyed.
  

Here, I am sharing a brief opinion piece with the following call to action to officially recognize:

• Old Town Albuquerque as central to Albuquerque’s art, culture and history;

• Murals in Old Town are integral to the strong tradition of murals within Albuquerque and must be designated as protected art;
  

• Existing murals in Old Town not be targeted for destruction;
  

• Clear guidelines for additional mural art in Old Town Albuquerque—after a series of public discussion and with by arts and culture personnel added to the Landmarks Commission and with well-documented research—are created and are widely and effectively disseminated.

Additionally, I will make a statement about public art.

After That Day

Poem by Mary Dezember

Achille-Claude Debussy is my favorite composer and Arthur Rimbaud is my favorite poet. There is another connection between these two artistic visionaries besides being my favs…

When they were children, Debussy and Rimbaud were guests at the same time in the same home—that of Debussy’s music teacher and her husband. Also living in the home was their daughter, Mathilde, and Mathilde’s husband, poet Paul Verlaine.

My poem is an imagined interaction that explores the question of what if…

What if, as children, Debussy and Rimbaud spoke?

After That Day

Her house was hers.

Her piano was mine. Every piano was mine.

After that day.

That day. The irony is

Hers was a home that fostered music and poetry.

Which is why he was there.

It’s also why I was there.

3 November 1871:

“Again, my protege. Practice your Chopin

I must attend to my daughter and her baby,”

My teacher says, as she lifts her blue-silked self

Softly from the stool of the piano.

Swept Away! Into the Poetic Musical Cosmos with Bébé La La!

By Mary Dezember, Ph.D.
A “From Dr. Dezember’s View” Review

I click “play” on YouTube to hear and see the Bébé La La first official music video, of their song entitled “Bébé La La.”

The video starts, the music enters…and I am swept away!!

Truly, Baby Wow!

Bébé La La takes me into the pure poetry of music, beyond the comprehension of lyrics into the scenery of soul freedom.

Vignettes fill my senses:

from the entrance of musical duo Maryse Lapierre and Alicia Ultan, slowly from invisible to visible,

onto the rocky hills and magical woods of the Land of Enchantment,

to wild horses running,

to dancers in the forests,

to the spiraling Milky Way,

to the performance stage,

to flowered fields,

to animation,

to wild clouds touching ocean waves,

to rushing brooks,

to the mechanical whirring of a clocks—

all wrapped in spirited wind,

sweeping me away

with Alicia’s guitar and Maryse’s lead vocals.

Ancestors as Poetry: Voices Given Breath Again by Voices of Woodlawn, Poets of Witness

By Mary Dezember, Ph.D.

A Review (and Poem) From Dr. Dezember’s View

On an August day in 2019, poets Ladi Di (Sylvia Diane) Beverly, Patrick Washington and Diane Wilbon Parks accepted the invitation from their friend, poet Hiram Larew, to meet him on the last day of his week-long poetry residency at Woodlawn Plantation and Estate and Pope-Leighey House in Alexandria, Virginia, a National Trust for Historic Preservation site and home of the Arcadia Farm for Sustainable Agriculture.

Based on his work on hunger and on his poetry, Hiram had been selected to participate in the Writers in Residency Program, a partnership program organized by Woodlawn and The Inner Loop writing community in the Washington D. C. Metro area.

While former Director of International Programs within U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hiram guided several global hunger and farming programs in extension, research and teaching. Retired in 2015 and as a poet, he continued his work on hunger, founding the Poetry X Hunger initiative to, as stated on the Poetry X Hunger homepage, “link the power of poetry to the cause of hunger alleviation in the U.S. and around the world.”

But while at the historic plantation, Hiram realized, as he states, that his attention was on “the hunger of the soul more than hunger of the body.”

He found himself focusing on the American “history still haunting us today” as he wondered about the lives of the more than 90 people who had been captives there—and whose names had not been recorded—forced to serve and to build the wealth for the 9 relatives of George Washington living in the mansion.

To deepen his experience with better understanding, he invited his poet friends—Lady Di, Patrick, and Diane—descendants of enslaved Americans.

With trepidation and uneasiness, Ladi Di, Patrick and Diane walked onto the plantation, still unsure if they should take this journey in the footsteps of their ancestors, enslaved during America’s history of atrocity.

With their brave steps in the history of horrible tragedy, a blessed and unexpected experience happened:

They, while writing there and through poetry, became conduits for those enslaved at Woodlawn, imagining then creating stories of their ancestors, bringing forgotten lives into form as art.

From their experience walking in the footsteps of their ancestors and kinfolk on that August day, Ladi Di, Diane, Patrick and Hiram first questioned then imagined what the women, men and children questioned, suffered and endured. They were moved to write poetry on the spot.

Spontaneity Captured in Art: Creativity as Performance with Artist & Poet John Barney

A Review From Dr. Dezember’s View

by Mary Dezember, PhD

Creatives of the Modern Era—1800 to today—often aspire for their art to be like music.

In other words, rather than creating static scenes or narratives to imitate what is seen, visual artists and poets with a modern sensibility give—in addition to their talent—of themselves in expression.

They want to uplift us with an artistic flow. They instill into their works dynamic forces captured—and captivating.

As with a musical score peppered when performed with improvisation, artist and poet John Barney renders his visual and verbal art with an underlying structure enhanced by performance.

Exploring Where Visual Art & Poetry Come From with Denise Weaver Ross

By Mary Dezember

If you’ve ever experienced change, then poetry by Denise Weaver Ross is for you.

If you’ve ever enjoyed color, symbol and exquisite imagination, then art by Denise Weaver Ross is for you.

If you’ve ever wondered where poetry and art come from, then the presentation by Denise Weaver Ross at Creatives in Conversation on Wednesday, October 6 is for you.

Denise’s poetry, art and presentation offer a map for the journey we call life, with plenty of rest stops to refresh and rejuvenate.

Whether we must face the Storage/Garage Giant that has kept us captive for years with the stuff memories are made of, or whether we are reliving past joys housed in our minds and hearts, Denise’s poems are there saying, “I’m with you.”

Beholding What We Overlook with Artist & Poet Marietta Patricia Leis

By Mary Dezember

What joy in dewdrops and soaked earth
when I can be a companion instead of hiding
within

--Marietta Patricia Leis
from “Awakened,” Pausing, page 11

The art and poetry of Marietta Patricia Leis invites us to look with care so that we might behold that which we often overlook—even though these fill our lives as inhabitants of Earth. With Marietta’s visual art and poetry, the observer and reader can notice and ponder such ordinary wonders as the:

• range of hues in one color;

• space imposed upon by objects;

• space connecting us to art, objects and each other;

• non-reflectiveness of black;

• translucent blues of ice;

• layers of texture in trees;

• forms that vapors take;

• motion of breath in the air;

• curve of the Earth just ahead…

Finding Hope in Art with Hope Cross

By Mary Dezember

With nature as my muse
and creativity as my fuel,
hope from earth is my
co-creation with her to
spread hope, light, and
love to the world.

—Hope Cross,
from her website hopefromearth.com

Sharing nature’s optimistic creative spirit is a joyful journey with artist, writer and nature-lover Hope Cross.

As I write this blog post review, I am listening to recorded nature sounds and escaping into Hope’s website—HopeFromEarth.com—that offers a virtual walk with nature that Hope does in reality each day on her Georgia acres.

Several years ago, Hope began communicating publicly about her embrace of nature and art from her suburban home where she and her husband, Steve, lived. Hope had left her career as a Master’s level Therapist to share every moment with and be primary caregiver of Steve, who became inflicted with ALS shortly before their wedding in 2011.

Hope transformed their backyard into a lovely woodland of herbs, flowers, and—I feel sure—fairies. From her backyard bounty, she created essential oils, and with these, an apothecary business. She also began creating Earth Paintings, Nature Weavings and Photography Prints.

Quest for Tears with Author Seán Dwyer

By Mary Dezember

A Quest for Tears (2019, Sidekick Press) is perfectly titled for the moving memoir by Seán Dwyer of his healing process from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and other injuries caused by being rear-ended on January 29, 2015.

This book is the story of Seán’s persistence and what he—with the help of his wife, family, friends, colleagues, writing community, medical professionals, legal professionals—overcame.

Moreover, this book is the evidence of what he overcame. You see, for author Seán Dwyer, his profession of writing became a challenge as a result of the collision and the onset of TBI.

At first, he couldn’t read or write except in very short spans. He describes how even formulating writing into story within his mind changed, and how he had to learn, over time, to adapt to those changes.

Challenges occurred to his high cognitive skills in several other ways, some of which included: needing to wear sunglasses almost continually; not being able to watch computer or television screens; putting his beloved career as a professor on hold for six months while he healed; and, neither as a biological response to irritants nor as an emotional response—the inability to cry.