Thursday 31 October 2024

Looking Up (Poem)

You tried to manipulate me

Once more, for old times’ sake

You didn’t pause

To read the room

Nothing for it but to walk away


My community of selves

Struggled to reach agreement

But it emerged you were the darkness

I had to do without


The consensus was we mattered more 

Than you knew how to give us credit for

Self-love is a full-time job

And now life is looking up


Sunday 27 October 2024

Sunday 20 October 2024

Women of Cologne's Museum of East Asian Art










All photos taken by Epiphanie Bloom. 

These are the representations of women that caught my eye in the Museum of East Asian Art of Cologne. All three countries - Japan, China and Korea - are represented. The first and last two images are from Japan, the porcelain sculptures are from Korea, and the rest are from China (as far as I can recall). There may have been more representations of women on display than shown here, but even so, they comprised a minority of the works on display. My intention is to pay attention to the women's presence as it is, in order to expand upon it. 

The erotic art from China is a rare work, because most similar pieces would have been destroyed at some point, in some misguided aim for respectability.

Saturday 19 October 2024

Shivering in the Shade [Poem]

Perking up and wilting in cycles
Letting radio songs inform my moods
Hope may be offered but I don't find it likely
It'll deliver me from a hearty brood

A surge of can-do spirit
I'm thinking I can find a way forth
At least for a while, I wager
I won't be distinctly lost

The radio has gaps and silences
In its search for beauty it falls short
When the most beautiful tunes of the planet
Resist conventions of 'Record'

The spontaneous playful serenade
Or shivering poets wrapped in the shade
Impromptu exaltations, scattered throughout the day
Technology can't capture it all... no way