Song in Kind

Posted by npaul on

A poem can be a song of love or hate
A lyric or an elegy, epic or a ballad,
Pentameter iambic, drama in five acts

Or even times a chant to motivate –
To seek what you want
Find what you can’t
Imagine;
To go where you will be, once were or are
Through smoke and exhaust
In the fog of war

________

Sing, poet, of clear air;
Goddess, be as the wind – a roar
A breeze or a blast or a gust
But at the centre be still
Make it an act of will to give back in kind, for
All is not yet lost.



________

(October 2026)

Pay Attention!

Posted by npaul on
Extinction (part II of triptych — I, II, III: Destruction, Extinction, Disintegration), 2023

Pay Attention! is the theme of the upcoming OKWA (Organization of Kingston Women Artists) exhibit currently showing at the Tett Centre in Kingston (22 September – 04 October 2026). https://www.tettcentre.org/pay-attention-exhibition

This triptych is my contribution. See last month’s post for part I, Destruction, and below for part III, Disintegration. The following is my artist statement:

Destruction, Extinction, Disintegration is a response to the wars in the Ukraine and the Middle East, to the accelerating rate of extinction of species, to our rising fear for the future of the planet.

Destruction: The action or process of causing so much damage to something that it no longer exists or cannot be repaired.

Extinction: The complete disappearance of a species from Earth.

Disintegration: The process of losing cohesion and unity; of coming to pieces, falling apart.

Disintegration (part III of triptych — I, II, III: Destruction, Extinction, Disintegration), 2023

Destruction

Posted by npaul on

Mixed media (acrylic, wood shavings, metal scrap, fence wire), 2023

Size: w 16″x h 12″ x h 1.5″ cradled birch panel

Part I of Triptych (I, II, III: Destruction, Extinction, Disintegration)

Destruction

Rubble, ash, splintered wood, stone dust, pulverized concrete. What remains after the bombing of cities and catastrophe of earthquakes.


The following two poems will probably never see publication, so I put them out here (written in the last few weeks).


Gods of Peace and War

We are the gods of grace
We come from away and far
To show you a safe place
To light your way with stars

We are the gods of war
We travel now in space
To show you death and fear
We look into your face

We are the gods of peace

We are the gods that are

War Is Here

War is here; we’ve been attacked
Death will come for thee and me
As it has for saints and fools.

Before that, time will crease our hearts
And fear will corrugate our souls.

Breast Cancer: Research

Posted by npaul on

Acrylic on paper (1994)

Another in my series, Breast Cancer: A Progress. The last one, the one that looks (looked then) toward the future. I wrote about it two decades ago but do not have my notes at hand just now, so will update this post when I do.

I have fallen behind on my monthly posts, as writing poetry lately has been my direction rather than visual art. If I could, I would share my poems with you (many since January, it’s been a hard winter), but apparently even an obscure online appearance could disqualify anything I write from eventual publication. (Yes, a very very long shot to be published, I know; I have trouble appreciating the poems I do see published, perhaps a generational thing.) So, as long as I submit to journals, I cannot let on what I’ve been up to these past weeks.

Breast Cancer: Relapse

Posted by npaul on

Acrylic on paper (1994)

Despite advances in treatments for breast cancer, many women are horrified to find that their disease returns, sometimes as an ulcerating wound on their chests. The woman in the painting is anguished at the betrayal of her body; daily, she must endure the horror of cleaning and bandaging her weeping sores.

Sources/ Acknowledgements

Figure: photograph by the artist of an Egyptian statue in the British Museum