tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3731210063992010331.post789310985731409656..comments2015-07-18T06:22:19.235-07:00Comments on The Dance of Time, a novel: Replacing Characters Mid-StreamElizabeth Madden-Zibmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17082082099424535581noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3731210063992010331.post-4693764975271881912015-07-18T06:22:19.235-07:002015-07-18T06:22:19.235-07:00<3 Thanks, my dear.<3 Thanks, my dear.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3731210063992010331.post-84418589832705045312015-07-14T08:27:00.033-07:002015-07-14T08:27:00.033-07:00Ann E. Michael, I think your poem, THE ENORMOUS PI...Ann E. Michael, I think your poem, THE ENORMOUS PIANO, will forever be one of my favorites. It expresses my own feeling about personal loss as well as inspires me to write from the perspective of one of my secondary characters. You see, in "Dance of Time", the main character, Annie Eaton, who dies mid-stream of the novel leaves behind a husband and children whose grief is mostly dealt with but the loss of Annie Eaton's friend, her loyal, loving, confident,may have been overlooked. Thank you for both the inspiration and words that speak for the emotion.Elizabeth Madden-Zibmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17082082099424535581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3731210063992010331.post-69417683827761039762015-07-12T09:01:23.603-07:002015-07-12T09:01:23.603-07:00Well, certainly there are all kinds of elegies--bu...Well, certainly there are all kinds of elegies--but that isn't what you mean, is it? <br /><br />Here's one from <i>Water-Rites</i> that deals with the strong presence of the lost friend. The poem has very long lines, so the formatting may come out goofy. We'll give it a try, though:<br /><br /><br />THE ENORMOUS PIANO<br /> —<i>quotes from Lorand Gaspar, “House by the Sea”</i><br /><br /><br />I’m reading French poetry, and I think of you, the way you would swoon <br />into music, I think of this when I read “keyboard of the enormous piano <br />hammering at the heart of thought.” <br /> —<i>de l’immense clavier martélement au coeur de la pensée...</i><br /><br />I don’t read French. Neither did you. And yet, “a few loose stitches sewn <br />by the oars on the sea that no sky interrupts—” how you were interrupted, <br />unruly ocean spasming, dashing you foam and blood at the steps to your apartment. <br />How I wish I could hear you over the stifle of water, the drowning swell.<br /><br />“Folded, broken, hurled doors banging, the long moan of a pine tree” I think of all <br />your fears, how they clambered against you constantly, closing your throat, <br />banishing sleep. That river you wrote about so often, brackish with sea, the big harbor <br />choked by sunflowers and condoms and the bodies of the lonely, desperate dead.<br /><br />I want to dial you up as I always have and tell you I am reading French poetry.<br />This poem—you would like this poem— “air trees bodies rocks and seas/<br />between them and the unimaginable,/a few heart beats”—but the unimaginable <br />has occurred, the heartbeats, no heart beats, no—<br /><br />like the house by the sea, you have disappeared.<br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3731210063992010331.post-48119059471776464452015-07-08T10:54:03.504-07:002015-07-08T10:54:03.504-07:00Ann, Your recommendations always take me where I n...Ann, Your recommendations always take me where I need to go so thank you for sending me to Goldstein's "Properties of Light" and for visiting this blog. I recall that at least one poem in your book "Water-Rites" which came out in 2012 from Brick Road Poetry Press speaks to this issue: http://brickroadpoetrypress.com/order-books/water-rites-by-ann-e-michael. I wonder if you would post that poem here to see if there's a connection to what Sigmund says about cancelling ourselves and the absence of survival. Or, is there a type of posthumous survival that comes from strong memories of the deceased?Elizabeth Madden-Zibmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17082082099424535581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3731210063992010331.post-55327129135878418252015-07-06T07:39:02.756-07:002015-07-06T07:39:02.756-07:00Rebecca Goldstein's Properties of Light (http:...Rebecca Goldstein's Properties of Light (http://www.amazon.com/Properties-Light-Rebecca-Goldstein/dp/0618154590/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8) features a narrator protagonist who dies about 3/4 of the way through the book; it's established in a fascinating way. I love this book for its science geekiness and philosophical inquiry about morality and consciousness and, in some ways, karma. If you haven't read it, you might want to see what she does and how she handles the fictional. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3731210063992010331.post-19142595971006489202015-07-04T08:41:51.815-07:002015-07-04T08:41:51.815-07:00Richard, ...good to know that "Varanasi"...Richard, ...good to know that "Varanasi" will be on view in December, 2015, Ossining Library, New York. I've admired your work for years, and I find that due to the expansive proportions of your paintings,the word "OK" is quite visible. Please remind me of the actual proportions of "Varanasi". I appreciate what you say here that "if we cancel ourselves there isn't any survival." In my novel "Dance of Time" the writer cancels out a character and for her there is no survival. Yet, the new main character gets the chance to renew and in some ways to save someone else's life. I hope one day you'll read this particular novel. It is not the only genre in which I write, which brings me to another question about switching genres, and that will be for another post.Elizabeth Madden-Zibmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17082082099424535581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3731210063992010331.post-76536090894794887232015-07-03T18:20:07.086-07:002015-07-03T18:20:07.086-07:00thanks for including me in your blog. I'm Hon...thanks for including me in your blog. I'm Honored.<br />I do want to mention that the work is not on view until December. Also, the word OK is the basis for the work, and in this case I don't abandon it, but through all of life's hardships she prevails. Its about that light that prevails inside of each of us that is living. Its good to mention the word OK because people don't expect a word and they never see it.<br />I also think as an artist its good to tell the size. <br />In terms of canceling in the middle and starting again, that argument has many sides. But ultimately if we cancel ourselves there isn't any survival, and as I say, always an argument, there is reincarnation. <br />Does your figure reincarnate?Richard Sigmundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04773348843680713411noreply@blogger.com