Carolyn Adams

Most nights,
I stay up late,
touching to a candle flame
precious works of art by strangers.
I write to them,
telling them I was disfigured
in a huge blaze,
can never go out in public again,
and I ask them to favor me
with their best work.
Usually,
I write to poets.
Theirs are the most heartfelt offerings,
and the most the world
can do without.
So I incinerate what they send me
in little flames
of music and passive language,
wisping away,
burning clean the atmosphere
for future generations.
They don't know
how I "consume" their art.
They think I pore over it,
hour upon hour,
savoring the smallest
of their small words.

carolyn adams artwork

Zen Interlude, Carolyn Adams

ON THE DREAMPATH WITH THE GURU

They say I am the mad guru,
the stair-climbing Dalai Lama of my generation,
because I wear insanity
like a pious robe,
like a flag unfurling
with all colors extended.
Because I do not share their love of fire,
their careless purchase
of durable wipe-clean vinyl by-the-yard,
these lost souls look to me for direction.
As we travel in wavering lines
of pilgrim traffic
down litter-strewn, concrete holy roads,
they follow at a distance,
unsure of me,
but too confused to find their own way.

I mumble nonsense,
waiting to be exposed a sham,
and they lift me to the top of the crowd.

Carolyn Adams

carolyn adams artwork

Big fish, little fish Carolyn Adams

Bio: Carolyn Adams' art and poetry have appeared in Aesthetica, Common Ground Review, Eclipse, Unpleasant Event Schedule, and Thrift Poetic Arts, among others. Her collage art and photography are in the galleries of numerous e-zines such as Alsop Review, Avatar Review, Tryst and Right Hand Pointing. She has been active in the literary and visual arts communities in her hometown of Houston, Texas since 1988, and has organized and participated in many readings, workshops, exhibits, seminars and other events to support the arts. Her day job is lab coordinator for a research laboratory at Baylor College of Medicine.

Artist's Statement:

For me, writing poetry or making collages feels like falling in love, or at least like meeting an intriguing new partner. Even though the two media, literary art and visual art, seem to originate from the same part of my brain, and some portions of the process are similar, my approach to creating them can be very different.

I plan far in advance when writing poetry, but I make collages very spontaneously. When writing a new poem, I may mull over an idea for awhile before I even start writing. But with visual art, I sit down and jump right in, and I'm usually into it right away. It just depends on what I find when I start searching through my bits of paper.

In other words, poetry speaks to me very slowly--it kind of introduces itself. But collages and I crash into each other and start an instant conversation.

I don't use Photoshop to make collages, I use scissors and glue and then I scan them. Of course, then I sometimes use digital filters and effects, changes in color, etc., but they start out as paper. There are plenty of people who can put a poodle's head on Laura Bush with Photoshop, so I don't go that route. I can spread out a lot more scraps to choose from on my tabletop than can be placed on a computer screen at any one time. Besides, I prefer the tactile sensation of picking something up and placing it where I want it. Like holding a book in your hands can be more satisfying than browsing a digital read.

With the collages, glue is forever, unless I cut stuff up (which can make what's left unusable), so even though I'll sometimes have a full picture set down in one session, I don't usually glue down until I've had time to leave and then revisit what I've laid out. Of course, that's also my approach to the process of writing - I want to perfect what I've made. But revisions of my collages end with the glue-down, and are permanent at that point, whereas my poetry is almost always in flux.; I'll continually revise poems, even if they've already been published, until I feel that they're complete.

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