Theresa Williams knocks my socks off with Rilke and more

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Folding card, opened, back and front:

O'Keeffe combined with Rilke -- who could ask for more.  It's a gorgeous card, and even includes the asemics on the back.  I love the slice of Rilke on the front, so that his eyes, which were so very far-seeing, stand out as if they existed on their own.  Inside is more Rilke, including his vivid relationship with both the dying and the living aspects of the cycle of life, plus a favorite section of the 9th of his "Duino Elegies":

The envelope, front and back, pretty much summarizes it all:

Theresa also included a poem she wrote, accepted for publication next year, and so it can't be posted here.  It's a fabulous poem that swept me right up and took me for its double-imagination ride with an unusual combination of lyricism and straightforwardness.

Thank you for everything, Theresa -- yesterday was certainly special in the mail-art department for me,  I lucked out ~

 

[Nancy Bell Scott]

That IS gorgeous, thank you for posting the passage.  See what I missed ...

Theresa is our resident expert at making art specifically about certain passages and authors/poets.  Maybe we will see something from you about this, Theresa?

 

[Bifidus Jones]

Usually I'm over at the Haptic Poetry group because I can't help touching stuff with my hands to "see" what it feels like. But here's a passage from Rilke's book I mentioned that I think is gorgeous:

They are excessively warm hands

that continually want to cool

themselves and involuntarily lay

themselves on any cold object,

outspread, with air between the fingers.

Into those hands the blood could

shoot, as it mounts to a person's

head, and when clenched,

they were indeed like the heads

of madmen, raging

with fancies.

 

my palms sweat thinking of the art that could go with those lines

[Nancy Bell Scott]

That is a coincidence, Bifidus.  I never read it, but know it is prose and that it probably would have revealed a lot about him when I needed to know everything.  Did read Letters to a Young Poet; and Sonnets to Orpheus plus some other poems, in addition to the Elegies.

It never occurred to me when joining IUOMA that I'd get to discuss, never mind receive art about, Rilke.  What a wonder.

 

[Bifidus Jones]

Lovely stuff--coincidentally i'm reading Rilke's THE NOTEBOOKS OF MALTE LAURIDS BRIGGE. far-seeing eyes indeed.