Samantha Pious
The End of the Airfield
Hardly deterred by a barbed-wire fence,
a padlocked chain, and a sign that says
EXPERIMENTAL AREA. NO ADMITTANCE,
you laugh and shrug. Your kids run on ahead.
Suddenly the woods give way to scrub—
on our right, dry grass, a narrow strip,
runs westward in the blinding autumn light.
The blades of a propeller must have hit
the splintered saplings fallen to our left
where, long ago, a pilot made his landing.
What do we care for wren or robin's nest
when—long and low—a shadow seems to veer
and, in the rustling leaves, we almost hear
a roar of engines and the big wings banking?
We Called It Snow
and it was bright as new fluorescent lights
and white as fresh linoleum, soft and cold…"
"Like popsicles?"
"Well…sort of, yes.
A million billion tiny popsicles
that came down from the sky—like rain, but slow—
and blanketed the streets and cars. You know,
sometimes it fell so thick they canceled school!
And it was cold, so cold it wasn't cool.
So cold we had to bundle up in coats
and boots and mittens just to go outside.
So cold it took the toes right off your feet."
Heads shake, eyes open wide in disbelief.
"Just ask your parents—they'll remember too.
Come on, kids, would I ever lie to you?"
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The Poetry by the Sea Spring Celebration is available for viewing on Youtube as a permanent memorial and tribute to Mezzo Cammin's founder, Dr. Kim Bridgford (1959-2020). Click here to watch.
The 2021 Poetry by the Sea conference was canceled due to COVID-19. The next conference is planned for May 24-27 2022.
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| Gina Occhiogrosso: I am a painter whose work is composed not only through the application of wet color on a surface, but through processes of disassembly and realignment, and the incorporation of common, everyday materials like thread and yarn. These activities and elements allow me to explore anxiety, loss, humor and heroic femininity. The hallowed and often masculinized tradition of painting is subverted in my work through a repeated process of cutting and then sewing painted surfaces together to develop new forms, dynamic connections and illusions of depth. Where these freshly stitched edges join, there is a seam, which has both linear and sculptural qualities. The seam acts as a geometric disrupter of curvy ellipses and other organic forms that are carefully rendered and then carved up with alternating precision and chance. The ghost of those cut edges has its own subtle presence. I am interested in developing a surface that’s full of the suggestive qualities that abstraction can create. The stitched paintings supply this through the deliberate recalibration of shapes and their relationships to one another.
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