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On The Wall

Posted October 31st, 2015 by Lesley Hazleton

I love this photo. My friend the art critic and Pulitzer finalist Jen Graves (yes, I’m boasting) took it last month at a preview of an exhibit at Seattle’s Frye Museum of Art.  That’s me up there on the wall — my words, that is — and she’s reading them aloud to him.

jen-frye

What she’s reading is this:

Write what you know, they say.
But I write what I don’t know,
led by stubborn desire
to explore,
to see what there is,
or what might be,
or could be.
I play with ideas,
with paradox,
conundrum,
and wrestle with words
— pin them down –
— lose hold of them –
— delete them —
until the right ones appear.
I recognize them
and then, startled,
come to a dead halt
lest they shift again.
They may not seem so right
tomorrow, yet here they are,
in the world,
suddenly solid.

The fire extinguisher seems a tad de trop.  As might be the show’s title, ‘Genius 21’, which surely runs the risk of begging the question.  It’s on through January.

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File under: agnosticism, art | Tagged: Tags: 'Genius', Frye Museum, Jen Graves | 6 Comments
  1. jveeds says:
    October 31, 2015 at 2:18 pm

    great poem…i like the surprisingly contradictory advice, though I wonder if it’s as applicable for English 101 students.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      November 1, 2015 at 10:37 am

      I’m not sure if it’s advice — it’s the way I work, or rather, the way that works for me. If I think I know everything in advance, I get bored with myself. But I appreciate your point: to break the rules effectively, it probably helps to know them first.

  2. Nuzhat says:
    October 31, 2015 at 7:42 pm

    Heyy Leslie…..this poem seems like the gist of your blog, ” my inner sergeant major”….perfectly driving home you’re sentiments mentioned there. Loved it….
    Was on tour on the west coast, and hoped you had a visiting lecture in some place there. My dream of meeting you after traveling all the way from India, remain unfulfilled. Seattle is on the list for the next time….

    For solace, I met a fan of yours, who,s partly/nearly/almost agnostic…although, I know this status does not theoretically exist…
    (I would call it a rather ‘confused’ attitude). Told him I,ll be able to discuss his situation more clearly, only after reading Lesley,s new book….am I right?
    Urge to read it soon has increased…
    Nuzhat.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      November 1, 2015 at 10:33 am

      The lovely thing is that I know you’ll have fun discussing the new book with him (‘Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto,’ due out in April), not least because it really does revel in paradox and conundrum! As you noted: no answers, but lots of heady exploration.
      Glad to hear Seattle’s on the list for next time! — L.

  3. Tea-mahm says:
    November 2, 2015 at 8:08 am

    Write what you don’t know….. Oh yes. Edmund Hillary of those steep stories, Neil Armstrong of the space between the thoughts…..
    Good poem!
    love, Tamam

  4. Alberto says:
    November 14, 2015 at 4:57 pm

    Wow – happy to see that coming….

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