No Bones About It…

…there are some interesting things happening over at Three Chairs Publishing!

COMING THIS FALL!
Evidence of Flossing: What We Leave Behind
Poetry & Photography by Jen Payne

EXHIBIT: Where the Whole Universe Dwells
Preview images from our upcoming book at this exhibit presented by the Arts Council of Greater New Haven at Perspectives…The Gallery at Whitney Center in Hamden, CT through August 27.

POETRY READING: Guilford Poets Guild
Enjoy poems by GPG members Nan Meneely and Jen Payne on Thursday, September 14, 6:30 p.m. at the Guilford Free Library, Guilford, CT.

BOOK LAUNCH: Evidence of Flossing: What We Leave Behind
Watch for details about the special book launch event, scheduled for October 14 & October 15 at the Martha Link Walsh Gallery in Branford, CT.

Watch for more details on our the Three Chairs Publishing website page, coming soon!

If you would like to be on our postcard/invitation mailing list, please email us your mailing address today!

Greener Grass

glass-enclosed vestibule
the woman behind the counter
a dozen customers seated

The author paints a portrait
of the me I did not become
there in black and white

there seemed to be a connection
you knew they all knew one another

and me
wondering:
what if I remained?

Worked my shifts.
Married the cowboy.
Had the kids.
Lived that life.

Would it have been
the better or the worse?

Would I?

My finger dogears the page,
as if to say I was here
or remember this
the alternate ending

blurred and obscured
I was drawn to it as if to a dream.

Poem ©2016, Jen Payne, inspired by “A Great Good Place” from A Cape Cod Notebook by Robert Finch.

Microcosm

The spider had a curious look

not curious as in odd,

but curious, inquisitive, intrigued.

I saw him from the corner of my eye

watching me, then rummaging

through a pile of paper,

back again for a second look,

peering as if to say Who Are YOU?

(or WHAT I suppose)

Perhaps the same look of WHAT?

the fish had as it soared over the pond

yesterday afternoon…

Who are YOU? to the osprey,

and WHEN did I learn to fly?

Poem ©2017, Jen Payne. Image: Microcosm, Remedios Varo

Don’t Miss Where the Whole Universe Dwells!

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven presents Where the Whole Universe Dwells at Perspectives…The Gallery at Whitney Center. Where the Whole Universe Dwells brings together five artists who balance between tangible and intangible through an innate understanding of smallness within a vast universe and the relationship between infinitesimal and cosmic.

The Arts Council will host an opening reception on Saturday, May 20 from 3 to 5 p.m. The reception will feature artists talks at 2 p.m.

The exhibition, curated by Debbie Hesse, will be on view to the public through Aug. 27, 2017, at the gallery located at 200 Leeder Hill Dr., Hamden, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4-7 p.m., and Saturdays, 1-4 p.m. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Jennifer Davies (Branford) uses papermaking to create her own intuitive forms that suggest cracked rock walls, delicate spider webs and the phases of the moon. By twisting, turning, dyeing, and stretching paper to explore its inherent properties, she creates a strong sense of physicality presence with resulting works that suggest aerial map views or the earth’s surface.

Nancy Eisenfeld (North Haven) looks at cycles of decay and resiliency using colors that correspond to the four elements of nature in her painted abstract washes.

Anne Doris-Eisner (Woodbridge) creates commanding black and white charcoal portraits of trees that juxtapose extreme attention to detail yet achieves a gestalt, creating a sense that the trees connect everything in life.

Peter Konsterlie’s (Bridgeport) paintings are both gestural and analytic, blurring boundaries between line, color and pattern to form pulsating spaces that suggest fantastical, unchartered territories that are simultaneously minute and vast.

Jen Payne (Branford) is a writer and photographer whose photographs in the show juxtapose plastic remains on the natural and human-made landscape.

For more information about Where the Whole Universe Dwells and Perspectives… The Gallery at Whitney Center email communications@newhavenarts.org or call (203) 772-2788.

IMAGE: Flosser with Paperclip at ATM, June 2016, ©Jen Payne. See also: Gallery Show and Sneak Peek

as she behaves, so will she be

I’ll be honest,
as I saved the spider
from sure destruction
and placed him gently
on the morning sill,
I wondered
if perhaps I’d earned
a bit of karma,
if maybe the gesture
would spare me
the sure destruction
of betrayals —
disappointments.
But everyday humans
don’t bide by karma,
never mind what gurus say,
so the spider went about his,
and I my business for the day
knowing this:
salvation, like love, is random.

Poem ©2017, Jen Payne. IMAGE: A bird perched on a tree branch with blossoms, watching a spider on a web, Katsushika Hokusai, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Her Captive Audience

Pay attention.
That’s her soul
you’re reading,
cut up into
ransomed letters—
dreams and fears
neatly spelled,
the “what she dare not say”
at last released.
Look closely,
you may still see paste
on the poet’s fingers.

Poem ©2017, Jen Payne. Image: Number 20, Bradley Walker Tomlin

Sugar and Spice

No. I won’t BE NICE.
Don’t for a moment think
it’s not my right to ask the questions.

No. I will not SIT DOWN AND BEHAVE.
Do not speak to my protest
with that patronizing tone.

No. I will not quell my laugh.
Do not think your CONVICTION
changes my outrage.

No. I will not stop.
No. I will not stop.
No. I will not stop.

That’s what little girls are made of.

Poem ©2017, Jen Payne. Photo of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke being an ass courtesy of Huffington Post.

Buy the bumper sticker now and spread the word: Commit Random Acts of Writing + Art.