Each week of Advent a new visual artist and poet will be featured in our RezArts Gallery. These original pieces invite you into the anticipation of Christ’s coming through a representation of each week’s theme: hope, peace, love, and joy. This series will culminate in a fifth display celebrating Christmas. Visit the Advent Exhibit in RezCafe until January 12.
We invite you into the theme of hope this week with this poem by Matthew Wolf and The Annunciation, a watercolor painting by Anna Freeman.
Canvas
By Matthew Wolf
καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν
John 1:14
ἔτι δὲ καὶ ἡ σάρξ μου κατασκηνώσει ἐπ᾽ ἐλπίδι.
Acts 2:26
Life weathers.
As in:
It beats and bleaches,
frays feathers to a chewed-up comb,
dissolves and leaches,
erodes with water, earth, and air.
Also as in:
I wonder whether
the world is anchored anywhere.
Is hope the anchor?
Hope
is canvas,
staked or stapled,
or secured with rope,
but stretched —
always stretched—
structured by suspense and tension.
We wait intent for intervention,
the gear familiar to the fleshed:
thin, wind-rippled skin and sinew,
a shelter shed for a better home.
Matthew Wolf lives and works in Carol Stream. He and his family have been at Rez for fourteen years.
He describes his creative process:
I write poems in two notebooks. One stays at my desk at work, one stays at home. On the walk between work and home, I recite what I’ve got so far and try out new things. If any refinements occurred to me on the way, I write down the new version when I get to the notebook. Frequently, lines from other poems that I love sprout up unbidden and have to be trimmed away. Rejected lines keep trying to edge their way in. Sometimes nothing sprouts and I have to move on to a different patch. I’m grateful that this poem emerged, after two that I really wanted to write refused to cooperate.
Check out the painting on the theme of hope: The Annunciation, a watercolor by Anna Freeman here.
