*This week’s guest writer is Shari Caplan.
This past week, there have been so many moments I wish I could have memorialized in some way other than taking a picture or video. They all seem to be slipping by—graduations, last days of school, the moment I read the proofs for my new book, the moment I finally had a mini-breakdown at my swimming pool & walked in fully clothed because I dropped the brush and couldn’t get it out with the net.
What if moments were work of art, & we could create museum plaques for those moments?
Read the poem below, which does exactly this.
A Night in August Shari Caplan (b. 1988) Installation Materials: flat moon-like knees, star spackle, a ring in the car all vacation, city windows like closed eyes always considering inward, eight years fused with you The man, in traditional down-on-one-knee pose, is the only solid piece. Beeches learn from the trunk of his integrity. By splitting herself into two halves and rendering her body above and to the left of his kneeling, the artist represents present and future, guardian angel and potential amputee. Wings unfurl like billowing fins. Her and Self, bride and witness. Four black bats circle, proving that time is still itself - moving, that is. The artist asks us to consider how as children, this man and woman careened down the hill in winter, but never saw as they trekked eternity holding the ropes of his sled. **Buy Shari's book EXHIBITIONIST, which won the 2024 Paul Nemser Prize (Lily Poetry Review) More about our guest writer, Shari Caplan:
Shari Caplan (she/her) is a poet, actor, and event producer with a passion for enlivening our collective imaginative potential. She’s the author of "Exhibitionist" (Lily Poetry Review Books, Paul Nemser Prize Winner 2024), “The Red Shoes; a Phantasmagoric Ballet on Paper” (Lambhouse Books, 2023) and “Advice from a Siren” (Dancing GirlPress, 2016). A wearer of many tophats, she has produced and performed in “The Poetry Circus,” “The Fairy Tale Poetry Walking Tour,” and other cross-pollinations, including the Boston chapter of The Poetry Brothel, an international immersive cabaret series (founded by The Poetry Society of New York). Shari’s work has appeared in Gulf Coast, Painted Bride Quarterly, Sinister Wisdom, Grimoire, Angime, Drunk Monkeys and others and has earned her a scholarship to The Home School in Hudson, a fellowship to The Vermont Studio Center, as well as nominations for a Bettering American Poetry Award, a Pushcart Prize, and a Rhylsing Award. She graduated with an MFA from Lesley University in 2014. Find her work, workshops, monthly love letter to creativity, and upcoming events at ShariCaplan.com. So, how might museum plaques inspire new work?
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