Art and Life
SIFTINGS – X
I’ve had enough of it –
whiteness descending
outside
Sisyphean
mountains to move
yes, spring
O sweet hallucination!
Sifting
decades
piling up
hidden layers
looming totems
frozen in time
forgotten in the heat of pursuit.
Mountains to move!
– Diane Sophrin.
Vermont, 2.18.19
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PULL – V
Pull at the line
it won’t give
anchored
to a mammoth of a rock
an immobilized soul
fixed below.
Rising along
the taut cord
vibrating
with stubborn resistance
the remains of a life
unfathomable.
Waiting like before
at the white
cold table
for a presence
to walk in
offer a hand.
Peel back the silence
where do I go with this?
follow the line
outside
a bruised sky
call the cops.
– Diane Sophrin.
Vermont, 12.29.18
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INTERSECTION
I have never forgotten
you wandering in the distance up
the broad ugly boulevard
raw suburban strip
out there where large
industrial sheds
cheap discount places
low housing estates from
earlier times
spread themselves out
indolent
at the end of the bus line
surrounded by small playgrounds
parking lots
feeble trees hung
with windswept plastic
other trash
hugging the swollen roots.
You stumbled slowly along
the narrow sidewalk
eyes fixed ahead
in torpor and high heels
buttocks swathed in plastic wrap
and little else
on that frigid gray day
my eye caught your form
not deciphering it fully
until the bus had passed well ahead
nor grasping your realities
until later
on our return trip
you again wandered across
my line of vision
as the bus sped by
the large expanse of dirty
red brick factories
at the intersection of our routes.
– Diane Sophrin.
Vermont, 3.16.19
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ILLUMINATION – II
Yesterday I saw it
a life – changed
shifting planes
made their moves
sneaky, under my nose
tilting, under my feet
unrightable.
Today’s not so bad
some sunny patches
even, bleached warmth
on the parched dead grass.
Illuminating what is gone.
– Diane Sophrin.
Budapest, 12.15.18
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GREAT ILLEGIBLES
Great iIlegible scrawls
there – on the walls
in the clouds
hieroglyphs
pictograms
alphabets
tongues
laser quick
print texts
tacked up slapped up
glued on
layers
encrusted with fervor
desperation
rage in
unison
now or never.
– Diane Sophrin.
Vermont, 3.17.19
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BIG LIE – III
Working
words pouring out
No wonder –
The Big Lie
silencing suffocating
as in other parts of the world
more desperate or extreme
answers make themselves known.
Here –
outrage is a personal flaw
the Happy mean at all costs –
No wonder –
Oppressive
monstrous alienation.
Hear my voice –
I will speak.
– Diane Sophrin
Vermont, 2011.
Written on tracing of Big Lie Painting. Re-worked 2.27.19.
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AUDACITY OF PITCH – VI
Fumbling at threads
grasping at straws
where was I
before this new corrosive epoch
took off
before these ice-encrusted moments
took hold
now
settling in for the long haul
allow me at least
an audacity of pitch.
– Diane Sophrin.
Vermont, 2.27.19
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ALL
I don’t know what to make
of this replay
of measured pain
of flaunted wounds
this dance this act this stage
lines known too well
abandoned, all of us
to this lilt of perversity
mortally wounded, all of us
being mortal, I suppose
not by death but life
and ourselves
too bad, too bad
all seeing all
stand-in perpetrators
sirens beyond the abyss
what’s so precious
I’d like to know
that with tenacious claws
we’d crush all that’s good
before seeing
accepting
embracing
releasing it
All.
– Diane Sophrin.
Vermont, 2.20.19
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PRESENT CONTINUOUS: COMMENTARY AND FORM
Diane Sophrin brings her recent Present Continuous series to Studio Place Arts for a first US showing. Presented in Budapest during 2018, this new, expanded solo exhibition includes many additional pieces done in Sophrin’s Montpelier studio over the past winter.
The exhibition will be on view at the SPA Third Floor Gallery from May 14 – June 29
above photos courtesy of Studio Place Arts
STUDIO PLACE ARTS 201 NORTH MAIN STREET, BARRE, VT 05641
http://www.studioplacearts.com/
(802) 479-7069
GALLERY HOURS: TUESDAY–FRIDAY: 11AM–5PM, SATURDAY: NOON–4PM
BOOK OF CHAOS – II
Breakfast.
Behind the stolid silence
a night of strange murmers
hints allusions memories
mutterings confusions guesses
Chaos.
The Book of Chaos
there, it’s named!
meanwhile between each page
coffee kifli
concerts art cakes liquor
and all the lesser things.
Peel back further still
pulsating beneath
Fear nodding
unknown known
in a sexy new suit.
Now we know
how they felt
before each maelstrom.
– Diane Sophrin.
Budapest, 10.16.18
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A KÁOSZ KÖNYVE – II
Reggeli.
Az egykedvű csend mögött
különös morajok éjszakája
allúziókat emlékeket sugdolózásokat
zűrzavarokat találgatásokat sejtet
Káosz.
A Káosz Könyve
tessék, neve is van!
mindezalatt minden egyes oldal között
kávé kifli
koncertek művészet torták likőr
és csupa apró-cseprő dolog.
Hámozd tovább még mélyebbre
alant pulzáló
Félelem bólogat
ismeretlen ismert
egy szexi új öltönyben.
Most már tudjuk
milyen érzés volt
minden egyes roppant örvény előtt.
– Diane Sophrin
Budapest, 16.10.18
– translation by Tamás Baranyi
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Diane Sophrin