For the December holidays Warren gave both Zoe and I copies of A Year with Hafiz: Daily Contemplations, a translation by Daniel Ladinsky. The idea was that we could have a Hafiz reading club to periodically exchange poems. Our exchanges have been very sporadic, but I dip into the book, using poems as fodder for text brushwork. I have found that random words find their way deeply into my imagination. Today I painted with a long handled brush and water on the studio's concrete floor--part calligraphy, photo-op and floor washing.
A Coat Rack
Let this page be a coat rack you leave something
on.
Something that you will be better off without.
Something that if you no longer carry it's weight
you will look less cunning and dangerous, less
inclined to explode. And you will know more mirth if a thorn in your
mind you let me keep: a pin-cushion my being,
why not, for you?
--Hafiz, excerpt from A Coat Rack, June 8, Daniel Ladinsky, A Year with Hafiz
A Coat RackLet this page be a coat rack you leave something
on.
Something that you will be better off without.
Something that if you no longer carry it's weight
you will look less cunning and dangerous, less
inclined to explode. And you will know more mirth if a thorn in your
mind you let me keep: a pin-cushion my being,
why not, for you?
--Hafiz, excerpt from A Coat Rack, June 8, Daniel Ladinsky, A Year with Hafiz
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