Woman in Metaphor

April 19, 2015

A poetry reading and slide show from the anthology "Woman in Metaphor"; a collection of poems from twenty-seven poets from around the world who share their vision of the feminine spirit inspired by the paintings of Stephen Linsteadt from his series, "The Unknown Woman," spanning thirty-five years of images.

The result was an emergence of a personal dialogue where each poet embodied senses that lay beyond the physical. The archetypal feminine made her presence known between the verses and the creative interfaces with our inner world. As essay contributor Lois P. Jones describes, "their features are opaque, their sensual bodies are often faceless, at times trapped behind an invisible barrier which separates the physical world from the divine."

Poetry and art come together to give us a new way of envisioning the spiritual dimensions of the female figure.

 

KATE KINGSTON

Hestia

I am the woman you least supposed
to be conscious, drowning
like this in acres of blue tempered
by mint. A place where two
mirrors cannot find me. Waves
splinter, leave green shards
in the aqua eddy, where I hold
my breath through a time of gunwales
and sea captains, a time of spike
heels and silk dresses, a time of silver
combs. I wait, my back turned
to sea, my hair of albino eels
and ink stains, my blue-dusted thigh,
white-webbed skin. I drift
toward shore without maps
or geography, my body eroding
one vestige at a time. The sea snakes
own me now, their slither,
their coil and drift. My shadow
of unfettered moss floats me.

Hestia in the Unconscious

Hestia in the Unconscious,2010
oil and mixed media on paper, 24 x 26 in.,
COLLECTION DAN FROMHART

 

 

MARY KAY RUMMEL

Wounded Angel    

There were too many spires—
bells numbering more than her feathers.  

Warm-hearted sins wearing crimson dresses 
in blazing gardens waved her in.

She shed radiance—the look of grace   
the fold of white at her breast.  

Standing there nude and alone as rain   
as many sleepless eyes on her body  
as once were feathers—she thought on his desire.

Like the bleating wave tracing the line of foam  
she wanted to touch those fringes
of soul on his surface.
Everything moving up from trees
allowed direct speaking from the wound.  
  
She heard a roar of wings, a deeper flesh— 
running rain through acres of time and wheat  

until she fell, her bee hive body  
sheltering one holy thing  

a red-tipped feather from her unfinished  
leave-taking wings.

 

Wounded Angel

Sophia and Eight Malic Forms, 2009
oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in., COLLECTION THE ARTIST


Full list of poets in Woman in Metaphor

 

Sharon Alexander
Lia Brooks
Nancy Scott Campbell
Meg Cox
Elsa S. Frausto
Anita Harmon

Lois P. Jones
Kate Kingston
David Dodd Lee
Sharmagne Leland-St. John
Indiana Jane Linsteadt
Stephen Linsteadt
Sylvia Linsteadt

Maria Elena B. Mahler
Genie Nakano
Katrina Naomi
Dean Pasch
Susan Rogers
Mary Kay Rummel
Russell Thorburn

Maja Trochimczyk
Marci Vogel
Taylor Wade
Mel Weisburd
M.J. Whistler
Kath Abela Wilson
Mariano Zaro

 

 

 

 

 

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