It's Hard To Believe
I know many of you will agree with me when I say I can’t believe we are just completing the second week of the 2017. Time is just flying by. I hope each of you had a good holiday season. Some like me celebrate religious and spiritual holidays with families and friends. Others may get swept into the fray. Hopefully you have had some enjoyable moments.
When I sat down to write this blog, I decided I should reread last months to see if I wanted to carry over the theme. My concern for the need to dialogue and have meaningful discourse remains. Without it we sink into negativity and negativity serves no one. It breeds distrust, antagonism and adversity.
Dan and I sat riveted to the TV Tuesday night as we listened to President Obama give a civics lesson in his farewell speech, reminding us that a democratic society is only as strong as its citizens’ willingness to participate fully. I ask each of you reading this to consider what you will do in 2017 to become a better citizen of our great nation. Please let me know what you decide.
This weekend we celebrate the birth and life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. My dear friend from college days at Brooklyn College, Luciana Duce is an artist and poet. She shared with me a poem written to honor him that appears in her newest book of poems. With her permission I share it with you:
Warrior of Peace
Today we celebrate
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King
Blackbird of Peace, of Passion,
of Courage and Compassion
You shone your light
on the dark forces of evil,
of hate, of racism, of bigotry
and inequality
Beautiful Blackbird
with wings open wide
you flew peacefully
but with a power so fierce
you shook the heavens
not to speak of thousands of souls
yearning for your message
You soared and flapped
and dove into our midst
Until the hunters came
hungry for the Blood of the Innocent
they shot you down
you fell as a Mighty Warrior bird
wings outstretched
No bullet can pierce
The glory of your name
Nor can ten thousand guns
Silence your voice
Soar onward
Hallowed Warrior of Peace
Soar onward!
Until the Light of your presence
Fills every dark corner of the earth
And every man, woman and child
Is Free to fly to the top of that mountain
You once named “I Have a Dream.”
From the book Wild Herbs, by Luciana Duce-Dugan
Last, but not least, my partner Dan Snow is the featured artist at the Cathouse FUNeral Gallery Booth at the New York Outsider Art Fair January 20-22, 2017. This is the 25th Anniversary of the Fair and “Totem” a piece by Dan that was in last year’s show has been selected to represent the 24th year of the Fair’s history. We hope to see you there. http://outsiderartfair.com/fair/1869