“The music of your vision and purpose came early, composing your destiny while you were still a boy. Laughing at how sweetly the muse kissed your dreams.” --from the poem Gullah-Gospel Griot Allen Fireall What would you call it if you heard about an artist who had been declared legally blind and whose heart had lost the greater percentage of its strength but whom somehow continued to produce masterful paintings in brilliantly-colored detail? The word miracle may not be too extreme at all and it certainly should not be ruled out in the case of Gullah artist Allen Franklin Fireall , who passed away in Savannah, Georgia, on March 31, 2014. Fireall described himself as an “artist historian” who dedicated his talents to preserving the culture and history of his people. In that sense, his work might be described as historical realism. The images he produced support that assessment in bold hues depicting scenes from African-American island and rural life in the Southeast. P

                  Poster featuring iron cast of Walt Whitman's hand courtesy of Academy of American Poets . “Stars ink your fingers with a lexicon of flame blazing rare knowledge.” --from The River of Winged Dreams (Aberjhani) Every year the Academy of American Poets produces a fascinating poster in celebration of National Poetry Month  in April. The Academy, along with such partners as The Poetry Foundation, American Booksellers Association, and American Libraries, very generously makes the poster available for free as a digital download and as a hard copy poster via the U.S. postal service. The posters are always unique in their visual style and feature quotes, from works by famous authors, which are often both compelling and inspiring. Last year’s poster featured a collage of envelopes, stationery, and writing utensil with the following words from the Prague-born poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s   classic book Letters to a Young Poet : “Write about your sorrows, you

Cover of Jail Verse Poems from Kondenquin Prison by Cameroon author and political prisoner Enoh Meyomesse . (PEN International) “Sometimes: the struggle and willingness to say the unsayable –– has cost poets and artists their lives.”––from Journey through the Power of the Rainbow Each year the value, presence, and volume of poetry in the world intensifies after spring arrives largely because the international community celebrates March 21 as World Poetry Day and people in the United States celebrate National Poetry Month in April. Both of these events since their establishment––National Poetry Month by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 and World Poetry Day by UNESCO in 1999––have served to magnify the focus on, and respect for, poetry as a universal cultural legacy. People around the globe felt World Poetry Day significant enough that they celebrated it (some are still doing so) in a number of notable ways, from individual blog posts and the publication of new books

           Untitled photographed mixed-media painting by Jaanika Talts. (All rights reserved by the artist) One need not, after all, call oneself an artist in order to embrace either the beauty that roses give to the world or the genius that one’s love does. (Aberjhani) I. ENCOUNTER WITH BEAUTY When viewing a recent untitled painting by Dublin artist Jaanika Talts a strange thought came to me. It was this: Between the elegant reach of an artist’s color-stained fingers toward  her canvas and the haunted explosion of a soldier’s bullet inside his brother’s  chest, somewhere a terrified soul is seeking shelter inside the warmth of a  stranger’s voice, or an infant is squealing at the incomprehensible delight of discovering  it is alive . As I said, it was a strange thought. Talts’ painting  depicts a cluster of multi-colored roses in different stages of blossoming, nestled against the flesh of dark green leaves and framed by deep brooding shades of emerald, bron