A Pair of Shoes painting by Vincent Van Gogh (from Southern Review) “But why exactly were these shoes so important to Vincent? Why had he carried them with him for so long, beaten and worn as they were?”– Ken Wilber, from the essay A Pair of Worn Shoes The story and intent behind my poem, Ode to the Good Black Boots that Served My Soul So Well , is not extremely different from the story and likely intent behind Vincent Van Gogh’s painting, A Pair of Shoes (see image above). In philosopher Ken Wilber’s book, The Eye of the Spirit - An Integral Vision of a World Gone Slightly Mad, the author retells a story first shared by the painter Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) about a pair of “enormous worn out misshapen shoes” painted by his friend Vincent. The now-iconic Van Gogh (1853–1890) created the image after serving as a caregiver for 40 days and nights to a miner who had been so badly burned that doctors gave him up for dead. Vincent Van Gogh could not accep

Does the enigmatic figure of the Black Skylark  referenced in this blog title have anything to do with Edgar Allen Poe’s “The  Raven” (1845), with Walt Whitman’s “The Mystic Trumpeter” (1872), or Abram  Joseph Ryan’s “Song of the Deathless Voice” (1880)?  It shares with Poe’s classic poem the image of a dark mystical bird. On the other hand, the presence of an eerie beguiling melody establishes a strong link to Whitman’s and Ryan’s poems. The poem is set in the city of Savannah, Georgia, but its themes are universal.  Readers are hereby invited to decide for themselves how well it fits into the tradition of the American Halloween poem pioneered by Poe, Whitman, and Ryan: Song of the Black Skylark (poem) by Aberjhani on AuthorsDen by Aberjhani

( Detailed section of "Bettin' On Herself" artwork by Luther E. Vann from the book ELEMENTAL, The Power of Illuminated Love )  Success for the creatively-inclined individual can be defined in many ways. Certainly there are those who necessarily measure their triumphs in terms of monetary gains. There are others for whom success means the refinement of a process, participation in a unique endeavor, the achievement of a level of personal mastery, or the realization of a rare kind of vision. For some, it is all of the above. Upon agreeing to work with the artist Luther E. Vann on a book showcasing contemporary art, ekphrastic poems, and short essays in 1991, there was little reason to believe it would ever see publication much less gain recognition as a “success.” It was not the kind of work on which publishers preferred to take chances. Neither the artist nor this author at the time commanded such compelling presences in the marketplace as to make a vic

“The systematic looting of language can be recognized by the tendency of its users to forgo its nuanced, complex, mid-wifery properties for menace and subjugation. Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence…” ~Toni Morrison, 1993 Nobel Lecture in Literature This segment of Creative Flexibility and Annihilated Lives is published in partnership with Voices Compassion Education . Like many authors I dive headlong almost every  day into a torrential flow of words sparkling with possibilities. I then work  to extract from that linguistic flow a collective of sounds, imagery, ideas,  and entire compositions capable of offering relevant reflections of the world  experienced both inside and outside my own head. Such a mindful exercise in  disciplined creative passion tends to focus my thoughts more on striking a  balance between the unyielding clarity of prose and the seductive allusiveness of  poetry than on the demands of managing a public image.