“Make broadness broadness”
By Sharmistha Mohanty, fiction writer, poet, founder of the online journal: Almost Island; based Mumbai, India
Make broadness broadness
from narrowness
Lead lead us
We see nothing
behind nothing ahead
The three in these three separate works, Prometheus, Noah, Mary Magdalene, 2011, squeezed into these slits, like the openings in castle walls, are not awake.
Stained glass which has been cut, sandblasted, engraved, painted and fired.
Judith Schaechter, born 1961, American. On display in 2015 at the Philadelphia Art Alliance
These worlds are broad above
beyond our knowing
The great river plains open and descend
slowly from west to east
beyond our knowing
Among the Sierra Nevada, California, oil on canvas, 1868.
Albert Bierstadt, 1830-1902. American born Prussia. Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC from whose website this photo
Us
Doctor, suture me from
narrowness to broadness
Detail of Among the Sierra Nevada, California, oil on canvas, 1868.
All the suns all the dawns all the waters
rise and pass
in broadness
Detail of Among the Sierra Nevada, California, oil on canvas, 1868.
Our bodies move over over this land
rising and falling
Valley of Santa Ysabel, New Granada, oil on canvas, 1865.
Frederic Edwin Church, 1826-1900, American. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
Broadness
stretch out our skies and dawns
so we can walk walk
out of our selves
Detail of Valley of Santa Ysabel, New Granada, oil on canvas, 1865.
Doctor, move me from dark
spaces of invented light
Detail of Valley of Santa Ysabel, New Granada, oil on canvas, 1865.
I do not know just
what it is
that I am like *
Detail of Valley of Santa Ysabel, New Granada, oil on canvas, 1865.
Broadness open for
us us
Unharness our days
Detail of Valley of Santa Ysabel, New Granada, oil on canvas, 1865.
***** I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like
is taken from the Rig-Veda, 1200-800 BCE