Giving thanks, dark though it is

Thanksgiving (US), 2024

 

Thanks

 

William S. Merwin, 1927-2019, American

from Migration: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2005)

 

 

 

with the night falling

 

 

 

Sunset on the Sea, 1872, oil on canvas

John Frederick Kensett, 1816-1872, American. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

                                 we are saying thank you

we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings

 

 

 

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The Brooklyn Bridge (Variation on an Old Theme), 1939, oil on canvas. 

Joseph Stella, 1877-1946, American.  Whitney Museum of (North) American Art, NY

 

 

we are running out of the glass rooms

 

 

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Windows in the contemporary galleries at MOMA, NY taken through a prism, 2016 

 

 

with our mouths full of food

 

 

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Giant BLT (Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich, 1963, vinyl, kapok, painted wood and wood. 

Claes Oldenburg, American born Sweden, 1929.  Whitney Museum of Art 

 

    to look at at the sky

 

 

Vanilla, a chimpanzee, born in a lab in Tuxedo, NY,  specializing in HIV and hepatitis and kept with other chimpanzees in a wire cage was finally released in 2022 to a sanctuary.

 

Here she is, at 28, looking at the sky for the first time in her new sanctuary where she successfully integrated in a band named after NASA and the US Airforce who also use chimpanzees for experiments.

 

 

and say thank you

we are standing by the water thanking it

standing by the windows looking out

 

 

The False Mirror, 1929, oil on canvas.

Rene Magritte, 1898-1967, Belgian. MOMA, NY

 

 

in our directions

 

back from a series of hospitals 

 

 

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Modern Day Miracle, 1988, acrylic on canvas.

  Robert Colescott, 1925-2009, American.  On exhibit in 2019 at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia in ’30 Americans’, painting from the Rubell Family Collection

 

 

  back from  a mugging

 

 

Die.  American People Series #20, oil on canvas, 1967. 

Faith Ringgold, 1930-2024, American.  MOMA, NY

 

 

 

after funerals we are saying thank you

 

 

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Woman carrying A Coffin;  c.1936  oil and Duco on panel. 

Luis Arenal Bastar, 1909-1985, Mexican.  On exhibit at Philadelphia Museum’s 2016 exhibition:  Paint the Revolution:  Mexican Modernism, 1910-1950

 

 

after the news of the dead

whether or not we knew them we are

 

 

A woman embraces the body of her niece killed in Israeli strikes. October 17, 2023, Khan Younis, Gaza

Mohammed Salem/Reuters

 

saying thank you

 

 

 

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Incoming, 2016-2017, oil on canvas. 

Keegan Monahan, American born 1986,  Whitney Biennial, 2019

 

 

over telephones we are saying thank you

 

 

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as above

 

 

in doorways 

 

 

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The approach to Dwarkadish, western Gujerat state. 2010.

One of the holiest of the temple complexes of  the Hindu deity, Krishna. 

 

and in the backs of cars 

 

 

A Lift, oil on canvas, 2018.

Tajh Rust, American born 1989. Photo from the website of Stems Gallery

 

 

                                                                       and on

escalators

 

Falling Down Escalator, 2020

Ann Mary Kelly (no other information). On view at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia in 2021

 

 

remembering wars

 

 

Dive Bomber and Tank, 1940, fresco, 6 panels

Jose Clemente Orozco, 1883-1949, Mexican. MOMA, NY

 

 

and the police at the door

 

 

Tied to the System, Lynched by the Institution, mixed media, 2020

Eustace Mamba Francis, BFA graduate at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.  No other information

 

 

 

and the beatings on stairs we are saying

thank you

 

 

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Police Beating (Untitled), 1943; ink, graphite, watercolor on paper. 

Norman Lewis, 1909-1979, American. On exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia in 2015

 

 

 

in the banks we are saying thank you

 

 

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 In a metro station in lower Manhattan, New York. 

Tom Otterness, American born 1952

 

 

 

in the faces of the officials

 

 

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DSC03865     Government Bureau, 1956, egg tempera on wood

  George Tooker, 1920-2011, American. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY   

 

 

and the rich

and of all who will never change

 

 

US President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk, Tech entrepreneur born South Africa, on a campaign stop, Butler, PA.  October 5, 2024

 

 

we go on saying thank you thank you

 

 

with the animals dying around us

 

 

Jennifer Angus, Wonder, the Renwick, Smithsonian, DC 2015-06

In Midnight’s Garden, cochineal, various insects, mixed media, 2015.

Jennifer Angus, born Canada 1961. The Smithsonian Renwick, Washington, DC in 2016

 

 

taking our feelings we are saying thank you

 

 

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Blue Ombre, mixed media sculpture, 2016

Tasha Lewis, American.  On exhibit at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, 2016

 

 

 

with the forests falling faster than the minutes

of our lives we are saying thank you

 

with the words going out like cells of a brain

 

 

Two Maps, 1965, encaustic and collage on campus.

Jasper Johns, American born 1930. Whitney Museum of (North) American Art

 

 

with the cities growing over us

 

 

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Standing While All Around Are Sinking, 1977, etching and aquatint

  Roger Brown, 1941-1997, American.  National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

we are saying thank you faster and faster

 

with nobody listening we are saying thank you

 

 

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Mizaru, covering his eyes, who sees no evil; Kikazaru, covering his ears, who hears no evil; and Iwazaru, covering his mouth, who speaks no evil. 

Mahatma Ghandi’s Sabarmati ashram, Ahmedabad, Gujerat

 

 

thank you we are saying and waving

 

dark though it is

 

 

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Painting for My Dad, 2011, oil on canvas, and detail. 

Noah Davis, 1983-2015, American. Whom the god’s loved.

Exhibited at the Barnes Foundation in 2019 in ’30 Americans’ from the Rubell Family Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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