tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post4775520529613996285..comments2023-05-24T23:33:57.516+10:00Comments on My Unwelcome Stranger: "A fragment of her soul" 3Denis Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12786035137418348609noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-431372826560783572012-09-12T06:04:27.228+10:002012-09-12T06:04:27.228+10:00Denis, thank you for turning up that google refere...Denis, thank you for turning up that google reference! I purchased the Olsen painting in May 2007 and was so entranced by the words on the back that I spent a lot of time searching for them. I see from my email records that my correspondence with Dr Brady was in October 2008, and using your google source I see that Colin Penter posted the words in January 2011. I will now write to both him and Dr Brady to see if they will update my knowledge.<br /><br />And yes, to both you and JulieM, the brief verse is extremely moving to me, and is always with me. But it was this post of yours, Denis, that brought it to the forefront of my mind again, and I wanted to thank you for that.<br /><br />kvdAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-87667951216800650202012-09-11T21:14:58.640+10:002012-09-11T21:14:58.640+10:00Yes, it's a very moving poem, and I thank you ...Yes, it's a very moving poem, and I thank you for sharing something so intimate and unique with us. The view from where you and your wife contemplated the vista must have been stunning to be part of and experience that part of your life in.<br /><br />As to its origin, it seems that Google does not agree that it isn't her – not that that makes it right. [Google => "Those peaks not ice but sunlit" poem <= and you'll see, but I'm not convinced either.]<br /><br />I took a special interest in her when I was a child, only because she and I shared the surname, and she was famous and I was a little boy in a tiny country town. I always called her 'Aunty Judy' and read everything of hers I could lay my hands on, although she was no relation. [She hails from this region, of course, and we knew the Wright clan from here quite well.] <br /><br />It feels to me like a male voice; don't ask me why. It's not like JW hasn't written on these themes. Perhaps it's the Pablo Neruda (Chile) feel of it, but that's just me. <br /><br />I'd like it to be Aunty Judy though, looking out over the gorge country just south-east of here where she hails from, not unlike the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.<br /><br />But then it's "no-one's country", and the theme is universal.<br /><br />Thanks again.Denis Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786035137418348609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-82997912685050989422012-09-11T20:39:26.645+10:002012-09-11T20:39:26.645+10:00Thank you, KVD, I agree with those sublime words.
...Thank you, KVD, I agree with those sublime words.<br /><br />JulieMAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-84837473985112866902012-09-11T19:22:31.271+10:002012-09-11T19:22:31.271+10:00Denis your post is quite beautiful – both the poet...Denis your post is quite beautiful – both the poetry, and your own musings. And in honour of same I’d like to share with you some verse which deeply affected me (and continues now) when I first read it, and also a bit of a story:<br /><br />A couple of years after my wife’s passing I purchased a small watercolour done by John Olsen, on the back of which was a poem written (I confirmed this with his Melbourne gallery) in his own hand, attributed by him to Judith Wright. Because the words resonated deeply for me I contacted a Dr Veronica Brady, an acknowledged authority on Judith Wright’s work, for a reference to its publication. Alas the poem was unknown, and not in her ‘style’ apparently, but the intrigue remains that I know of their long friendship.<br /><br />The thing is, watching my wife sitting on our high up over the valley deck where one can see for miles, it just seems so “right” for where she was at that late stage. Anyway, I share it with respect for you, and with my thanks for your own wonderful words, and as far as I’m aware, for the first time in public:<br /><br />I aim towards forever, <br />But that is no ones country<br />till in perhaps one moment<br />dying, I'll recognise it;<br />Those peaks not ice but<br />sunlit<br />From sources past my<br />Knowing,<br />its beauty of completion<br />the end of being human.<br /><br />kvdAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-88708893322231725832012-09-10T09:49:41.169+10:002012-09-10T09:49:41.169+10:00Art on the cheap, Anne [thinking of the price my m...Art on the cheap, Anne [thinking of the price my mother and sisters would pay for paints]. In fact, there's a large genre of art developed from computer 'paint' programs. This type of art is as legitimate as any other. It doesn't matter what the medium; it's what the artist creates with the materials at hand.<br /><br />In my case, it's materials at mouse. But it's the poem that is the delight. Let's not get carried away by the conjuring!<br /><br />Thanks, Anne.Denis Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786035137418348609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-15576114474475417222012-09-10T09:11:55.206+10:002012-09-10T09:11:55.206+10:00I was silenced by your picture, it was so wonderfu...I was silenced by your picture, it was so wonderful. But your explanation has restored my speech and I just want to express my absolute admiration. This is inspirational.<br /><br />Anne P.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-77362541994666709102012-09-09T19:50:40.657+10:002012-09-09T19:50:40.657+10:00Ha Julie – before anybody else enlightens you, I h...Ha Julie – before anybody else enlightens you, I have to say that this painting is all smoke and mirrors, though in a way it is very much my creation just as other art forms are for others. I took small pieces a number of images of around that area, altered them to via some arcane techniques and made a collage using various degrees of transparency in layers in Photoshop, destroyed the layers and gave it a "painting" feel. If I'd taken the time and trouble (though admittedly that took a couple of hours from go to whoa!) then I could have done something better. I guess 15 years of making posters and graphics for musicals has to come in handy. So it's a fraud in one way. A lesson in truth and reality? :)<br /><br />In my small bucketlist, I was thinking of a <i>true</i> watercolour, with real paints and a mastery of watercolour technique which I don't have.<br /><br />Rumi is a wonderful poet and philosopher and I have many of his writings. In a way it's true that we are the medicine for our own sorrows, but I confess to being grateful to be able to call on the sort of medical science for some assistance that wasn't available to him in the 13th Century.<br /><br />There's no doubt that, as he said, "The real journey is right here."<br />Denis Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786035137418348609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5722735165669239585.post-78312809731599360182012-09-09T15:42:20.868+10:002012-09-09T15:42:20.868+10:00It's wonderful! When did you paint it? oh that...It's wonderful! When did you paint it? oh that's right, your mother was a painter, wasn't she. Hmmph, unfair, you had early coaching. It seems so real, broken up with light the way the sun does, especially by the sea. I've never been to the Mediterranean, but that pale brightness is just how I imagine it.<br /><br />Why can't you paint now, or at least draw, with crayons..well you do draw with photo shop or some such. <br /><br />Here is the poem my art therapy friend gave me last week: <br /><br />The Journey Starts Here.<br /><br />Don't go off sightseeing.<br />The real journey is right here.<br />'The great excursion starts<br />from exactly where you are.<br />You are the world.<br />You are the secret.<br />You are wide opened.<br /><br />Don't look for the remedy for your troubles<br />outside yourself.<br />You are the medicine.<br />You are the cure for your own sorrow.<br /><br />Rumi.<br /><br />It touched me deeply in that moment, but it has to BE 'that moment' doesn't it. But Sappho is beautiful always.<br /><br />Julie M XXAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com