Sunday, September 2, 2018

A Poem by Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda

In this video sparked by Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda’s evocative “Deer Running,” her own intimate voice and that of her husband, Patricio Foronda, poignantly entwine.  In turn, representing the passionate yet turbulent union of the famed Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Suzanne conveys the spirit of Carolyn’s own empathic vision of Frida’s deep emotional suffering underlying her vibrantly painted “The Little Deer,” where roused by the dual ordeal of chronic spinal damage fused with her soulmate’s infidelity, she paints the wounded creature — surreally endowed with her own keen gaze and dark knit brows — pierced by ruthless arrows, like a bleeding St. Sebastian.

                                                                                                                                                             — Dan
                                                                                                                             
[For more about Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, please see the bio and links below.]




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                                    Deer Running

                                    Beneath a coarse sky, I flee
                                    through an enclosed glade,

                                    Run toward the light,
                                    little deer.  Catch hold of

                                     my limber frame: a young stag’s
                                     crowned with massive antlers.

                                    brightness sizzling above
                                    the glazed, forest floor.

                                     Arrows gash my chest and flank.
                                     Crimson trickles from wounds,

                                      Raw sienna spools
                                      a well-worn path

                                     my pursuer crouched behind a tree,
                                     the trunk’s exposed roots swollen

                                     in the distance.  Birdsong
                                     pulses like waves bobbing

                                     like the flawed design of my human
                                     form, stones in my soul.

                                     crystal notes. Run toward
                                     the hymns, nimble deer.

                                     And you, Diego, place one leafy,
                                     golden branch withering before me

                                    Let loose your foe’s nine arrows,
                                    trembling in your hide.

                                    as I prepare to die and resurrect
                                    as growth: green bark,

                                   Do not fear death. Your wounds,
                                   their indelible marks will heal

                                    green branches at the foot
                                    of your shadow,

                                    as I push away lightning
                                    from the barren plot,

                                   swallowed whole
                                   by sun’s unerring rays.

                                    where your body collapses
                                    in a radiant spool.

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"Deer Running" appears in The Embrace: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo (San Francisco Bay Press, 2013).


About Us
Carolyn and Patricio Foronda share a love of the visual arts and recently began collaborating to produce paintings that celebrate nature. Eighteen years ago after moving to Virginia’s Middle Peninsula, they established a NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat to preserve the natural land surrounding their home. Daily, they attract an array of birds, butterflies, and other wildlife. Currently, they’re raising Monarchs and releasing them daily during the summer months.
Patricio is a native Chilean, who grew up in the highlands of Bolivia and earned his degree as a veterinarian in Brazil. His admiration of the visual arts originated in South America, where he watched Quechua Indians in the Bolivian highlands craft musical instruments, jewelry, and colorful shawls. He started painting in Brazil and expanded his knowledge of art by taking classes and by attending lectures at museums. He has exhibited his work in South America and in art galleries throughout Virginia.
Author of seven poetry books and editor of three anthologies, Carolyn served as Virginia’s Poet Laureate from 2006-2008. Her numerous awards include the Art-in-Literature: Mary Lynn Kotz Award for The Embrace: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Carolyn also works as an abstract colorist painter. She finds inspiration for both her art and poetry from her natural surroundings and from viewing artwork by such celebrated figures as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Georgia O’Keeffe. A lifelong educator, she conducts art-inspired poetry workshops through the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ Statewide Partners Program. For more information visit her website, www.carolynforonda.com.


Photo of Carolyn and Patricio Foronda by Michael Kunzinger

Thursday, May 3, 2018

The Heron's Eye

Recently I felt muddled while painting -- distracted by restless bouts of altering this and that, to no avail -- there 
was nothing to do but quit the day.  So I drove off for a calming walk at our local wetland in Sugar Hollow Park
What fortune to spot a green heron then, patiently stalking minnows in the murky swamp. How I admired that bird's 
intense focus!  And standing there on the boardwalk, I felt the essence of Dan's "Master Heron."     
                                                                                                                                                        -- Suzanne                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

          
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                                     Master Heron
                       St. Marys fishing village,
                         coastal Georgia

 “Mud Scoggin” — in humble Georgia
     dialect that hides uncanny

 mastery each dusk you stalk
     the boat-dock within moments

 of the risen tide swelled ripe
     with squirming bream.  Perched

 on the edge of bobbing skiff, or
     tightroping the wires hooked

 to planks / until a silver murmur
     clouds your eyes & sets your

 rolling neck into a greenbrown
     hunch.  Your samurai beak,

  time after time, piercing
                                              the ocean’s heart!

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“Master Heron” first appeared in the Harvard Review
and later in Dimming Radiance: Poems & Prose 
Parables (Wind Publications, 2008). It will be included 
in Dan’s forthcoming volume Back to the Source: 
Selected Poems & Parables (San Francisco Bay 
Press, 2018).