During our stay in Australia, in between catching up with friends and family, going to a family wedding and visiting as many beaches and native animals as we can I have been occupied with sorting through letters, photo’s, school work, diaries and travel journals stored at my mothers. Some are worth keeping, for others it is time to say goodbye.
The act of looking back over past papers puts your brain into all sorts of unexpected rabbit holes. Some purely nostalgic, some surprises, re-rememberings and new ways of looking forwards. Quite fertile for a creative. Perhaps in time a whole story might grow out of this process. For now there is a pile destined for recycling and a poem.
Throwing out the Art Folios
Leafing through the high school folios
I find my old ‘art’ embarrassingly derivative.
Nothing but references to
Plath, Dali, angels and Matisse
Lino cut
Photography
Oil Painting
Still life of detergent bottle
Finding my way
one supposes.
All went into the bin.
After twenty years of taking up space.
It feels good – on the whole – to scrap these samplers,
make room for some new art.
But I still like Sylvia, Salvador and Henri
and I named my son for an angel.
sandy bennett-haber 