Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Head Above Water

Very busy these days, on various things, including keeping my head (barely) above water. And the new Parks & Rec catalog is out, so soon I can actually sign up for lap swimming! Wooee!

Today's swimmers are by Eric Zener, a photorealist painter; his works accompany poems by Graciela Reyes, translated by Jackie K. White, in the new poetry-in-translation feature up at Escape Into Life today. My husband's mother's name was Graciela, though when she came to the USA from Cuba, they switched the order of her first and middle names, so she was called Lorenza all her working life in the USA. It's also a lovely name, but it's hard to lose your own, along with your country, and your husband.

Hmm. I did not mean to plunge us into despair. I'm glad the actual title of this painting is Safety Net. Look how the water itself creates the appearance of a net. Trusting buoyancy, she'll come right back up. "Buoyancy" is a word I have to look up every single time in order to spell it correctly. Now I'm done.

6 comments:

Donella said...

Love your pictures and prose accompaniment, Kathleen. Reminds me of the movie "Always" lots of years ago, where the main character is plunged into the water in a grim plane crash. She is uncertain for awhile about what she will choose - the buoyancy of the water, or the overwhelm of life in this physical world. What makes us keep going?!

Kathleen said...

Thanks, Donella. I remember that now. Might be time to watch it again.

Sandy Longhorn said...

Nearly every day this month I've found the need to sing a bit of Dory's song from *Finding Nemo*. "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Swimming, swimming, swimming. Just keep swimming." :)

Thanks for the lovely images and poems at EIL!

Kathleen said...

Thanks, Sandy. And so glad to be reminded of Dory's song. I needed that!

Collagemama said...

I will trade you buoyancy for ophthalmology.

Love the swim images.

Kathleen said...

Ack! I think I better stick with buoyancy.