Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Past, Fellow Traveler

Posted on August 13, 2023 by jillbpearlman

Sometimes the past is pressed against the present, or another present is present. While traveling in Europe you feel it like a veil of wind on your skin.  You scratch the surface, the past rises up through the transparency of summer.  Sometimes … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on The Past, Fellow Traveler

Homer texting from the islands

Posted on July 31, 2023 by jillbpearlman

Cycladic villages – how is it that they never get dirty?  In Athens, age drips rustily down the walls; on a Cycladic island, the white of village houses is brighter than white, beyond pigment, beyond age. They are like sugar cubes … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Homer texting from the islands

Simone Weil: Happy Beachgoer

Posted on July 24, 2023 by jillbpearlman

“The sea is not less beautiful in our eyes because we know that ships are sometimes wrecked by it.  On the contrary, this adds to its beauty,” says Simone Weil, French philosopher in a poetic mood.  She’s right: the endless surface of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Simone Weil: Happy Beachgoer

How to Break the Ice in Paris

Posted on July 16, 2023 by jillbpearlman

People suffer and throw themselves into the Seine. The buildings have scars which grow lighter like our skins. Shop women roll their cat eyes jealously,hearing we’re American.   But what provocateurs they’d be, their loving presentation of breastset like cake batter inside a bodice,the body … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on How to Break the Ice in Paris

70 Rotten Swans

Posted on July 2, 2023 by jillbpearlman

I am borrowing rotten swan to put at the top of my rotation list of favorite images.  It’s the British poet Alice Oswald’s concoction: In her book Falling Awake, “Swan” observes her own wondrously devolving construction as she hovers above herself.  In … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on 70 Rotten Swans

Waiting for June

Posted on June 11, 2023 by jillbpearlman

A high-backed, slatted chairas throne in a long-stemmed garden. A city beyond it with glass, suits, revelers:It changes by the hour. Cars bead the bridge, a laudableorganization if only we knew what it was. Here, in a garden between houses,the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Waiting for June

Ezekiel Does Memorial Day

Posted on May 28, 2023 by jillbpearlman

Someone snapped the light switch, and suddenly it’s summer.  Suddenly people are having fun.   The question mark of an existential figure that walked the streets alone, toting laptop and phone — he’s been replaced by friends and families walking in public … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Ezekiel Does Memorial Day

Confused Spring Prayer

Posted on May 21, 2023 by jillbpearlman

May I recognize my hilly landscapeand not expect to live in the plain.Know that I am the hills and ravines,the sun-drenched fields and deep shadows,  gulleys, mustard fields, yellows,veils of light that drape like silk slips,brooding camisoles, mist from cigarettes, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Confused Spring Prayer

Yo Mama!

Posted on May 14, 2023 by jillbpearlman

I had been thinking about the representations of mothers, the usual suspects, until I bumped into Yo Mama, a collage by Wangechi Mutu, the indefatigable Kenyan-born artist.  Boom!  Here was the fiercest and coolest mother on the planet.  I paused, wishing that all … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Yo Mama!

Exactly As Spring Is, Only More So

Posted on April 30, 2023 by jillbpearlman

The April dusk bursts with metaphors.  Night had sowed magical rain, the day comes forth in pea green, yellow green, everything green. Pavement of scattered chartreuse pollen with tire marks.  The daffodils mesmerize me: tiny geese with pointed head and tucked wings … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Exactly As Spring Is, Only More So