Saturday Poetry – ‘Wonder Wheel’ by Wo Chan
Saturday Poetry – ‘Wonder Wheel’ by Wo Chan
This week’s Saturday Poetry, matched with mobile photography/art is entitled ‘Wonder Wheel’ by Wo Chan. Wo Chan is a poet and drag performer. Their book, Togetherness (Nightboat Books, 2022), was the winner of the 2020 Nightboat Poetry Prize. Chan expressed “I wrote this poem for my dear friend, Hye Yun Park, in the spirit of summer: of beaches and Coney Island Ferris wheels, of sunsets and seafood pancakes, and of friendships—the mystery and wonder of it that brings (and keeps) two people close. We had spent, unplanned, two consecutive evenings together, which became the container for this double sonnet. Friday’s dinner and a gazing into Dumbo’s gauzy sunset, then Saturday, a heaven of stage lights through red velvet curtains as we watched Dame Cuchifrita and Edie Nightcrawler’s ‘SATYRICONEY,’ a burlesque tribute to filmmaker Federico Fellini. I think if I could write an entire book like this, a book about my friends’ hearts and feelings and how I see them . . . I would be grateful for all the days.”
I have matched mobile art by @biju_ramankutty with this poem.
If you would like to be featured in our Saturday Poetry section, please ensure you include the hashtag #theappwhisperer to any images posted to Instagram. This will mean we will be able to consider it.
To view the others we have published in this section, go here.
via Poets.org
‘Wonder Wheel’ by Wo Chan
angels undress, & solstice has got us mini, stilled . . .
hot hounds thrash east into ocean’s maribou,
foam that is knowledge, our own gravy bods
veloutine as time is giving. it’s pajeon weather, krill
pink past prime, past memory & vistas futureful.
i saw the backside of my own eyes, great no-god
carousel rouged as nutmeg with blood. the nerve!
i mean it was the nerve. my optics creamy yet thinning,
hair moss in abundance, precise as the meridian.
not even a bird could escape becoming more like a bird.
what is friendship? the same question i asked you returns,
sparkling like a hot fix comet between our minds.
a friend is someone who sits with you, amphibian.
between water & land, a friend sits with you.
& then a curtain opens. a woman reclining shines huge
in absolute tableau. linen, white. skyline, paper. gender,
dame cuchifrita, perfectly still, daring life to blink.
we can’t stop recording this immersive dream. abuse
shook once our early worlds, & this is how we meet.
it is a miracle to be a tube with legs—it is miraculous (!)
to be a coil in a bag . . . a patty in a briefcase! a living necklace!
a two-legged descendant of clear-boned fish! an optimist!
us red-rich bums more royal than crabs predate bliss!
the washer ring oh-shape of time fits us, tilts us
well over sky’s edge where, somehow, air sits gentlest.
crude, blue mesmero, glistening as fresh silk,
—to wet this globe with salt & glee, to unlatch the attic,
to undo the sleeve. we finger most the principle fabric.
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Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
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