Mobile Art Saturday Poetry – ‘Love in a Time of Covid-19’ by Craig Santos Perez
This weeks Saturday Poetry, matched with mobile photography/art is entitled ‘Love in a Time of Covid-19’ by Craig Santos Perez. He is a native Chamorro from Mongmong, Guam and writes about themes such as Pacific life, immigration, ancestry, colonialism, and diaspora. This poem “is a variant of Pablo Neruda’s famous love sonnet XVII, in which he uses the natural world as a metaphor to describe love. In my poem, this metaphor mutates into things that we would associate with the pandemic, such as medicine, vaccines, and masks, in order to explore how to write about love in a time of Covid-19“, he explained.
I have matched mobile art by Jill Lian – @jilllian2 untitled. Award winning mobile macro photographer Jill Lian is based in New York, United States. It is clear that Lian is interested in both art and science, as her macro images project the perfect combination of these interests. Her images are aesthetically pleasing whilst unmistakably scientifically captivating. Her work brings light to a whole new world that is so often overlooked, she is fascinated with this micro world full of colours, textures and relief. Not only does Lian find good subjects to photograph, she composes the images so undeniably well that the viewer is eternally gripped.
To view Jill Lian’s limited edition collectable prints within our online gallery, please go here.
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
Love in a Time of Covid-19 by Craig Santos Perez
I don’t love you as if you were penicillin,
insulin, or chemotherapy drugs that treat cancer,
I love you as one loves the sickest patient:
terminally, between the diagnosis and the death.
I love you as one loves new vaccines frozen
within the lab, poised to stimulate our antibodies,
and thanks to your love, the immunity that protects
me from disease will respond strongly in my cells.
I love you without knowing how or when this pandemic
will end. I love you carefully, with double masking.
I love you like this because we can’t quarantine
forever in the shelter of social distancing,
so close that your viral load is mine,
so close that your curve rises with my cough.
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Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photography journalist, editor, curator, and the founder of *TheAppWhisperer.com*, one of the world’s leading platforms dedicated to mobile photography and art. Since its launch in 2009, TheAppWhisperer has become an international hub for artists of all levels to discover, learn, exhibit, and engage with contemporary photographic practice.Built on principles of inclusivity, accessibility, and artistic excellence, Joanne has spent almost two decades championing mobile photography as a serious artistic medium. Through interviews, critical essays, exhibitions, competitions, and education, she has helped shape and document the evolution of mobile art on a global scale.Her work has taken her internationally, lecturing on photography and mobile art at institutions and events including the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, alongside appearances in the UK and Europe. She has served as a juror for international photography and mobile art awards across Portugal, Canada, the United States, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.Joanne is also the founder of *TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com*, one of the first online galleries dedicated exclusively to collectible mobile art, connecting artists with collectors across Europe, the United States, and Asia.Before founding TheAppWhisperer, Joanne worked extensively in print journalism and photographic publishing, including roles at a paparazzi photo agency and as deputy editor of a leading photography magazine. Her freelance journalism, criticism, and commentary have been published widely in both the UK and the US, with bylines in *The Times*, *The Sunday Times*, *The Guardian*, *Popular Photography*, *NikonPro*, *DPReview*, *Which?*, *Vogue Italia*, *LensCulture*, the *BBC*, and more recently, the *Financial Times*, where her published letters on photography continue to contribute to wider conversations around the medium.Alongside her editorial and curatorial work, Joanne’s own photographic practice has been exhibited internationally across the UK, Europe, South Korea, and the United States. Her work increasingly explores themes of grief, loss, death, memory, and the body.Her current research interests centre on grief, death, and poverty, with forthcoming postgraduate study leading towards doctoral research in these areas.Joanne is currently developing new long-form writing and photographic projects and is available for commissions, editorial projects, speaking engagements, and collaborations.Contact: joannetheappwhisperer@gmail.com)
