Joan E. Bauer: The Poet of the Camera
By 1922, chief cameraman, eagerly
innovating: gauze over the lens to soften a face,
frame of black velvet to darken the eyes.
Joan E. Bauer | After a Sign in Joshua Tree: Tortoise Crossing
…this spring
at the crossroads of the Mojave & Colorado Deserts,
I found a magic scarf.
Vivian Maier: Portrait of an American City
When Chicago nanny Vivian Maier died in 2009, she left behind 100,000 negatives that no one but she had ever seen. They are now considered some of the best photographs of American urban life ever made.
Robert Gibb: A Paragraph for W. Eugene Smith
“The infinite mistake of Pittsburgh does not take from the fact that the set of photographs is among my finest.”
Joan E. Bauer: For Auden — Circling Toward Home
Art, you claimed: born of humiliation.
You knew that early & you had the gift
of double focus, of seeing the world
with more than one lens.
Joan E. Bauer: Remembering V. S. Naipaul at the Dawn of a Dark Century
The November rain rat-tats, beads on the window. I scratch words, anxious birds on a yellow pad. In your cottage in Wiltshire, perhaps you are writing. Your anguished Asiatic … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: River Dolphin of the Yangtze
We sailed on a river boat down the Yangtze twenty years ago—before the Three Gorges Dam & the rising water lowered the mountains. That day the peaks shrouded with … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: Tribal
Grandpa Joe was nearly born in steerage from Palermo, but landed in Texas. He loved watching Jimmy Durante on TV. The Great Schnozzola, a man of his tribe. … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: Eight Notes on the Rain
Kien waited for death, calmly recognizing that it would be ugly and inelegant. -Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War 1 spring rain, like ether, daubs down memory, mutes … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: Dramatic Monologue — Joseph Brodsky
We tap dance down the highway. There’s an exit. Who made me a pharoah? Dare I gesture — or reach for a cigarette? Shouldn’t I be on the banks … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: Exile in Gorky
They gather close, melded, like titanium and iron, in an upholstered chair. Academician Sakharov, upright, Elena Bonner, leaning hard against him. Her face stained with foreboding. His eyes steady. Sakharov’s … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: Flash
We must travel in the direction of our fear. -John Berryman Eileen Simpson begins with his photo: clean-shaven, ascetic, but an impish grin. He’s holding a pipe. Dark … Continue reading
