Mark Danowsky and John Singletary
TERRA IN FLUX: An Ekphrastic Collaboration

The word ekphrasis comes from the Greek for the description of a work of art produced as a rhetorical exercise, often used in the adjectival form ekphrastic. It is a vivid, often dramatic, verbal description of a visual work of art, either real or imagined. In ancient times, it referred to a description of any thing, person, or experience. The word comes from the Greek ἐκ ek and φράσις phrásis, ‘out’ and ‘speak’ respectively, and the verb ἐκφράζειν ekphrázein, “to proclaim or call an inanimate object by name”.

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Terra in Flux

The bathroom mirror breaks my face
no, my face breaks the mirror

nose, a Picasso—

all comes down to energy

*

In Tai Chi, you create
an imaginary ball
then pass, smooth
smooth, smooth
sculptor at the wheel
passing it, passing it
back to yourself

*

fluid motion
blurs the line
we choose to walk against

*

You touch yourself touching
the face of love
closeness by another name
proximity one boon companion

Tell me when it is you feel
& I’ll go cold as fate
comet without gamble
trailing spectre-like
your unholy geist

*

The Rockefeller Center
zamboni operator down with flu
still can smooth & smooth

*

Faces of a masquerade
play at Janus
when lean Judas

*

free at least
sprawled
vagrant on the rocks

*

Mother of God
Sister of Heartbreak
Daughter of Chaos

*

the beauty line
ties humanity to grace
by way of athleticism—
what it means to be perfect

*

ouroboros

the difference
between naked & nude—

*

dancing

a spectrum
that begins in innocence
& ends in Babylon

*

There is nothing inherently wrong with Cypress trees.
Or apocryphal texts.

The believer tells you it’s a mistake not to believe.
The nonbeliever can’t tell you anything for sure.

I fall asleep & dream about a ball of light
passed from generation to generation.

I wake & stretch—

In Tai Chi, you take an open stance. Take an imaginary ball in your hands.
Circle the sphere. It can be crystal. You can call it an orb. You cannot drop this ball.

*

We know pareidolia—seeing
faces in things. We make
intentional masks
some just so we can walk around
being another, feeling safe.

*

Forget the self, sun
in Elizabethan world view
the great chain of being
we inhabit the middle
above all common earthly things
below the heavens, angels, divinity