Ekphrastacy: Evolution: “The Weight of Light”
The Weight of Light
by Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate Ray McNiece
after
Matrix Series: a Greater Volume
by Brent Kee Young
Through this glass matrix
light is both caught and released
simultaneously
as is ever thus
though we try and hold
the sun’s fall in our fingers
Artist with butterfly nets
of brushes
have tried to capture it,
that chrome yellow hue
Van Gogh favored
like a yellow swallowtail,
pinning its wings behind
glass, a single scale of which
glints between fingerprints
refracts under a microscope
into fractals of helios.
The spider of course does
a better job of it, using
a cellular solar blueprint,
to spin its webs,
as does mitochondria,
channel energy to the center
before sending it outwards.
What is the weight of light
resting on retina, soaking
through, gone in a blink.
The spider knows this
with its eight dark eyes,
as tensile life just waiting
for the iridescent winged
gnat to finally settle, to suck it
dry, a husk of light-
don’t touch it!
So with this tower of glass
tendrils intertwined, filling up
the very air, holding space open
with nothing but light, might as well
be a frozen column of water,
this flame worked
borosilicated glass flower,
light cannot be held
for more than the moment
of this vision.
Brent Kee Young, Artist: Glass artist and Cleveland Institute of Art Professor Emeritus Brent Kee Young, has been recognized by scores of museums, galleries, colleges and universities in the United States and Asia, which have displayed and/or acquired his work or invited him to speak, demonstrate or teach. His glass work is in numerous collections private and public, some of which include the Smithsonian Museum of American Art; The Museum of Fine Art, Boston; The Carnegie Museum of Fine Art; The Toledo Museum of Art, Glass Pavilion; The Corning Museum of Glass; The Museum of Glass, Tacoma; and our own Cleveland Museum of Art. Recently, the Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA, acquired a number of Prof. Young’s glass sculptures.
To learn more about Brent Kee Young’s process watch the short video below (video courtesy of Brent Kee Young):
Glass Artist – Brent Kee Young from Cleveland Arts Prize on Vimeo.
Ray McNiece, Poet: McNiece is the current Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate. He is the author of 11 books of poems and monologues – Dis, (Burning River Press 1989) The Bone-Orchard Conga ( Wordsmith Press 1994), The Road that Carried Me Here (Bottom Dog), Song that Fathoms Home (Bottom Dog), and Wet Sand Raven Tracks (deep cleveland), Us — Talking Across America (Fractal Edge Press), Us Versus (Fractal Edge Press), Our Way of Life (Bottom Dog), Love Song for Cleveland (Red Giant), and Breath Burns Away, New Haiku (Red Giant, 2019) two solo theatre works – Dis – Voices From a Shelter, Us? Talking Across America, two music/poetry collaborations – Mouth Music, A Rust bowl Hootenanny, and one collaborative theatre work – Homegirl meets Whiteboy — with Shawn Jackson.
Please enjoy this video for Ekphrastacy August 2020 in Response to Evolution:
To learn more about our current exhibition, Evolution, click here
To learn more about our Literary programs, click here
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