Navigation Reimagined

by Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate Ray McNiece

after

Navigation Re-imagined

by Patti Fields and Ray Juaire

Ah, it’s all blue out there anyway —

until you look closer,

the way Ancient Maori mariners did,

having hundreds of names for ocean currents,

dozens of hues for blue,

reading the water like an encyclopedia,

could steer their course at a glance,

swift catamarans seeking new landings.

Seemingly all the same blue sea for us to see.

but never as deep as it looks,

maps can’t really fathom shifting sands,

though try as we might, being a people

of numbers, measuraments, keel volume,

gross tonnage, something in the hold —

gold, cannon balls, booty, as they say,

water through the hands,

salvage that!

Patti Fields and Ray Juaire, Artists: Sculptors Patti Fields and Ray Juaire often transform a variety of media to create artwork that, at times, symbolizes their professional and personal relationship and explores issues of place and memory. Their work can be singular or done in small series that play with balance, utilizing dynamic forms, conceptual narratives, and a re-imagined history of the objects they incorporate in each of their pieces. They suggest new histories in the combinations of fabricated and found objects and work to create metaphors for the nucleus of human, scientific, and metaphysical relationships. For the first time, the couple is showing a few solo works together, carving out new territory.

Ray McNiece, Poet: 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 October 2020 in Response to Independent Together: 30 Years of Collaboration:

To learn more about our current exhibition, Independent Together: 30 Years of Collaboration, click here

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