Chosen for ARS POETICA III exhibition at the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum this fall: my mother had a million faces (3 pictures). See catalogue HERE

Posted by BRAHM

Thank you to all who joined us for the reception of ARS POETICA III. What a wonderful celebration of so much talent. We hope to see everyone again next year!

Congratulations to our winners:

2025 First Place Award:
Visual Art: David Molesky, RESCUE
Poetry: Candace Tippett, Requiem for Father

2025 Second Place Award (not pictured):
Visual Art: Jennifer McCormick, Redacted
Poetry: P.L (Paul) Thomas, my mother had a million faces (3 pictures)

2025 People’s Choice Award:
Visual Art: Debanjana Bhattacharjee, Hope
Poetry: Susan Harris, Hope

See HERE

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Then memories are films about ghosts

“Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby,” Counting Crows

my mother had a million faces
i think most of them were sad

•

in the wake of a hurricane
i fell into a jumble of pictures

spending hours trying to reassemble
memories of asheville nc wrecked by floods

my recollections were as scrambled
as the picture files stored on my computer

•

creation is recreation and memory is a flawed tool
but the things that now haunt me are three pictures

a series of my father and mother on a couch
with my oldest nephew sitting in my mother’s lap

the images make me think “ochre” and “amber”
but mostly i think everything should be “blue”

•

as my mother was dying
i did not know what to do

after my mother died
i did not know what to do

i do not know what to do
with these 3 pictures of my mother

•

i do not know what to do
with her 3 faces in these pictures

i do not know what to do
with her hands slightly upturned

i do not know what to do
with memories and ghosts

•

my mother had a million faces
i think most of them were sad

—P.L. Thomas

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