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
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
