Girl with Green Balloon Shades of Vermeer, the beauty of this young maid. Though, alas, her adornment seems to lack gemstone preciousness. Never mind. She treasures it saves it from jostling by festival crowds as she would have it shield her from portraiture. She loves its green--just shy of emerald-- that grants her a glimpse of fabled seas so far off they stretch belief. Sunlight winks from its … [Read more...]
A creative family: The Kanters
I think I first met Carol Kanter ("Her Best Medicine," "Alternative Eulogy" and "The Advanced Course") in the back of Books on Vernon when we both signed on for a poetry-writing class with Larry Starzec; he is a former businessman who came to poetry as a second career, studied at one of those low-residency programs and now teaches at Lake County College. This was in the 1990s. If my memory serves me correctly, Fran Podulka, Constance Vogel and Joyce Gordon were also signed on … [Read more...]
A Glimpse of Solace
Arnie B. Kanter In Kenya, Amboselli is known for its elephants. Our host at Ol Kanjo, the small tented camp at which my wife, Carol, and I are staying, is Mike, an American who has lived with his wife, Judy, in Kenya for more than forty years. As we drive down the dirt road, Mike notices a family of elephants approaching. At first, there appear to be ten or fifteen elephants, but as the group approaches, it swells to thirty, then, forty. Carol and I sit in the open jeep … [Read more...]