Earthquake

When do you choose to describe a subject in writing, and when do you choose to paint it? For me, the answer lies in the fact that the brain allows you to absorb a picture all at once, but a story--word by word. So when the subject at hand is too overwhelming, when words fail me, this is when I pick up my paintbrush.

Then, when I finish a painting, sometimes even before the last brushstroke, I am much too eager to take a picture of it and share it with you, which results in a compromised image: the oil paint is still wet and reflects light to the camera in unintended ways. So this morning I went back to my Earthquake painting, which I finished last summer, to see if I can take a better picture than the one posted on my website.

This painting was inspired by watching the earthquake in Haiti. 
And now, with permission of the poet, here is a poem by my friend Michele Harvey, inspired by the experience of an earthquake in Chile.

After The Earthquake in Chile

by Michele Harvey

First published in Wazee Journal, June 30, 2010
https://www.facebook.com/PoetMicheleHarvey
Copyright © 2012 by Michele Harvey - All rights reserved

This necessary fading; shattered husk of chrysalis,
fiery evening patches of melon sun

I pass along cracked alleyways, hollowed by rubble,
torn from my homeless city

Where wind wears the glowing scent of burning decay,
an empty pot boils over a flame that grows from the ground

Earth jerked apart, I free-fell from an elevator
5 stories down, enter bargaining sessions with a furious God

On the broken earth of doubt, in a cloud of Spanish
I am just beginning to understand

We huddled till dawn showed treasure to all who remained;
in the end we have only ourselves, only each other