Art: View of Small Village, Italy by Emma Sywyj
WITH GREAT POWER
Station a guard by my mouth
to invigilate at the door of my lips;
with all your strength withhold me from
serrated words designed to incise,
deployed against targets deserving or otherwise.
Utterances are double-edged boomerangs
as lethal incoming as outgoing,
invisible vessels brimful with karma;
too, they stir embers in the dying fires
of all those whose paths we cross.
In any given mood, they or we might just be
laconic, holophrastic, taciturn,
unwilling to uphold the other,
to convert grimaces into grins.
Yet you never know: just by saying hello,
we might restore someone’s faith in humanity,
our casual speech revealing surviving
shards of grace among a fractured species.
About the author:
Brandon Marlon is a writer from Ottawa, Canada. He received his B.A. in Drama & English from the University of Toronto and his M.A. in English from the University of Victoria. His poetry was awarded the Harry Hoyt Lacey Prize in Poetry (Fall 2015), and his writing has been published in 200+ publications in 27 countries. www.brandonmarlon.com
Art: View of Small Village, Italy by Emma Sywyj
In the artist’s words:
My artwork aims to capture and show life at it’s most vibrant & exciting. The photographs I take encourage people to see the intricacies & beauty beyond the everyday. My artwork is often centered around my immediate environment and cultural identity. I celebrate culture in all its varied forms all over the world. I have photographed Europe and Asia capturing countries and cultures as I experience them. My work encourages viewers to feel awe and joy in the travelers quest and the rewards that experiencing other cultures can bring whilst developing my own cultural identity through photography.
I have been an artist for 14 years, 5 of those years I was based in London whilst studying photography at the Camberwell College of Arts at the UAL. From there I received a BA Honours in photography and a Foundation Diploma in Art & Design. I have exhibited my artwork internationally in the US in New York, LA & San Francisco and Athens in Greece and Budapest in Hungary. I have also exhibited nationally in the UK and London several times where I currently live and work. I have also been published in several independent art magazines in the UK.