The Red Hibiscus: Anthology Preface Vol. 16
One must picture everything in the world as an enigma, and live in the world as if in a vast museum of strangeness.
~ Giorgio de Chirico
Pallas Athena (traditionally represented or accompanied by an owl) is a remarkable figure. First of all, she was the only virgin in Mount Olympus. She never married, had no love affairs, and lived entirely alone, from which the conclusion can be drawn that wisdom was not involved in any of the secondary procedures of life. Wisdom was complete and eternal in its own nature, having no affiliation to anything. It was remote and unapproachable except through the inner experience of the individual. Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy. Charishma Jaikishin Ramchandani, a seeker of metaphysical knowledge from Muscate in the Sultanate of Oman, has contributed a devotional cinquain dedicated to our goddess of wisdom in this edition.
Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of various cities across Greece, particularly the city of Athens, from which she most likely received her name. I’d like to congratulate Matthew James Duncan of Seattle, WA, on publishing puzzled pieces. This book opens with a trinity of his poems from puzzled pieces dedicated to different US cities and their distinct Stimmung or mood of the city. In his poetry, Duncan creates mythologized (and often desolate) streetscapes so reminiscent of the passionate response of the Italian metaphysical painter de Chirico to the aura of Turin.
“puzzled pieces” is an end result —
akin to auditing a class for 3 years.
An attempt to understand the soul of a city and populous
that is decidedly NOT —
not East Coast but also not exactly West Coast.
The distinction of being Pacific NW
and how it translates in a place hyper-technology driven.
Through the eyes of a transplanted East Coast/Mid-Atlantic native
come curious observations regarding
the force of technology on the physical landscape,
the human landscape and the great socioeconomic divide
which continues to be the side-stepped conversation impatiently
waiting to explode.
https://www.amazon.com/puzzled-pieces-matthew-james-duncan-ebook/dp/B08786GZNC
without intent and in between destinations are his previous published books that can be found on Amazon.
Pulled from a collection of Polaroid memories that you hoped were lost forever and then held up to reveal the defects time and memory has made glossy, the author spares no one (including himself) from the sharpened edge of his pen. At times unsettling in simplicity and childlike in its voice, there is a lyrical quality to the word-craft which is both alarming and playful.
There is a particular photorealist painting in the Ludwig Museum that has always drawn me to it. Can modern art contain something of Vermeer and his camera obscura Renaissance precision? Photorealistic paintings are renowned for their tight, technical precision, which is achieved through an intensive familiarity with the materials and process. Do people drawn to New Age salons with hands on Tarot readings and aromatherapy feel the same longing to find one’s roots in our increasingly homogenized world? Perhaps one does find simplicity and wisdom in cities contrary to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Can man be born in chains and find freedom everywhere?
Unadilla Diner, Ralph Goings, 1977 (The Marble Palace, St Petersburg, Russia)
Diana Thoresen
Palm Cove, Australia
01/03/2021
