Friday, August 22, 2008
Naga Moon Rai (poem and artwork)
Watch
You are becoming yourself again,
pulling on your quirks and habits
like an old shirt.
You scratch at the limitations.
I stand back and watch you slip into the day
the way fog curls around trees.
All of the above--the phtograph, the painting, and the poem--are by N. M. Rai, one of my most admired and inspiring friends. Only occasionally in a lifetime do we encounter someone so gifted in so many areas. Naga Moon is more than gifted--she links her talent with devotion, literally painting, writing, or out taking her amazing photographs daily. In addition, she is immensely generous, encouraging others' efforts and as well as helping us in our struggles with high tech methods of getting our work out to a larger audience.
If it had not been for Naga Moon, I don't think I could ever have succeeded in getting my recent poetry book into proper form for publication. She showed amazing patience with a "pupil" who was nothing if not slow to learn.
Thank you Naga Moon, for helping me and who knows how many others struggling to make a way for our creations to enter the world. Some traditions speak of "hidden saints." I think there must also be "hidden artistic geniuses," those who work patiently in constant devotion to craft, without great expectation of fame or fortune, but through dedication to the inner spirit of creativity itself.
Here is what one reader said of her poetry:
Here is what one reader said of her poetry:
N.M. Rai's poems are seeds of love in the air. Not a love of hearts and flowers but a love that waits by the side of a loved one as death threatens to take its inevitable due.These poems are about compassion, but not only the care of a care-giver, but the inner landscape of the one who must stand and watch illness ravish and consume; one who watches and records every emotional wave as slowly, recovery washes over both the cared-for and the care-giver. Seeds in the air but these seeds have come from a deep love and fall to the earth to grow beautiful poems for all to see. Quite simply, N.M. Rai has planted her experiences of tragedy and recovery for all to see through a great poet’s eyes.
Eric Ashford (poet)
See more of her work at:
Archive of Divine Muffins (photography)http://www.pbase.com/nmrai/divinemuffin
Book: "Small Rooms: Seeded Air"http://seededair.googlepages.com/
Paintings: Slideshow
