about the exhibit:
These images are from an exhibit of prints made
by Merrill Krabill reflecting on the time just before and just
after the birth of his middle child, Emily, who was has Down
Syndrome. Included in the exhibit are poems by Jeff Gundy, Raylene
Hinz-Penner, and Jean Janzen working with related ideas.
Other poems included in the exhibit
Jeff Gundy:
Gifts
Raylene Hinz-Penner:
Thinking
of the
New Earth
&
Aurora Borealis
Jean Janzen:
Motion
&
Just Go
&
Looking at Nilsson's Being Born
Artist's Reflections
Merrill Krabill:
Exhibit Statement
Merrill Krabill:
merrillok@goshen.edu
Print prices and information
Return to Merrill Krabill home page
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Inquiry into Gifts, or the Indigo Bunting
by Jeff Gundy
After hearing on the radio news
of the beautiful indigo bunting,
of its luminous blue-green splendor
that is visible only with the sun
at your back, I see one that very night
standing calmly on the lawn of a dream.
It knows full well how strange and rare
it is, knows it may live its days out
before anyone sees. As though
the world was made not to be noticed,
as though God had some job for us
beside seeing, as though eyes were given
for making the right turns and keeping
the rows straight. This is romantic,
isn't it? What can I say.
Some dumb gritty pressure,
habit or ideology, is warping me
toward a cautionary space where the birds
are all robins and grackles, beautiful
not even to each other, noisy
and jealous of their turf,
sure that if there is a God
he has done nothing for them lately.
I hear a strange bird call and
look toward the sun and see
a dark shadow, a figure that shakes
itself off to a further branch
before it even hears me looking,
to remind me that what is given in dreams
should not be expected again.
©Jeff Gundy
from
Inquiries
(Bottom Dog,
1992)
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