JML - PLOGS (2014-2023)
The Fern's Shadow
Oil on Birch, Jean-Marie Lee, 2006
(Private Collection)
PLOGS BELOW (JML's Poetic Commentary)
Katrina Memory 10 Years Later
I would set out on a bicycle daily around sunset
to cruise Lake Pontchartrain in the Gentilly area
of New Orleans. It's a brackish estuary with the
scent of saltwater mixed with the scent of swampy
mold. Trout flipping and flopping in and out of the
water-- along with cicada and crickets chirping. The
rhythm of my pedaling only created an underlying
melody to assist the cords played by the environment.
My body was both hot and cool with the musty
humidity and breeze from my pace. And to
just create a perfect moment for solace the sky was
radiant with Rose hues, violets and tangerines. I
could smell the wharf restaurants cooking fine feasts.
It was an experience I will treasure for life. But how
does one paint all of that and express the joy of the
moment and express my own personal loss? New Orleans
took a piece of me that neither prescriptive and romantic,
nor ancient languages can articulate. So, it's visual and sensory
and psychological but how to make that emotion an
image? It's more than seeing and feeling. It's believing
and "buying into" the myth that life is a cycle.
Then, the beckoning of God becomes the reel of humanity.
XOXO! JML
They All Ask'd For You
The Meters
youtu.be/aSZzsWRx_IE
Plog Post: Friday, August 28, 2015