Debbie Strange
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my body a howl of barbed wire
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a requiem older than I'll ever be
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somewhere between wound and warrior
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hands weeping with morning’s mercy
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padlocked skeleton dissolving into benediction
moth-winged erasing this paper life
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these bones tattooed with moss and mourning
shape-shifting the desert of ungranted wishes
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About Debbie Strange
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Artist’s statement:
Warp and Weft - Woven Paper Series Warp (lengthwise yarns) and weft (crosswise yarns), refer to the two basic components of weaving. I enjoy repurposing earlier work to create something greater than the sum of its parts. These paper weavings are crafted from archival prints of my abstract photography exhibition (2010), and the single-line poems are made with words culled from my book, Warp and Weft: Tanka Threads (Keibooks, 2015). The images are printed on cold-pressed watercolour paper to enhance the textural resemblance to fabric. I use colour therapy in my daily art practice to stimulate endorphins that help mitigate the effects of chronic illness. This series is a personal testament to the healing power of art. Debbie Strange is a Canadian short-form poet, artist and photographer whose creative passions connect her more closely to the world, to others, and to herself. Thousands of her poems and artworks have been published in leading journals worldwide. Debbie’s most recent book, The Language of Loss: Haiku & Tanka Conversations (Sable Books, 2020) won the 2019 Sable Books International Women's Haiku Contest and received Haiku Canada’s 2022 Marianne Bluger Chapbook Award. It also earned Honourable Mention in the Haiku Society of America’s 2021 Merit Book Awards. Debbie is delighted to announce that her full-length haiku collection, Random Blue Sparks, winner of the 2020 Snapshot Press Book Awards, is forthcoming in 2023. Please visit her words and image publication archive for further information. |
