Thursday, July 5, 2012

A Meeting of Minds . . . and Media


Karin L. Frank's chapbook, A Meeting of Minds,
is full of beautiful, intellectual poetry . . . and
also my artwork!

Last winter I had a pleasant opportunity to create a series of ink drawings to illustrate a poetry chapbook by a friend of mine, Karin L. Frank.

My first thought, when my friend approached me, was, “a poetry chapbook? Seriously?

Ah, but then I read the poems.

Several had already been published in other—as in, “mainstream”—print media, such as the Kansas City Star or Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction

I’d already known that my friend wrote interesting science fiction (prose), but the marriage of sophisticated science concepts with the poetry art form produced something rich and extraordinary indeed.

Karin titled her chapbook A Meeting of Minds: Poems from the Two Cultures, a reference to C. P. Snow’s concept of the sciences and the humanities as being two different “cultures” in “the intellectual life of the whole of Western Society.”

My holistic view of the world sees the two as integrally linked as the sides of a coin—not a strange thought to science fiction readers and writers. But the rest of Western society appears to see more of a chasm between the two.

If a chasm exists, however, these poems bridge it to elegant, often humorous satisfaction. Poetry is too seldom appreciated, these days, unless it is in the form of song lyrics. I hope some of my readers will find it worthwhile to click the Amazon link or go to Wolfweyr and open Karin’s rich vision for themselves.

Meanwhile, she’s authorized me to offer a sample:

Ecological Niche
She finds her level
on a suitable tree
where sunlight strikes,
nestles at the spot
where grubs grow plump
for baby birds,
nurtures and grooms
until wings feather out
and flocks of fledglings depart.
She remains and ripens.
Matured, plumage
reverted to scales,
she slithers down the tree,
and returns to earth.





Topological Twist
A torus and a cup
are alike to a topologist
but it’s messy
when I try to
Drink tea
from the doughnut
I’m dunking in it.


IMAGE CREDITS: Cover design is by Jan S. Gephardt, © 2012 by Honey Bee Publishing, and used with permission. Both interior illustrations are © 2012 by Jan S. Gephardt.

POETRY CREDITS: “Ecological Niche” and “Topological Twist” are © 2012 by Karin L. Frank, all rights reserved, and are reproduced here with the author’s permission. Please contact Honey Bee Publishing, P.O. Box 404, Odessa, MO 64076, for further information.

A Meeting of Minds: Poems from the Two Cultures is available from Amazon or directly from Honey Bee Publishing, via Karin's blog Wolfweyr.

4 comments:

  1. Very nice review, Jan. I've been meaning to blog about Karin's book, too, but you've done it better justice than I could.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jan - It's been too long since I caught up with your blog - you've been doing some exciting work! good to see...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Many thanks to both of you! I'm glad you enjoyed this article!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi guys, Thanks to both of you for the wonderful review of this chapbook and the insightful comments. Let me just add that I had to forgo the Wolfweyr website because the name was too esoteric. (A wolf weyr is a den of wolves, BTW) I am now blogging, etc. on my new website, karinlfrank.com. I hope that is more straightforward but I couldn't let go of the cherished photos of my wolvish pals. they still decorate the front page.

    ReplyDelete