Kathryn Winograd

in the visible speaking

close up of paper wasp nest

Paper Wasp Nest on My Birthday

Art is an instrument  in war…
Picasso



A long time ago, I held one in a box, not a shoe box, 
but something else square and sturdy enough to carry into time 

the fragile mulching of a horde of wasps, not stingers, 
but paper wasps that still fill the dark corners of my childhood 

barns with beautiful lamps that do not light 
but simmer in the shadows like want and abundance. 

This one attaches to a tree by the far riverbank 
where I have lived now forty years far from that Ohio; 

this paper wasp nest floats like a tawdry balloon 
over the river’s insistent construction and the occasional heron 

stealing like a rock into the moment, head down, 
all bent toward the silence. I want it to fall; 

I want winter to steal in, to cover with white beauty 
the paper mulch of wasps, to send it floating down 

to the winter husks of grass, yellow mustard, deer-bent, 
where it will catch on a seed, where the wind and snow 

will thrash into the earth, stamp it into the spring’s rising 
many months from now, months I count and count, 

each one I know a lessening of the life I have fallen, despite
everything, so in love with and so snap to a picture frame 

what I can hold in my hands and breathe my breath upon.


close up of paper wasp nest
Paper Wasp Nest in Cottonwood

4 responses to “Paper Wasp Nest on My Birthday”

  1. Alan C Iannacito Avatar
    Alan C Iannacito

    Beautiful what nature inspires and your lovely poem. I habitually pick up nature’s discards on my walks about the area. I have coated a beautiful wasp’s nest with an epoxy pour over colored mica flakes. This renders a fascinating finish and piece of art. I’m doing the same with old tree roots, broken nature artifacts and do-dads around my basement studio. You have done a remarkable job with the photography. My creation turned out dark and does not photograph well with my handheld digital camera. Nice web site. It appears that Face Book, as Alan Iannacito, has magically reappeared and I’ll occasionally post artsy-fartsy stuff. I’m also in Littleton, Colorado. Ciao and Chow

    Reply
    1. Kathryn Winograd Avatar
      Kathryn Winograd

      I am sorry that I just saw this. Your paragraph is beautifu and I imagine your art work must be too.

      Reply
  2. Steve Harvey Avatar
    Steve Harvey

    I love the contrast between the framed photograph done in love and the intimacy of holding and breathing into the nest. All done in the awareness of a “lessening of life.”

    Reply
    1. Kathryn Winograd Avatar
      Kathryn Winograd

      part of this was something I found in a journal from last year. Suddenly, I knew how to finish it.

      Reply

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