The Look of Things
The landscape’s gotten away from me.
I let it go, single now and yard-weary.
The gardener has an eye for composition
year round. I recognize seasons
though dare not anticipate them by design.
I push my mower, clap the trimmers
like resolute applause, ease the dead
rose canes from their leafy knots.
Always I’m thinking I’m somewhere else,
that I’m only doing this gritty-itch work
for that great American title:
The Good Neighbor. I am not
a Good neighbor. I never take soup to the sick.
If they can’t open a can for themselves,
they’re too sick to be at home.
I don’t invite them in for coffee
because I’m at work or driving my Brownies
Or hiding from people and their waving
obligations.
I do smile; sometimes even from the porch swing
I’ll yell across the street
at Louise who is fifty, remarried, and
roller skating
figure-eights in her drive.
When I cut down that maple diseased at the
trunk,
I was sad to look where it had been,
saw it still in the phantom symmetry
for a long, too long time. Now,
the grass has grown back over the scar.
But when I mow, I feel the old slope.
I am careful to keep it looking smooth
to the superficial judgments of passersby.
— Jeanine Hathaway, WSU associate professor of English
“People I know”
Connie Connally ’75
A tapestry of acquaintances that include family, friends, neighbors, mentors and even the postman, Texas artist Connie Connally’s multi-canvas assemblage of portraits, “People I Know,” has been chosen for inclusion in the international juried exhibition “Face to Face 2” at the Stage Gallery, Merrick, New York.
The completed work will culminate in an installation piece exhibiting at the Craighead-Green Gallery in Dallas, Texas, this fall.
“Untitled”
Randal Julian '87
Wichita sculptor and welder Randal Julian told The Wichita Eagle in 1987: “My outdoor work reiterates nature in a way. I want to get people to look at it. People tend to ignore nature until it snows on their car.”
That was 13 years ago. Since then, in addition to other creative endeavors, Julian has been hard at work on eight baptismal and 14 stations of the cross scenes for the interior of the new Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Lawrence, Kan.
The church will have a dedication ceremony Sept. 24.
