Discoveries: Arts and Culture

The gate to the courtyard of Anna Akhmatova's apartment  The courtyard of AA's apartment  A relative of Anna Akhmatova A portrait among the art objects celebrating Anna Akhmatova at her museum in St. Petersburg. I was representing the Anna Akhmatova foundation in Philadelphia, as I was its consultant.   Its president:  the translator of AA's poetry and author of a biography about her husband, or Frances Laird.  A relative of Anna Akhmatova(on the right) beneath and near her portraits.  I will visit them at home for tea and see the room in which AA lived.   Janet Roberts in the Joseph Brodsky Memorial room in the Anna Akhmatova museum, St. Petersburg, Russia These photos just surfaced.... and their timing could not be better after more than 3 months spent focused on Russia in the news, with the Winter Olympics and Ukraine...The Russians will persist.  Here I am, in one of my Russian shawls... 

Evan lived the same years in China, as I, or 2008--2013.  2005-8 Peter Hessler was the New Yorker Correspondent. I began my first days in China reading Peter's book when I came home and felt that he was exactly accurate in his encounters and observations.     I met both Peter and Evan at International Lit Festival and liked and respected each of them  very much.   I am reading Evan's s new book, Age of Ambition:  Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, where he concentrates on personal profiles, among them Ai We Wei and Liu Xiabao, an artist and writer, each of whom are widely known in the West.    As a journalist,  Evan  interviewed people I knew from CNN and from China Daily reading while living in China, but would not have heard of, here in the USA.  So for a fine journalists' account of what was taking place in China and what to make of it, you could not have a better read...

To De Young.   For O Keefe lecture.    Woman appeared who had inherited from costume designer a belt like the one Georgia O Keefe wore.   Her mother was Austrian Aristocrat.   She had five brothers and sisters.   She is admired for her strength and determination and her authenticity.   Her father was an Irish immigrant and her mother an Austrian aristocrat.   Mother wore a bustle...as we are concentrating on dress.   She went to Chatham HS in Virginia...   played on the tennis team in 1890 Unusual for women.    Sewed her own clothes.    Studied with the NY Art Students League in 1907   Was influenced by the Japanese in the Arts and Crafts Movement.   Studied at the Art Institute in Chicago in 1918...in 1906 she had Typhoid fever.   She rented a room in a boarding house.   The lecturer points out that Fortuny was worn by Stieglitz sister, and that O Keefe wore this “bust “ dress, but not by F...

A Beautiful Space: Writer’s Retreat   My orchid dropping blossoms my beautiful yellow Bianchi bike awaiting its outings – like a stabled horse   I light candles   each night kilims covering the floors   Violins or cellos, Strings play night and day.   Palms outside my window, an apple tree in the courtyard a bamboo curtaining the garden path.   My yoga teacher’s words echo, “ Make a beautiful space ”. --Janet Roberts copyright 2013

See Fig. 4 Saint Ren and Hindu ascetics (Renunciation, Penance) Hatha yoga: control of breath and mind.  Nath guru in patchwork robe. Fig 3  (Text in reverse order of figures)  Gesture of reverence in dialogue between yogis Fig 2 In Punjab at temple and pool dedicated to Shiva, intense dialogue with one Natha yogi Fig 1     ) Fig 1 Temple and pools dedicated to Shiva with Nanth yogis  Fig 2.  Gesture of Reverence. Yogi  in Dialogues  Natha Guru in patchwork coat in dialogue.  Hatha Yoga  Fig 3.  Fig 4 Sant Ren and Ascetics(in penance renunciation)  

WISH   I am transformed into a clam.   I will be very, very still. so natural be, and never “me” alone so far from home a stone would end it all but for this tall enduring tree, the sea, the sky and I. Robert Creeley     The Nomad Flute… You that sang to me once sing to me now Let me hear your long lifted note Survive with me The star is fading I can think farther  than that but I forget Do you hear me   Do you still hear me Does your air remember you O breath of morning Night song morning song I have with me All the rest I do not know I have lost none of it But I know better now Than to ask you Where you learned that music Where any of it came from Once there were lions in China I will listen until the flute stops And the light is old again        

 The blooms here at this time of year are gorgeous!  A myriad of diverse pathways winding through the garden As WCW would say, "So much depends on a wheel barrow!" Lovely poppies in full bloom It is a little bit of heaven to walk here.  Even after visiting the Botanical Gardens in SF, I prefer this space which is far more intimate and varied, though the gardens in SF afford a good experience.  This is the home of the President of the University, but is unoccupied for more than a decade, though it is the horticultural garden of the university.