Lois Bender
Unconducting means unmeaning
This may mean
basically nothing, but
we are an ancient and wide formation
of mountains. This is true
if / when I am a word, puttyknifed
from controversial figures.
If we were on another planet
would our features have new names?
When viewed
from above, you can see into
the orchestra pit—
the water’s
ways that drop and bellow from
delta to sea.
The wing obstructs
the farming grids.
Kari Flickinger is the author of The Gull and the Bell Tower (Femme Salvé Books) and Ceiling Fan (forthcoming with Rare Swan Press). Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net. She is an alumna of UC Berkeley and a Poetry and Music Editor for Storyteller’s Refrain.
Lois Bender, a long time New Yorker, combines her background in art direction and graphic design with personal expression in drawing, watercolor, photography, and printmaking creating a fresh synthesis of styles. Her art illustration brand GardenSpiritsNY Designs grew out of her Retail Gift Industry experience and her love of nature. Bender’s art practice has explored nature themes in gardens at residencies in France and The Hamptons, NY, as well as at Skowhegan and the Women’s Studio Workshop. With a B.A. from Hunter College, NY and an MFA from Boston University, she teaches art and watercolor techniques and exhibits her work in the Metro NY area. She is an Art Professor at Essex County College in Newark, NJ and has an art studio in Manhattan. She is an urban and garden sketcher who celebrates nature in all its poetic and ephemeral expressions.