The New York School Diaspora (Part Ten): Star Black [by Angela Ball]

Feather-Flown

There was a laughing photograph that laughed
at the photographer who laughed back until the creases
of the laugh twinned and became perfectly aligned.
Then, glassine slipped between them,

absorbing both, and became an alamode mist
of a ̀ la monde that floats above lazarettos and hobos,
lawn bowlers and braided vines, as a missing photograph
of the inestimable, in an inestimable amount of time.

Come back, photograph. It is too rare
that anyone laughs. Come down to the scribble
of smiles, the earth-stained chameleons and epitaphs.

Come down to the blousy cries of those
who need more muffs. Come down to the cold and
curious who think too much: to the fingertip, the touch.

--Star Black

A photograph missed, meaning seen by the photographer but
not taken by the camera because there was no time to set up,
focus and snap the shutter, lingers in the mind as an afterimage
but only briefly. The universe has moved on, like a velvet tank
on a crowded plain, and the untaken photograph becomes
missed and irretrievable in more ways than one.
--Star Black

An Army brat who lived in many places for many years, Star Black arrived in New York City in 1977 as a photographer for United Press International. She went freelance in 1980, photographing for The New York Times, the Museum of Modern Art and other clients while studying poetry at Brooklyn College with John Ashbery and earning an MFA degree in 1984. She is the author of four books of sonnets, Waterworn, Balefire, Ghostwood and Velleity's Shade; a collection of double sestinas, Double Time; and a book of collaged free verse, October for Idas. Her latest book, The Popular Vote, a collection of poems that addresses the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, was published by Saturnalia Books in 2019. Her collages have been exhibited at Poets House and The Center for Book Arts. She co-founded the KGB Bar Monday Night Poetry Series in the East Village in 1997, which continues today, and has taught poetry at The New School and at Stony Brook University’s MFA and BFA programs.

Star Black in the 90s. Photo by John Hill.

"Surround-Sound" by Star Black

 

The New York School Diaspora (Part Ten): Star Black [by Angela Ball]

“Feather-Flown,” Star Black’s meditation on photography, nuance, and vital laughter, begins like an ancient story: “There was a laughing photograph that laughed,” and is one: the story of creator, creation, and a third thing—fugitive, seldom articulated—their union.

The poet/photographer summons this amalgam of self, light, and fixative; this brilliant (and funny) “alamode mist,” —reprising it not just for herself, but for the “cold and / curious who think too much,” like, for example, Anton Chekhov’s “Man in a Shell,” who isolates himself from experience in fear of the silly, the exuberant.

The poem’s summons to the photograph, or rather to its genius, accelerates. Can it hear, where it hovers, freed of the miseries, amusements, and natural strivings of “lazarettos and hobos, / lawn bowlers and braided vines” that are the world’s emulsion? “Come back,” it calls. And, three times, “Come down.” Does the spell work? Or is the spell its own fulfillment?

As final imprimatur, Star Black’s “Feather-Flown” invokes the immediacy of touch both ethereal and actual--the way, in photographs, vision finds materiality; its stanzas our contact sheet, positive print, “missing photo of the inestimable.”

--Angela Ball

Comments

[David Lehman]

Kudos on an outstanding post: the poem and Star's comment on it, her collage, and Angela's analysis are all exemplary. I am particularly happy to highlight this multitalented artist who has given so much to poets and poetry.

[Marjorie Perloff]

Delightful and witty poem by a unique poet/artist. So happy to see it here and see Star's smiling face. Would love to see more of similar/same! I am the lucky owner of one of Star's collages and it always makes me smile!

[saas]

Finally, fall in NYC is also a great time to enjoy the city's cultural offerings. The fall season marks the beginning of the theater season, with many new plays and musicals debuting on Broadway. Additionally, the city's museums and galleries often have new exhibits opening in the fall, offering a chance to explore some of the world's finest art and artifacts.

fall in nyc