Paulines and Paulisms

Photograph by Paul Hsu Poetry in Slow Motion and Stillness How do we balance between the body, center our heart, mind, soul, and strength? What does our ballerina dancer's starting stance have to do with being whole? Where do we begin but with sheet music and the feet of dance, dance, revolution? by Paul Hsu 11/22-23/15

Photograph by Paul Hsu The Hsu Review: My Interview This Month Features Visual Artist Dan Johnson Who is Dan Johnson that you are mindful of him? He is an awesome artist who is working out his faith, hope, and love with a contemplative sense of mystery that beauty will save world. Where in the world are you right now? At Home Depot, we are here today and gone tomorrow to gather up materials for Dan's conceptualization-to-installation about questioning whether suburbia's white picket fences and manicured lawns can make up for good neighbors and good old-fashioned neighborliness. What is this artist's work really, ultimately about? Dan figures that his artistic process is about incarnation, liminality, and the sublime. His work explores the meaning and nature of the human body and heavenly bodies by way of the bodily imprints made from the artist as self in relationship to community. Dan's breath, being simply human, slowly begins expanding ...

Photographs by Paul Hsu Dear Dumplings Break open heart's treasure chests. Remember love's ancestors. by Paul Hsu 11-14-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu Choose Your Own Caption 1. Cleaning up after me builds character. 2. Curiosity goes unrewarded. 3. Genius is so often misunderstood. 4. I'm not very happy with you right now. 5. Life gets real messy when you're not around. by Paul Hsu 11-13-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu Birthdays Four and Two Four has to be the first to get through, always in front and just ahead of Two. Four talks enough for a party of Two and likes to tell Two what not to do. Two likes to copy the actions of Four and repeat what Four said right out the door. Two will find ways to antagonize Four; that is what brothers and sisters are for. by Paul Hsu 11/8-9/15

Photograph by Paul Hsu Facial Impression This is my Mona Lisa smile. Walk through the art museum single file. Snap the photograph of Madonna as child. Face the mask of the meek and mild. by Paul Hsu 11-8-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu Facial Recognition This is my superhero scowl. Forget the batty cape and cowl. I wrinkle my nose during face time. Catch you off guard. Photography's a crime. by Paul Hsu 11/6-7/15

Photograph by Paul Hsu Sunflowers, Agritopia 1. After a hearty breakfast at Joe's Farm Grill, my friend Dan Johnson--a graduate student who is currently working toward the next level up of mastery in the visual arts and also growing a burning bush for a beard--and I, a stillborn poet, continue our conversation on art and faith as two water striders skating along the surface tension of the sublime. 2. Listen to the liminal strings of lyricism and musicianship reverberating in the orchestral chambers of the human body-heart-mind-space-time continuum. 3. Aimlessly, along the dirt paths of Agritopia, we walk and talk of this possibility and that particularity, standing in the middle of the road between contemplation of the classics and contemporaries. 4. During a passing moment of silence, I think of you, dearest Vincent, sad brother and starry-eyed soul. 5. What do we have to say to each other today in paradise but that I am dying a thousand deaths...

Photographs by Paul Hsu To the Vineyard You are the great grapevine I am but a small green branch rounding toward wholesomeness in the daily grace of things cast me not far far away from your omnipresence rather renew a righteous spirit of fruition wherein water becomes wine within me the deep well of song by Paul Hsu 10-18-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu Like Saying Your Prayers A gathering of blues Begins with shape shifting Clouds as movements as waves Descending doves alight Endless as desire by Paul Hsu 10/15-16/15

Photograph by Paul Hsu Like a Child A little salt and light Body of water Carry me home Daddy I am your shadow by Paul Hsu 10/8-9/15

Photographs by Paul Hsu At Chase Field Chewing on Wrigley Gum A Date Night My two favorite teams play the old ballgame in a mid-spring evening classic. Baseball Cards and Baseball Questions Where have you been all my baseball life? Will you be my baseball wife? Cubs October Survey Which one of the following two do you choose to believe will become true? There is always next year. This is the year. Starry Eyes If the Cubs win the World Series, then all baseball lovers shall throw together a smashing wedding party and a baby shower and dance-streak across the November night sky as shooting stars. by Paul Hsu 10/1-2/15

Photographs by Paul Hsu Hybridity and Biculturalism for Ben and Esther HsuBorger Be known and unknown Education is not enough Become becoming Experience is not enough Begin with happy endings End with sad beginnings Breathe in Chinese characters Exhale as English subtitles by Paul Hsu 9-28-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu Microcosmic In the jungle of leafy greens the spider feeds on beetle juice. by Paul Hsu 9/25-27/15

Photographs by Paul Hsu Directions 1. Follow me down sidewalks to water. 2. Listen, child's play, to sounds of water. 3. Reflect light and shadows by water. 4. Taste and see whose thoughts well as water. by Paul Hsu 9-20-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu At My Funeral I would like you to make a few new friendships among the calla lilies. by Paul Hsu 9-15-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu Chalk just scratches the tired surface of a paved and driven way of life which the elements will wear away by Paul Hsu 9-11-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu Refuge In disguise as a child of exile the winged messenger bears tidings of great suffering as the children of dust and earth hunger and thirst for food and water shelter and hearth leaving behind home and country for homelessness leaving behind possessions for dispossession turning to salt in the desert and wandering for forty days and forty nights far far away from the waterways and the city lights. by Paul Hsu 9-5-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu In the Nick of Time with the tour guide by my side I bear witness to these shades imprisoned in the rust of cell life a death sentence in one or two dimensions whose souls move live and breathe disconnected from the body recovered but dismembered in self-torture and beheaded by the jovial and mischievous mystery man the Green Knight who keeps his axe to the grindstone as Sir Gawain sweats for dear life and I am left to circumscribe the many meanings of a few green men whose necks are nothing if not bloody magical stumps unremarkable with the changing of the seasons by Paul Hsu 8-28-15

Photographs by Paul Hsu Embrace the emotions and the exhaustion the notes between the sights and the sounds the restlessness and the stop sign posts the subconscious and the sleepovers the unconscious and the universe who is within and who is without you by Paul Hsu 8-22-15

Photographs by Paul Hsu American Dream Machines Track the railroad and the historical Record of its backbreaking hard labor And unequal compensation between Immigrants Irish and Chinese who had seen News of the transcontinental divide. Strike up the conversation between cultures. by Paul Hsu 8-15-15

Photographs by Paul Hsu Seeing Things for Seamus Heaney Father and son As slow pilgrims In the desert. The holy sprites Here with us now. Father and son And holy sprites In the forest. This is water. Here we are now. by Paul Hsu 8-12-15

Photographs by Paul Hsu Desert Father's Pilgrimage Halfway through my life 2 walk and talk beside me Over paths by streams. by Paul Hsu 8-11-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu To the Great Regret Stalker of small fish and sample-sized game, are you on the hunt in what appears to be an oil painting or a photograph of such a rare occurrence in perceiving the real thing? Which language calls daily deep disappointment with God? With wings of terror and beauty? by Paul Hsu 8/6-7/15

Photograph by Paul Hsu World Wide Web All aboard the international space station a little songbird tweets watchful satellite feeds on the venomous spider's organization. by Paul Hsu 7-24-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu Saguaro to Saguaro Water towers in the desert. Walkie-talkie whispers in the wind. Stand watch as clouds stroll and fly by. Serve and protect wildlife with shade. Open manners to birds and bees. Observe for signs of life out there. Bless and curse the desert landscape. Beautify the desert blue sky. Ancient wisdom inside cacti. After the rain water resides. by Paul Hsu 7-22-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu Catfish Found poem dead or alive in dark waters. Looks lively with  its tail of white light. Mourning song. Starry night. Still life. Sudden death in slow motion being carried away by dark currents. Vessel broken with bread. by Paul Hsu 7/19-20/15

Photographs by Paul Hsu Reflections: Shadowlands 1. Kingdoms one draws bridge two eyes edge two kingdoms water and sky three kingdoms clouds waves light 2. Cities one draws bridge two eyes edge two cities God and man three cities strange heartland 3. Towers one draws bridge two eyes edge two towers fear and love three towers beast crows dove 4. Mirrors one draws bridge two eyes edge two mirrors life writes death three mirrors doubt moves faith 5. Crossings one draws bridge two eyes edge two crossings right and left three crossings breath shapes flesh flesh shapes breath breath takes flesh flesh takes breath breath wakes flesh by Paul Hsu 7-16-15

Photographs by Paul Hsu Paloverde tree in memory shade from desert sun springtime blossoms stun body's senses with poetry by Paul Hsu 7-9-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu You See Me Through "Daddy, Daddy, who do you see?" "I see WALL-E, my buddy B." "Daddy, Daddy, do you see me?" "I do see you see through me too." by Paul Hsu 7-5-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu According to Bunnies Run, jump, hopscotch, dash In and out of brush. Play off and on dirt paths According to bunnies. Run, jump, hopscotch, dash In and out of brush. According to bunnies Nuzzle, nestle, nap. by Paul Hsu 6-28-15

Photographs by Paul Hsu At Sushi Ave Grandpa treats us to the crisp tenderness of tasty shrimp and veggie tempura. As our ramen noodle soups simmer down we click our chopsticks as if to say grace permeates the sights, smells, sounds, and tastes of place. by Paul Hsu 6/24-25/15

Photograph by Paul Hsu A Brush with Bunny Trails Off the mainstream trail we spot a cottontail searching in the shadows for some significance in between hops and scotch deep down the rabbit hole. by Paul Hsu 6-22-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu Ode to Magic Wands You catch my thought bubble meaning we make pop art. by Paul Hsu 6/17-18/15

  Photographs by Paul Hsu Train Station It is a beautiful April today Let us just wait awhile for the whistle to signal in the beginning and at the end of our journey from first flower to final flower petals open and close behind our eyes It is written we compose trains of thought riding between daydreams and night visions by Paul Hsu 6-13-15

Photograph by Paul Hsu Istanbul, You Were Once Constantinople 1. In the basilica of Hagia Sophia I remain silent like Paul as I round tall chambers and halls. Footfalls profound on holy ground. 2. I sail to Byzantium a country before amen. 3. Byzantium ancient beauty classical city by the sea backstreets crossroads of poetry encounters art faith mystery. 4. On the seashore of the Marmara Sea I walk on marble waves pray on my knees. 5. When I turn toward Turkey I speak of great beauty of the gray-eyed lady at the pharmacy You touch me heal me. by Paul Hsu 6/10-11/15

Photograph by Paul Hsu To My People of Swing Let us swing for what rests by the way just beyond the fences and thus bring love light home safe as sound as silence as children our laughter fears and tears resounding on playground. by Paul Hsu 6-1-15

Drawing and Marking by E. Hsu and Photograph by Paul Hsu Heart Tree by E. Hsu Dear heart tree I have hangman hangover from my entanglements with noisy flightless birds stuck in a thicket of fighting words. Dear heart tree special branch in me like a well-kept secret location ring echoing ring so I sing the heartbeat of seeing things. by Paul Hsu 5-29-15

Drawing and Marking by E. Hsu and Photograph by Paul Hsu Apple Tree Banana Tree Apples fall from the tree and know good and evil. Bananas bruised believe in mystery and the devil. Christian imagery surrounds me like shades in a bowl of cherries. by Paul Hsu 5-28-15

Drawing and Marking by E. Hsu and Photograph by Paul Hsu Flowers Tree by E. Hsu The Wind Rises Balloons Fly Free Taste and See Strings Surprise Artist Eyes Flowers Tree by Paul Hsu 5-27-15