Judith Christensen and Betsy Mars

Hope is Also a Flower

Paper, ink, wax
2022

The plant community can serve as a model of complex adaptive systems. Rather than simply studying it as a set of patterns to emulate or adopt, a more fruitful approach for resilience may be to explore how we as humans can build a system of relationships and interactions within its existing structure.

Hope is Also a Flower

I find it in the grove, yellow
flicker at the edge of my dark
perception. What matters
is the aperture, a tiny crack
in my cataract-clouded vision.


My filter captures dross, sapped
ground, equally traps gold, a slight
twist or refinement of the lens
then: mist rising,
a calla lily blooms again.

The poem is a transfer, so it’s difficult to predict or control the outcome. We use this process because one of the underlying themes of our collaborative work is how memory and communication function. So if a word or part of a word is not entirely legible, it is not unlike our communication with others and our own experience, where we often fill in the gaps of our memories or our understanding of our experience with our beliefs.
2022
  • Judith Christensen and Betsy Mars

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