{"id":9633,"date":"2018-12-21T18:02:55","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T23:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=9633"},"modified":"2018-12-21T19:40:02","modified_gmt":"2018-12-22T00:40:02","slug":"einspruch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/12\/21\/einspruch\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Cloud on a Mountain\u2019: Franklin Einspruch\u2019s Comics Poems From Mount Greylock"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAttention Massachusetts\/I have ascended above you,\u201d Franklin Einspruch writes across a watery painting of clouds that opens his book \u201cCloud on a Mountain: Comics Poems from Greylock.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Comics poetry is a hybrid of comics and poetry that foregrounds the condensed language of the two arts. These comics poems are the fruit of residencies that the Boston artist and writer (and friend of mine) spent in 2015 and 2018 at Bascom Lodge on Mount Greylock in Adams, Massachusetts. At 3,491 feet elevation, it’s the highest point in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n

\""Cloud<\/a>
“Cloud on a Mountain: Comics Poems from Greylock” by Franklin Einspruch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re about what it\u2019s like to be up in that environment on the mountain. There\u2019s this long history of people being upon the mountain. Thoreau was up on Mount Greylock and wrote about Mount Greylock,\u201d Einspruch says. \u201cThat feeling to be the latest speck of dust to roll across this landscape is important. I think that\u2019s what it\u2019s about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
From “Cloud on a Mountain: Comics Poems from Greylock” by Franklin Einspruch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Einspruch<\/a> has written about art for The New Criterion, Art in America and his long-running blog Artblog.net<\/a>. He\u2019s the founding editor of the online art magazine Delicious Line<\/a>. He says he has made comics poetry since 2006 and he\u2019s headed to MuseumsQuartier Wien in Austria this coming spring on a Fulbright to work on more. In 2012, he published the anthology \u201cComics as Poetry,\u201d<\/a> with an introduction by poet and art critic William Corbett. Part of the attraction for Einspruch is the feeling that comics poetry \u201chas not been done yet, which is a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
From “Cloud on a Mountain: Comics Poems from Greylock” by Franklin Einspruch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNo cold no damp like\/blown fog at\/blue dusk,\u201d Einspruch writes in blue across a black horizon under ominous blue-gray clouds. \u201cCloud on a Mountain,\u201d published by his New Modern Press, debuted at the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (MICE) in Cambridge in October. He wrote and made black and white ink drawings while up on the mountain. These works then inspired comics poems paintings that he made in egg tempera on paper when he returned to his studio. Each poem is two panels, side by side, for a panoramic landscape format.<\/p>\n

In his own work, Einspruch says, \u201ccomics poetry has always been connected with the Japanese tradition, especially the haiku tradition. So Basho, the poet wandering the landscape.\u201d Also the Chinese Buddhist poet Han-shan (Cold Mountain) and the Japanese Zen Buddhist poets Ryokan and Hakuin. What Einspruch takes away from this is a simplicity, a sparseness, the art of leaving out. \u201cA lot of different cultures understood that but it\u2019s especially appreciated in Asian poetry.”<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
From “Cloud on a Mountain: Comics Poems from Greylock” by Franklin Einspruch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cTree blinks and you\u2019re\/gone,\u201d Einspruch writes across a blue sky above a green slope punctuated by one evergreen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just disappear from this aspect of reality very quickly,\u201d Einspruch says. \u201cTrees have been around hundreds of years. Rocks have been around thousands of years. Greater minds have come through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Einspruch adds, \u201cI\u2019m really there to have the experience and interpret the experience. \u2026 The meaning of the thing is not mine to decide. How can I give an artistic experience of the thing that someone else can feel? If I do that then the meaning will take care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"From<\/a>
From “Cloud on a Mountain: Comics Poems from Greylock” by Franklin Einspruch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAttention Massachusetts\/I have ascended above you,\u201d Franklin Einspruch writes across a watery painting of clouds that opens his book \u201cCloud on a Mountain: Comics Poems from Greylock.\u201d Comics poetry is a hybrid of comics and poetry that foregrounds the condensed language of the two arts. These comics poems are the fruit of residencies that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,107],"tags":[492,491],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9633"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9633"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9663,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9633\/revisions\/9663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}