Turnings in Profile

I have been spending a lot of time lately reworking the poems in a collection I am calling Turnings. I have been sending it out, in various versions, to publishers for a few months now. A lot like fishing in muddy water. It takes more energy to rework a poem than to lay it out inspirationally at the beginning, sort of like having a baby, only little kids don’t get reworked so easily.

At the same time I’ve been spending some time at woodturning. The turning theme flows through the poems, for they deal with the turning of seasons, the twists and turns of life’s journey, the turnings of transformation in life, the turning of the circular reality all around us. Wit this set of bowls – all in walnut – I have been interested in the beauty of profiles. What makes a profile attractive? What is it about a profile that makes you want to run your fingers over it? There are clearly some profiles that remind us of the arc of a tulip stem or petal. Others seem to sit pot-like, ready to be the medium by which the bounty of the earth reaches our lips. Other profiles seem to evoke the human body itself. In any event, I thought I’d share a few with you.

Each of them has some “defect” in the wood that I have repaired with super glue or epoxy. Some nicks and chips simply stand as testimony to the life this wood has led. So I won’t give them away, even if I like their profiles. I have learned a lot making them. I even finally took the plunge and got a really nice Robert Sorby heavy-handled gouge system. Man, why did I wait so long?

Next week I’ll tell you about our upcoming trip to Cyprus. Meanwhile, you can look it up on the map.