Mara Buck's Blog
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Nov.16.2012
![the-problem-we-all-live-with-8x5[1].jpg](http://redroom.com/files/images/the-problem-we-all-live-with-8x5[1].100x150.jpg)
On November 14, 1960, this country was forever changed for the better by the bravery of one little girl.
One day
Black skin, white dress,
Red tomato.
Colors of courage.
A queen without a crown,
her angel wings resolutely folded,
armed with
the fiercest artillery,
armed
with...
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Nov.15.2012
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There was a bodega on that corner, where the drycleaner used to get coffee before she opened in the morning. And there was an old man who sat on a bench under that small maple across the street and sometimes a little girl would sit beside him. And I think the third window in the...
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Nov.14.2012
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The tears for Haiti are silent tears that drop into the muddy waters and die unnoticed.
There is such a story to this photograph. Where is this woman going --- and does it matter? It matters very much to her, for it is her life, a life as relevant as any.
Let us remember that...
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Nov.12.2012
In a trunk filled with mothballs lies the somewhat-shredded woolen flag that flew over my father’s minesweeper while it cruised the Straits of Iwo Jima. My mother’s bridal suit and my father’s navy blues are there too, sandwiched along with the flag. I will keep the uniform and the suit...
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Nov.11.2012
![Vonnegut_AF[1].jpg](http://redroom.com/files/images/Vonnegut_AF[1].100x150.jpg)
Kurt Vonnegut looked old. He shuffled by my booth at the antiques show, eyes bleary, a bit of the ancient walrus about him. A walrus in a rumpled London Fog, neither stylish nor especially interesting. I had only rhinestone jewelry to offer. Not walrus fodder at...
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Nov.11.2012
For Veterans Day, some thoughts on courage, a short video, words and art by Mara Buck.
http://redroom.com/member/mara-buck/media/videos/some-thoughts-on-courage-by-mara-buck
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Nov.09.2012
There are days when all is golden and the sky is soft and life is a smooth breath that we inhale without thought to its origins. Yet on this planet we are interconnected now in ways heretofore undreamed of; the pain of one drowned at sea or trapped under...
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Oct.27.2011
Being an impoverished citizen of the planet, I was compelled to add my voice to those who march for the ninety-nine percent, thus this short video. I wrote the poem itself as a generic reflection on protest some time ago, yet it remains shockingly appropriate for demonstrations from Tienanmen...
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Oct.16.2011
I’m from Maine and I live in the woods. My email is sporadic and my snail mail is based on the whimsy of the local crows. Thus, I’m always inordinately pleased when those in the big world outside my gate read my words and give me little boosts of encouragement. To wit, thanks are...
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Oct.14.2011
I’m not really big on this ‘like me’ stuff, but if you click the link below it will not only lead you to my poem “The Empath” now entered in the UN’s Poetry for Peace ‘Contest,’ but lead you to links to more poetry. Other poets before me are now in the thousands of ‘votes’ so it’s doubtful...
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Oct.11.2011
Today would have been my Aunt Alice’s one-hundredth birthday. Hers was a tragic life of early widowhood and schizophrenia. Never have I known anyone braver, harder-working, or more generous --- or more under-appreciated. I write and paint on the land paid for by her young husband’...
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Oct.08.2011
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Fasten your lifejackets…a portfolio of my work is now live in Drunken Boat 14. Edgy and brassy? For grownups? Well, yes it is... http://www.drunkenboat.com/db14/5sex/buck. Many thanks to Ravi Shankar and his able editors for the inclusion.
For the complete art...
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Sep.26.2011
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In Maine I breathe oxygen
winged west from trees in Kenya
planted by Wangari Maathai,
as she breathed
oxygen from the maple rising
here ninety feet above me,
blowing east to Africa.
For the greatest gift
we can share ---
we can share breath
and
freedom.
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Sep.17.2011
“Hey Mom! Come lookit this!” The puppy is balancing a Milkbone delicately on the tip of her nose and her eyes are crossed, staring down at it. “There’s a lady on my biscuit. Lookit!”
The dog biscuit remains balanced, though teetering. I...
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Sep.12.2011
The ongoing coverage of those dark September days of 2001 focused on myriad stories of unspeakable loss and mind-numbing heroism, of heartwrenching sorrow, of uniting horror, yet today ten years later, one brief interview unseen by most brings a tear to me, one moment...
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Toni Morrison says, “If there is a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” So I have. HIGHWAY TO OBLIVION.”
About Mara
A naïve Maine native, I arrived at NYU eager to become a lawyer (until l met one!) so switched to Art History (all those beautiful slides!), studied anatomy and painting at the Art Students League, wrote art criticism for “The Villager” and handled foreign...
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Causes Mara Buck Supports
Kennebec Valley Humane Society, Amnesty International