Beverly Cummings

Beverly Cummings

Artist’s statement

“Even paper flowers wilt. The nacreous sky arcane. The/downtown sirens. Keep it terse. Like pointillism the world is/visible between the atoms. Swarms of red ants clot the sidewalk./Crazy touch, the way the moon moves in and out of your/fingertips.” This segment from “Keep it Terse” shows how I search out a passionate commitment to life in all its ugly loveliness, large and small. I practice my art in the wake of insanity, of relationships past and present and in the face of solitude and death. Though dark I strive for humanity and a hard-won serenity. I engage in new images from and about nature and human nature, always being aware of their diversity. The writing itself is a real experience for me. In my work insanity is seen as the closest thing to death and there is the importance of making a good death. A stanza in one of my poems, “Soft Sung” sums up my attempt in my work: “Have I done what I tried to do?/Make madness an artistic experience”. I reach out for an authentic voice appraising creativity and the process of writing itself.

Areas of interest

  • Poetry