Limitless Project: Larry Smith
Inspiration comes to us in limitless ways. Larry doesn't just expore the limitlessness of his own creativity, he also inpsires and nurtures it in others. Larry is a poet/writer who has worked throughout his life writing, teaching and promoting creative writing in a variety of ways. Not only does Larry write his own poetry, but he runs a small publishing company where he publishes the work of other writers and poets. Along with weekly Converging Paths meditation sessions that he hosts (with his wife Ann) on Tuesdays evenings in our Huron studio, Larry hosts a monthly poetry reading followed by an open mic at Mr. Smith's in Sanduksy on second Saturdays. The first poem that Larry is sharing was inspired during a Converging Paths session.
-Shannon Leigh
I call these photo-poems because they blend the arts of writing and photography. I often partner with my son Brian's fine nature photographs...take them in sensing the moment, then become moved by something that speaks to me and others. It's a kind of meditation in itself. Besides ignoring genre limits, the poems open a new shared vision.
To me poetry and photography seek to say what can't be said and yet we try, through steady attention and clear intention something emerges. Brian took the candid photos of Ann and me while standing at the boat house out at Marblehead Lighthouse. They capture a moment of presence. The one of the floor boards of Open Way Yoga studio speaks itself, just as the floor did that night as we walked it in silence.
One more thought, for me, the poet needs to disappear in the work...ego vanished, the images speak.
Many of you know Larry Smith from around the studio. He regularly attends Gentle Yoga at the Huron studio and, along with his wife Ann, Larry hosts the Tuesday evening Converging Path's meditation group which gathers in our Huron Studio at 7:30 PM. He taught Creative Writing at Firelands College for 35 years before retiring and he is the founder and director of Bottom Dog Press in Huron.
Converging Paths Meditation Group:
Tuesdays at OWY Huron 7:30-8:30 PM
Coffeehouse Reading Series
Mr. Smith's
Second Saturdays at 2:00 PM