s w i f t s  &  s l o w s: a quarterly of crisscrossings

The Thin Light, Stories 
Ali Dixon & Bruce Kauffman

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the thin light

see the guardrails these cables
one above the other
taller than you can reach
or climb on this ledge

they are protecting us
not from falling

  but finding

the blurred ever-lights beside us
over our shoulder
behind

this constantly trying to focus

impossible

at the speed of life

we are on our yet another
slow walk around the sun

the highest streetlamp
pretends to be moon or daylight
is neither

past this hypnotizing night’s colour
and hum of city lights
at the edge of this city
on the darkened windows
of those buildings’ tallest floors
each windowsill and frame
contains a reflected painting
of a piece of a full night sky

of all the stars

an occasional moon

the lit clouds beneath
covering up its most secret parts

these paintings as real as night
ever-hung and changing
and ever-painted by
an unknown artist’s hand

stories

what do you have
to tell me
this morning
that is either

         new

         or old

there are so many
stories

         in their always

         slow calm roll

just beneath
your flesh
behind you
eyes on the
back of your tongue

you
each of you
neither excited
nor reluctant

         to share

they are simply
who you are
they are the most

         of your blood

we tell more
of who we are
when we laugh

         or smile

         or sing

we tell the most
though of who are
when

         we weep

when

         we bleed

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Poetry by Bruce Kauffman.  Photographs by Ali Dixon.  2 of 6 pairings from the exhibition, But 6 Moments in the All of Time at the Kingston Art Council’s UNIT 115 ‘Art Space’, Kingston, ON.

Ali Dixon is an emerging multimedia artist and filmmaker from Kingston Ontario Canada currently completing her undergraduate degree at Queen’s University as a Film and Media Major. While the majority of her work is primarily still or moving image, she has recently embarked on experimenting with various medias and creative forms, from poetry and prose to soundscapes and digital collage. A recurring theme in Dixon’s work is that of Haunting, specifically Haunting as a metaphor for how memories inhabit and navigate architectures or everyday spaces. As a part of her fourth-year independent study at Queen’s, Dixon completed a multimedia work titled Pentitent Hauntings (April 26th – 30th, 2019) that explores wandering memories and their continual haunting of architectures of containment. Her collaborative work with Kauffman carries a similar weight in that each photograph depicts an isolated, everyday moment in time that is given an active voice through its accompanying poems.

Bruce Kauffman lives in Kingston and is a local poet, editor, and organizer of literary events. In addition to his collaborative work with other artists, his written work has appeared in several anthologies and journals, broadsides, two chapbooks, and four collections of poetry, with his latest – an evening’s absence still waiting for moon launching in Spring 2019. Beyond writing and editing, he organizes occasional book launch or reading events, facilitates intuitive writing workshops, founded, organizes and hosts the monthly ‘and the journey continues’ open mic reading series, the annual multiday Poets @ Artfest poetry festival, and Kingston’s tie to the global 100 Thousand Poets for Change held annually. He also produces and hosts his weekly spoken word radio show, ‘finding a voice’, on CFRC 101.9fm. With literally billions of ‘things’ happening and interacting with each other in even any instant in time – and then disappearing as they were and as we ‘knew’ them, his collaboration with Ali Dixon is meant to capture snapshots of but 6 single moments to allow them each a greater identity, a longer presence.