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Writer, photographer create book of poems and photos

LOCK HAVEN -- Poet Marjorie Maddox Hafer and photographer Karen Elias have been working for the past several years on a collaborative project in which they produce new work, either in image or in word, inspired by the other's creativity. They have found that their visions resonate one with the other to create a third, more expansive view. The result of this collaboration is a book-length collection of poems and photos called Heart Speaks, Is Spoken For, which is scheduled for publication this coming fall by Shanti Arts Press.

The collaboration began in fall 2019 when the two were paired for an exhibit at the Station Gallery called "Visual Words and Speaking Art," with Margie assigned to respond to one of Karen's photos, and Karen asked to respond to one of Margie's poems.

Much of the work in the forthcoming book is focused on the heart's response to the natural world. In honor of Earth Day, here is a paired collaboration from the book celebrating the earth's quiet resilience and the stubborn persistence of hope.

Heart, Lichen, Stone

By Marjorie Maddox

This is what they know:

the dip into frigid;

the shadowed shelter of cave;

the beauty of decay at dusk, at dawn;

the tatooed rays of one more orbit

of earth around a sun that says, "Hold on,

hold on, hold on." And they want to,

and they do, and they will, lingering

a little longer beneath the open branches

of forest, beside the cool stream of hope,

waiting for you, for me, for whoever

stumbles first down the long path

calling their names.