The Music of Life

Amalie Landry

Ridges line the viridescent flesh

the groves of a record

to be played by a too old player

as we dance in the moonlight

lighting up a starry sky

empty and smooth

our hearts long for the times

when we were young

and had just met

that summer in the sun

caught by the roots

of a blade of grass

snatched before it could think

held to for dear life

to hold the memories in place

crystalize the moments

one day to be used

as the articles of life

to weave a basket

of our recollection.

Ella Ciffone

Biography: I love to create and play with different mediums. I make bad art until sometimes it turns out good. It’s about how it makes you feel while you make it and how it makes others feel when you share it.

Artist Statement: A love poem as a photo of the Oregon coast. The perspective down the coastline is both serene and powerful.

Amalie Landry

Biography: Amalie Landry grew up immersed in the art world and had made her first paintings before she could walk. With both of her parents having attended art school and instilling in her a spirit of curiosity and creativity, art has always been a calling for her. She grew up in the forested and beautiful areas of the Pacific Northwest, which inspires much of her work, as well as her life experiences with chronic illness, love for the sciences, and genuine fascination with her surroundings. Over the years, she has tried many different art forms and currently practices watercolor, writing poetry, and embroidery the most often. She is presently studying Biochemistry at Oregon State University with the hope of working in the medical field in the future.

Artist Statement: In the poem The Music of Life, I explore the nostalgia inherent in memory, treating our shared past as a physical object, like the “groves of a record,” that we attempt to replay and hold onto. Inspired by cinematic images of couples dancing in twilight fields, this piece captures the tension between the yearning for crystallized moments and the reality of time passing. It is a meditation on how we use “the articles of life” to meticulously weave a collective recollection, grounding the ethereal vision of romance within the tangible, rooted world.