After Seeing an Exhibit of Conceptual Art—

Here's a litany of woods that artists fashioned into incredible pieces of art. The exhibit titled: Shy Boy, She Devil, and Isis included glass and clay pieces—but the art drawn out of the wood enveloped me. I copied down the wood names because their sounds and their places of origin wove a pattern in my mind.

I came home and took some photos of wood—just ordinary wood.

A Litany of Wood Names Found at an Art Exhibit


myrtlewood beside a box-elder burl
ebonized mahogany
and huron pine
pieces inspired by
"wind, waves, flow and flight"
tasmanian huon pine
leaning , almost touching black walnut
and koa wood
bisbee turned and burned palm
swirling, like a dancer
into turned mesquite

African bubinga wood
jelutong, mahogany
india ebony
wood of Albizia
sliced slivers inlaid
vera wood, rosewood
spalted curly maple
Finnish birch plywood
wenge woods, ash
burls emptied,
East Indian kauri
poplar and basswood,
a yellow birch burl
fashioned into a bowl
alder wood
willow—with a reminder
of hanging branches

Shy Boy, She Devil, and Isis