For Rini Price (3/9/1941 to 10/19/2019)
Dear Friends, please pardon this impersonal announcement, but I thought it best to use the Mercury to contact some of Rini’s and my dear friends far and wide who know us personally and through our association with Century Magazine, New Mexico Mercury and Mercury Messenger. Rini passed away Saturday morning at 8:48 from pneumonia. She had been suffering from an atypical dementia, with gallantry and kindness to all who cared for her, during the last four and a half years. It would honor her memory if you’d go to her website at riniprice.com and spend some time with her and her powerfully beautiful and unique body of work, which spans more than 60 years of genius with a pencil on paper and all other media she worked with. The following poems are from a collaboration between us that was exhibited by Don and Pamela Michaelis at Artspace 116 in 2005.
WALKING ON WATER
Waiting all our lives,
we expect it to happen,
and keep on waiting,
for it to happen
as we expect.
But it never appears
until it does,
until it’s too late
to see it coming,
even when we know
it’s on the way.
It is its nature
to take us by surprise,
when we are
most focused
on our lives.
Fast or slow,
it is ours
when we are most
barely our own,
like walking on water must be
as thought-less
as pulse.
SYMPATHETIC RAPTURE
The great owl of death
seizes me by the breath,
covers me with her wings,
breaks my will with her kiss,
devours me like an eclipse.
In sympathy, I shudder,
releasing all resistance,
enfolded in her shadow,
in the night of her body’s shade.
As prey, I have no choice.
In moonlight, though,
as a lover letting go, I am all hers,
cradled, embracing, all unafraid.
NO PERFORMANCE
Afraid to start,
afraid to fail,
I procrastinate
at learning
how to die,
even though I know
the fulfillment of my life
is told
in how relaxed I am
with death
at the center of my life.
To die as I was born,
with no intention,
moving out beyond, at any time
—what’s the difference
between babies and the wise?
Only that the one
could choose
to be so freely given.
SUNDAY IN LOS CHAVEZ
In need of myth,
the human gods
just cloudy fossils of ideas,
I see new hope
in a tall tree row,
a tidal swell of green
that is the scene
of rendezvous,
the back wall of time,
a place behind
the scenery of the hours,
the backdrop prop
of the theater of my fears.
That cliff of trees,
of dream threes
sprouting up from twilight,
it greets me every Sunday
as I hang out the wash,
formal as death,
a landscape like a holy self
that is divine
with nothing more behind it,
not a god of deeds and duties,
just a place
normal as breath,
as mind,
as this and that,
or whatever
is behind us
and ahead.
LETTING GO
How can I befriend the death
of anyone I love
unless I do to their’s
what I have done to mine?
Their lives just happened to me.
They were never my possession.
Their deaths were always free ahead.
The pain I feel for them is sheer fatigue.
Their deaths outline my dying,
and my life despises letting go.
Even though I know
there’s nothing final but the past,
I can’t submit
to freedom that’s ahead
while bound, denying freedom
to the dead.
Thanks for these poems Barrett!! Beautifully poignant.
Keir
This collaboration, like all those between true artists who love one another deeply and possess the depth and talent to translate that relationship into work, has a special meaning… particularly at this moment. Dearest friend, so much gratitude and love at this time of loss and yet also a strange sense of peace. There are no words to adequately express who Rini was/is, and what her death has taken from us all. Thank you for reminding us of what she gave us, for sharing these images and poems. I have been spending time at Rini’s web site since Saturday. And my arms are around you.
The poems were a profound blessing. I think of you. I send you these thoughts.
Thank you for these poems and the art. Thanks for everything that you and Rini gave to the world, to me. Arms folded around you.
Dear Barrett,
This beautiful tribute celebrates the aesthetic endeavors and the thoughtfulness with which Rini lived.
Thank you for sharing some of her words and images.
My thoughts are with her, and you.
Condolences, V.B. I never met Rini, nor, in fact, have I met you. It is obvious she was a true artist as, indeed, are you. We are all blessed with your great and kind spirits. The poems are beautiful and profound. With love and respect, Richard Ward
Barrett, thank you so much for sharing these wonderful words. My heart goes out to you. Know that we all loved Rini, and she will be greatly missed.
Thank you for sharing Rini’s poetry. As a hospice worker, it is very real to me and she captured it elegantly.
Barrett,
I always felt that it was such a grace to know you and Rini and to see the love and the devotion that you had for each other. You will miss your companion deeply, but I hope you take comfort in the love that so many people have for you. Rini’s work is amazing; thank you for reminding us of her gift.
Love to you,
Margo
Thank you, Barrett, for this page — beautiful in so many ways. I particularly treasure “Letting Go”, as I’m still learning how to do this, myself. Thanks again, and love always.
Dear Barrett, Thank you for sharing your deeply affecting words and Rini’s powerful images. May we all to strive to pass our days, as Rini did, with gallantry and kindness.
With love to you and Jody and Keir
So sorry for your loss. So thrilled at how graceful you’ve shared it with us.
Barrett, A couple months back I was invited to a poetry party by a colleague of my wife Diane, a party that invited all in attendance to read aloud something that meant a lot to them. Along with a poem by Amaris Ketcham, I was compelled to read from your 7 Deadly Sins because it remains so timely. Looking back through that book at that time I found myself engaged in thoughts about how how well Rini’s illustrations fit your words and your words her illustrations. I now find myself again looking and reading through your collaborations. I find myself sadden by her passing, but taking solace in knowing a record of the beauty you produced together persists. Rini will be missed, but not forgotten. -Troy Lovata
Barrett, I’ve been trying to catch my breath since reading of Rini’s passing in your recent note posted along with those wonderful poems. I never knew her well, or hardly at all, but her work speaks volumes about her place in the world and in your life. Death doesn’t table subjects for later, and now that Rini has found some ease, I hope you do too, old friend. Nothing comes to a full stop, and nothing is ever left behind.
Peace, Carl
Dear Barrett,
Thinking of you tonight, your great kindness, your wonderful mind, your enormous capacity for devotion, your dedication to truth. It was a great gift to spend time with you and with both of you.
Thank you for the poems and Rini’s work. Her memory is a blessing.
Much love to you, old friend,
enid
These poems are all so beautiful. With your permission I would love to print and frame these for my walls. Thanks for sharing. Robin