Echrasses means description in Greek, but when poets undertake

Echfrasas we're talking about art and more than that we're making poems that

not only describe art, they tap deep into the work of artists

to ask bigger questions about our languages and our experiences in the world.

This week's episodes are all in conversation with art

and those magnificent poems on art.

They are only possible through the work of the institutions that care for,

share, and support the work of artists. We encourage you too to visit and support these museums, galleries, and art spaces. I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown.

I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown.

Who among us has not been awed looking up at a large flock of birds, migrating in a V? Or watched in wonder at a murmuration of starlings twisting into swirling shapes at dusk.

Such sights guarantee my open mouth amazement.

The birds seem to fly based on some divine knowing.

They point to mysteries beyond my comprehension.

In ancient times, I think I have been a priest who ventured to understand and make

predictions based on the behavior of birds.

The vision of birds stilled in motion at the center of Tom Utex paintings invite similar

speculations. Today's poem reads an exodus of Earth's species as an ominous commentary I surmise on the decimation of the environment.

Not so much an end as an entangling by Linda Gregerson

Tom U-Tek, Oil on Lenin, 2016.

1. And then the animals began to flee from right to left across the surface of the visual plane.

The birds in great number, owl and osprey, redneck Grebe, the Nut Hatch, the Night Hawk, the Warbler in 11 kinds.

And that's when we began to understand because it wasn't normal.

...