Gene Dillard, Mosaic Artist 2016

My friend Gene Dillard, once in my poetry classes, began working in mosaic art a few years back, and having covered his garage walls, he began on the inside of his house, and now is working on the outside.  These mosaics take about a year to complete a side, and mean piecing tiny pieces of tile or glass patiently hour after hour. He finds it a way to meditate.  What do you think?  Back in 2004, he spent a year in Honduras with the Peace Corps, building things--water systems as I remember--and writing poems in his spare time.  I've added in a few poems.  Aren't these beautiful?  Judy Hogan

***

The right side of the front of the house.

***
After only one week,
routine is sneaking
up the valley
like a cloud band,
seducing my mind.
Too soon I forget
how the new Honduran culture
embraced my heart
in its strong Latin hands,
then tore it open,
exposing me to new houses,
foods, cobblestone calles.
Everything attained a new height.
For a brief time
I had slipped

my cultural bondage.

***

Driveway side of house, recently completed, with sun on its mirrors.

***

Inside of Gene's house, with ceiling, doorways in mosaic.

***

           BANANAS

I saw his bent frame

walking toward the Mercado,

across his shoulders

a large pole with

huge bunches of bananas

hanging from each side.

Images rippled 

through my mind 

like corrugated sheet metal

used for roofing

in the third world

I thought he was a troubadour

carrying many fascinating

odes encased with

a protective outer skin,

waiting for a chance

to recite.

***

Front of garage was his first wall mosaic, but he has also done the side you see to the left.

***

Here is the new tree, with mosaic leaves, house behind it.

***

                        CEIBA TREES

In the silence of Copan Ruins

the wind blows

through the Ceiba trees,

a symbol for the Mayans

of the ever present

spiritual world.

I am reminded

 by the moaning wind,

as I view the deserted temples

that I am alone.

My loneliness forms itself into

dew droplets on the Ceiba leaves,

drips on to the stone reliefs

that make up this city.

***

Don't forget the chimney, and see if you can find Gene up there!