Janet Butler
A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Janet Butler recently relocated to the Bay Area, Oakland, California after a career as EFL teacher, translator, and watercolor painter in central Italy, where she lived for many years. While in Italy she collaborated with Dr. Romeo Giuli in the translation of his poetry from 1997 to 2003, and a selection of these poems was published by Solveig Publishing, Siena, Italy. After this collaboration, Ms. Butler dedicated herself to her own creative writing. Her poetry has been published in several editions of Scrivener's Pen, in FrontStreet Review, Ken*again, which also published four of her watercolors, Tilt (UK), Underground Window, ForPoetry, SubtleTea, The Surface, JMWW, Prose Toad, Underground Voices, Carnelian and others. Sage of Consciousness will present Ms. Butler as featured writer in an upcoming fall 2005 edition. Her poems and watercolors may be seen at: http://www.janetleebutler.com
Other works by Janet are available for reading in the archives.
Mother Mild
Madonna col bambino
By Piero della Francesca (1472-74)
The
child sleeps.
Plump,
pink, a soft weight
in maternal arms.
Afternoon light
laces marble floors
with layered shadows,
mild breezes swelling
diaphanous veils
that shelter the shady room.
The
hours pass in honeyed silence,
yet she hears the thunder, faintly,
sees down months and years
to a day become dark,
trembles, slightly,
at the sudden coolness
as she and babe wait for night
in shadows that point
to Golgotha.
Copyright ©2005 by Janet Butler