{"id":38188,"date":"2022-01-28T01:51:03","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T09:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=38188"},"modified":"2022-01-27T18:02:49","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T02:02:49","slug":"poetry-and-painting-flourish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2022\/01\/28\/poetry-and-painting-flourish\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry and painting flourish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pnina Granirer launches her new book, Garden of Words, at the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival Feb. 9. (photo from JBF)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cUnexpected and unplanned, like small gifts offered by a kind friend, poems have been forming in my head ever since I was a child,\u201d writes Pnina Granirer in her most recent book, Garden of Words<\/em>. \u201cUnexpected\u201d is the perfect word for Granirer, who continually reinvents her artistic self.<\/p>\n

Garden of Words<\/em> is a beautiful mix of Granirer\u2019s painted \u201cwords\u201d and her written ones, her more distant past and recent experiences, including the loss of her life-partner of more than 65 years, in August 2020. The book is dedicated to Eddy and the final poem (\u201cGoodbye\u201d) and image (\u201cEddy Studying During Power Outage,\u201d 1957, charcoal on paper) are of him.<\/p>\n

This collection is a very personal work that shows Granirer\u2019s powers of observation, both in her paintings and drawings, as well as in her poetry. It also shows her strength via her willingness to be vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Pnina Granirer (photo courtesy JBF)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two poems are part of the book\u2019s foreword. The first, explains Granirer, who was born in Romania, \u201cexpresses the joy and happiness of a 10-year-old when on August 23, 1944, the Soviet Red Army entered our town, on the day that the cattle cars were waiting at the train station to take us away to the concentration camps. It had been a narrow escape, indeed!\u201d The second is the title poem, in which Granirer notes that she is a painter, \u201cI speak with paint and brush \/ my words are written \/ with colour and with line.\u201d But, she recognizes the power of words, their ability to \u201cconjure a Universe\u201d: \u201cI should so like to plant \/ a garden of words \/ in my field of colours \/\/ and watch them grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garden of Words<\/em> has six sections: Sea and Stones; Pandemic; Dancers; Memories of Spain; This and That; and Closure. Her poems are short, concisely capturing the ephemerality of life \u2013 not even stones are permanent, the ebb and flow of water covers and exposes them, reshapes them, while they absorb past lives (fossils) and form sculptures. Stones offer inspiration and company to Granirer, who listens to their \u201cquiet whispering.\u201d<\/p>\n

While all of the paintings Granirer has selected for this book interact wonderfully with her poems, reinforcing their themes, particularly powerful is the interplay between the poems about COVID-19 and artworks that had, of course, other meanings when they were created years ago. The new poem \u201cAll Together Now,\u201d which starts, \u201cThis novel enemy is democratic. \/\/ In its indifference \/ all prey is equal,\u201d is followed by the 2008 painting \u201cUtopia \u2013 All Together Now,\u201d which features four people dancing within a diamond-shaped boundary. One dancer\u2019s head and their left foot cross the barrier. With dancing as one of the activities that has been restricted during the pandemic and the fact that we\u2019ve all had to create bubbles (diamonds?) within which we can socialize safely, this probably once-joyous painting takes on a more sombre joy.<\/p>\n

There are also sparks of sombre humour in various poems, including \u201cVisit with El Greco\u201d and \u201cCity Woman.\u201d And the fear is palpable and relatable in the prose poem \u201cGrenada,\u201d which includes the stark reflection: \u201cFive hundred years after the Inquisition, the burnings and autos-da-f\u00e9 are pushed out of memory, conveniently forgotten, but the ceremonies persist; the dark past is not taught in Spanish schools. It has been turned into an Easter celebration, a parade, a fun event.\u201d But, for Granirer, the crowds are ominous, evoking images of the Inquisition: \u201cI am a Jew and it is coming for me. I am a Muslim and I am afraid. I am a Black woman and here is the KKK coming. I am terrified. The sight of those pointed hoods unleashes a flood of emotion I did not know I was capable of. My anxiety is close to panic.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are happier reflections. \u201cPas-de-deux,\u201d for example, describes two men, each flying their own kite, but close together: \u201cThey leap \/ they dance \/ they bend and kneel \/ they sway from side to side \/ and turn as one.\u201d When the men and their kites finish their dance, they receive \u201cscattered applause from the small gathered crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

At age 86, Granirer continues to create in new and meaningful ways. She launches her new book at the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival on Feb. 9, 1 p.m. Visit jccgv.com\/jewish-book-festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pnina Granirer launches her new book, Garden of Words, at the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival Feb. 9. (photo from JBF) \u201cUnexpected and unplanned, like small gifts offered by a kind friend, poems have been forming in my head ever since I was a child,\u201d writes Pnina Granirer in her most recent book, Garden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[2466,21198,9857,6691,7544,387],"class_list":["post-38188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-art","tag-garden-of-words","tag-jcc-jewish-book-festival","tag-painting","tag-pnina-granirer","tag-poetry"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}