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November 19, 2011

New York, Tashkent

Henry Moore’s Reclining Figures, Lincoln Center, 10/15/11

 

Looking east on the way to work 10/10/11, Tashkent

North of Tashkent, 10/5/11

Home to New York (and North Carolina) from three months in Uzbekistan, sooner than anticipated, full of unforgettable images of similarity and difference and strong feelings for those so briefly and intensely in my life, more keenly aware of personal vulnerabilities and more roundly grateful, I read again this morning the words of Alisher Navoi. His statue stands as prominently in Tashkent as his place in Uzbek language and literature, and these lines read today as personal and specific, public and universal.

Better the cobble that paves the way

Than a gem locked away from the light of day.

**

The only way to decrease one’s sufferings

Is to increase one’s understanding.

**

When justice is the corner-stone of power,

A ruined land will soon be made to flower.

In a johnny pump on the Lower East Side…a fresh flower every day…August 2011

 

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