Ruth Ann Allaire

Dialogues Between Two Ruth Ann Allaire

"Can sagacity of words prevail against the poignancy of pictures?" is perhaps the most central theme of this book, Dialogues between Two who tried to love and failing that tried to share their inner dimensions. An artist, George Hickle Garland (1944-1983) and a poet, Ruth Ann Allaire, shared a brief moment in time in the early 1980s, George died in an automobile accident in 1983. Ruth Ann kept the pictures he had drawn and in dealing with her grief developed a book in an attempt to answer the original question. Now almost 40 years later she is publishing this book and hopes that you, the reader, will share their dialogue about the many questions of life. Either the poem was about a shared experience, for example, You and I, or about the same subject from the view of each. For example, Strawberries. The relationships with families are also examined in The Reasons They Didn't Write and At Her Father's Grave. Love and hate, life and death, grief and solace are subjects covered at some length. Violence rears itself in ugly reality in Give Away. Erotic love appears in Classicism and The Tickle of Your Beard as well as Walking on the Sand Spit In February. The pain of loss is prevalent throughout the book and the imagery both literal and figurative permeates the work bringing us to the original question "Can sagacity of words prevail against the poignancy of pictures?" Take your time and examine each poem against each picture and decide which portrays the subject more effectively. If you want to share your comments e-mail rallaire@aol.com or post on www.aginggracefullyandgratefully.com