"Bodies in Motion," Agni 81 (spring 2015).
The stride of a galloping horse is too fast for the human eye to see with any precision. We can't detect, exactly, how the hooves touch and leave the ground. Nor are our human bipedal frames designed to ride that movement, at least not without inflicting a perceptible burden on the horse's body. It has taken me a long time to understand that to ride my horse, my leg and hip and shoulders and spine must move in a way that the human body was not quite designed to do. I have wondered if the problem of rendering motion and the problem of riding motion do not share something crucial: a desire to possess something our human bodies can't quite contain. Riding wants the motion of another body; painting wants the feeling.
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Agni interview on ekphrastic prose.
2015 Pushcart Prize Honorable Mention