Les Bernstein
(USA)
My company’s name is Tableau.
My tables, desks and dining tables are in homes across the U.S.A.
Each one is designed specifically for the patron.
These functional sculptures are made with glass, raw metals and found pieces.
Their bases may include wheels (casters) from old mechanical pieces or items as unique as antique children’s scooters.
Some pieces include sentimental objects from the patron such as a child’s lock of hair, a photo of a loved one, written wishes and other treasures.
These are sealed within the metal.
There is always a line of one of my poems hidden in the piece as I am foremost a poet.
I believe that the simplest items can be elevated to living art and that life can be a tableau.
Everyday
every day in the middle distance
I build my house
the foundation yoked to plausibility
a dreamscape yard
underneath a waking life
a charmed unconcern
makes sacred
altars for ordinary life
rooms built for forgetting
every day I build
a structure from the roof down
beams high
a hint of dry rot
every day I build
strange mysteries of small benedictions
a story carved in bone
no matter how unique
not exactly new
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About Les Bernstein
Les Bernstein lives in Mill Valley, California with her family of 15. A two years ago. Les took her poems from herpockets and drawers and started the submission process. Bernstein’s poems have appeared in the Marin Poetry Anthologies, California Quarterly and her chapbook was published this year by Finishing Line Press. Bernstein has just completed her first poetry reading and all survived.