This memory popped up a couple days ago, and — considering the suitability of the season — it’s prime for re-appraisal.

Back in 2008, I participated in the Arts Kaleidoscope exhibition in Muncie, Indiana — an event (at the unfortunately erstwhile Gallery 308) which paired writers with visual artists, the former creating works inspired by the latter.  I was privileged to get matched up with painter Jim Faulkner, a regional legend of sorts who passed away last January.  In a May, 2021 story for the Muncie Journal, Faulkner was called the “Ambassador of Indiana’s Beauty.”

My task was to create a poem that paid tribute to Faulkner’s simply-titled watercolor, “The Woods,” while imparting my own voice and style.  What I came up with was the following poem, “Heckle and Jeckle’s Catch-22.”

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