punchline

Exclusive excerpts: Part four of Nick Courtright's Punchline, "...Nothingspecial"

This month, CultureMap Austin is proud to present an exclusive poetry series from local writer Nick Courtright, featuring excerpts from his forthcoming debut collection, Punchline. The volume will be available next year from Gold Wake Press, and we're excited to give you this special preview of the author's latest work, which was a finalist for The National Poetry Series. For more information on Courtright, see our series kickoff post. Click here to be notified when the book is available for purchase.

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“Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you obtain it, it is…

~Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki, about enlightenment

…nothing special”

* * *

Nothing Special

Blood vessels are the same as sand by the tracks.

Also palms. All God did

was make a leaf.

The tip-toeing child

reaching for the treat

he’s not to have or quietly padding down the hall

late—if I have to say something

I’ll say tree, I’ll try out the myriad manifestations

of the one, like a hat in a hat

shop

I’ll try on a bunch

but in the end they’re all just hats.

* * *

Ghosts

And when they wake, and drag their hands across every unlit surface

And when they dream they will

It is a question, but by considering it we can whisper amongst ourselves

what it is like to live forever.

There is evidence of monks

who meditate on the fieriness of breath

to warm their bodies even in freezing temperatures.

Then perhaps it is so

we can separate the body into parts and say

I am not this, I am not this.

All because of concentration and what we could call consciousness

grappling in the halfway land or is it

all the way?

Things would be different

if the end hadn’t come, when there was too much choice and not

enough

Being: of all the poems in the world please let just one figure it out.

* * *

Wake

The room is full of flowers,

the flowers are on the wallpaper,

they subsume the walls into flowerness,

there is a person watching the flowers,

I watch the flowers.

Tomorrow, thank you for existing.

So many people are waiting in line, so many people

for all eternity are waiting,

so many waiting people.

* * *

Connection

The seawater sloshes relentlessly

against the green pier, calling God under its breath, God,

God, God,

and nothing changes.

I have a feeling

if I moved

even a bit of it—

if I could move—

it would be like the loose thread on an old argyle sweater

which, pulled, sends

the sweater

spiraling into non-existence.

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Nick Courtright’s debut full-length collection, Punchline, a finalist for the National Poetry Series, is due out next year from Gold Wake Press. Click here to be notified when the book is available for purchase.

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Historic Austin museum will close for more than a year for restoration

Photo courtesy of the City of Austin

The Elisabet Ney Museum will close at the end of 2024 and reopen in mid-2026.

Every building needs some maintenance here or there, and the historic Elisabet Ney Museum needs some extra-special care. Formerly the art studio and residence of its namesake, it's been standing since 1892. It'll spend 2025 in relative solitude, as it undergoes renovation for a year and a half with no visitors allowed.

The museum will close to the public December 30, 2024, and open again in the summer of 2026 if all goes according to plan, a news release from the City of Austin shares. It'll be a quiet period compared to the 21,000 people visiting from around the world each year.

According to a museum overview on the city's website, Elisabet Ney, a European portrait sculptor, bought the property and called her new studio Formosa. She worked on sculptures depicting important Texans like Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston, and collected works of European contemporaries.

The building at 304 East 44th St. includes 3,700 square feet of museum space, which was converted by Ney's friends after her death in 1907. It retains its unique look that juxtaposes a Neo-Classical main studio from 1892 with a later addition from 1902 including a tower for her husband, Edmund, to write in. It is also on 2.5 acres of land, which has largely been restored to its natural state with native species.

A press release lists these tasks (verbatim) within the scope of the new work, referred to as the Capital Improvement Project (CIP):

Restoration of original exterior wood doors and windows
Upgrades and replacement of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system
Replacement of the exhibit and general lighting systems
Repairs to the roof, masonry, plumbing, and interior finishes.

There will also be work to do outside of the building. Workers will replace the pedestrian bridge across Waller Creek, stabilize a 20,000-square-foot portion of the bank, and make the grounds more accessible by adding new pathways.

Funding comes from several sources, according to a release: "the 2012 Bond, Proposition 14, the Parkland Dedication Fund, the Historic Preservation Fund, Partners in Preservation through the National Trust, and contributions from the Friends of the Elisabet Ney Museum."

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