While I am proud of this animation, I felt a tad hesitant about posting it in its present form. It all reduces itself to timing. The biggest difference between the animated GIFs I've created/posted on Illumination Gallery over the past decade and my more recent Flash animations is the level of control I have with Flash. Animated GIFs can be very powerful, but part of their power lies in their jagged flow, which generates an abstract dynamic. With Flash one can attain almost absolute control. Or one can struggle with control & highlight that struggle. For me it's always been about highlighting my struggle to understand how human beings process imagery and text. Our mind/souls are organic visual grids wherein words trigger epiphanies we are aware of to varying extents. As software becomes more sophisticated, artists working with computers can begin to truly reflect this process. When I first read Blackbird's wonderful poem, imprints from Rosewater, the words leaped off my computer screen, beckoning me to animate them. The trick to this animation is that it runs both too quickly and too slowly, and that's why I felt a certain reticence in posting it. Yet I am very satisfied with the animation's overall feel.