This planet is not terra firma
What was most significant about the lunar voyage was not that man set foot on the Moon but that they set eye on the Earth. On the first day in space they pointed to countries. On the third day they pointed to continents and by the fifth day they were aware of only one […]
Birthplace
On his eightieth birthday, up at the lake first snow, ‘ensilumi’, fell in spirals of white garlands through the dark branches of spruce and alder. The old gang of party-makers climbed out of their station wagons and picked their way across the ice towards the old smoke sauna. Inside, the enormous mound of rocks spat […]
Nightwatchman
Nightwatchman Sleep seeps through the house from room to room like evening mist, enveloping one by one the bodies laid out in the darkness. Now only the last pair of eyes gleams white in the night, just that last brain remains under management control, turning over and over some scheme or other.
February Challenge
Okay, it’s too big to ignore. We’re confronted daily by the antithesis of Light… Here’s a poem by Edward Baugh: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/nightwalker and another by D.H. Lawrence. It’s worth listening to Glyn Maxwell read it as he adds an insight into Lawrence’s technique. http://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/bavarian-gentians Poems about the dark can take many turns – political, natural, personal… They raise questions, too – can the […]
Self-portrait with Seven Fingers
Your criticism in useless to me. I throw it out. Along with stale water lilies and threadbare nudes. My colours are barbaric. Those that A child throws on and over paper and table. Une figuration anti-logique I capture the dream. Steel and fever and speed pulse in my fingers. I am honourable in my madness. […]
Paintings in the Local Art Exhibition
Paintings in the Local Art Exhibition 1. ‘White Poppies’ Look at them, crowding from the frame like girls in Communion frocks who wait for the photographer to pose them, drop the shutter’s blade, fix them in their purity. Already a red spot on the corner of the glass — the Wolf loves innocence. 2. ‘Single […]
in the art gallery
bearded Renaissance man who shops at Ikea buying cheap print on large canvas cooks beans on toast woman who saves cats raves about Baroque wears patent boots and a gaudy frock in the art gallery they enjoy the space between them in general cats avoid him Baroque makes him queasy a beard is a beard […]
Terrasse a Sainte-Adresse
Terrasse a Sainte-Adresse Whenever I look at this painting reproduced in my book on Monet, I think of the view from a balcony over another garden and seascape. Whenever I look at that view, I think of the painting. Different parts of the world separated by a century and a half, but the atmosphere is […]
February Challenge – a bit later than expected
Great poems at the stanza meeting last night… a couple about paintings which made me think that there are all kinds of things to be said about paintings… here’s Auden saying one: http://www.english.emory.edu/classes/paintings&poems/auden.html Paintings. In particular or in general.
Expectation
The last of the yen went on sake, wasabi peanuts, dried squid tentacles, the makings of a memorable meal planned for an early reunion where, after the inevitable jet-lag, we would juggle our memories along with the chopsticks. Nine hours to the west the tastes were revolting, sake an oily blandness soon poured away, the […]