Poems About Paintings
These poems are an outgrowth of the painting process. In showing the paintings to friends and others I am often asked to provide explanations for some of the works. Not being satisfied with my explanations, I have written poems which I hope will supply all the elucidation and obfuscation necessary to provide full comprehension of my artistic intentions. If you feel comfortable with your own interpretations of the paintings, then please feel free to ignore the poems.
(You may click on an image to see an enlargement.)
The Albion Collection
(A booklet of the poems in this section, "The Albion Collection", is available from the artist.)
Aurora
the dark
the light
occur recur
horizon repeats
color returns
to earth
to sky
a day
a night
a day
the azures and blues
the crimsons and vermilions
the ochres and golds
return
occur recur
the light
the dark
Hard to Say
It's like, that is,
I mean it's just,
you know what I'm
saying?
I think,
really, that's what
it is.
Shedding the Skin
A feeling of tightness,
constriction.
My old ways of being
hold me in,
caught in my own skin,
this skin I'm living in.
Time to
leave it behind,
hanging on a tree,
leaving me
free.
Night Sea Journey
Deep in the seas
of sleep
shapes move,
appear,
disappear,
escaping the drag
nets of consciousness.
Starved for light
they create their own glow,
then fade
into the dark depths
of memory.
Triptych
Reaching out to touch his chest,
she turned her bare back
away from him
as he leaned toward her
slight figure.
When they embraced,
it was their torsos
alone
that mattered.
Their faces had disappeared somehow,
outside
their frames of reference.
Back 2 Back
Crouching down,
rising up,
turning around,
and back down again.
Skin knows skin,
front to front,
back to front,
or back to back.
Creation
Time is in flux.
Now becomes then.
There becomes here.
Matter attracts matter.
Energy becomes light.
All is one for a moment,
then all becomes different.
The Capture of Proteus
Wanting to know
the future, you seize
the old man of the sea.
I elude your grip,
shifting shape
at will, frustrating
your expectations
of what I am
and what I should be.
But you shall know
neither the truth of my being
nor the being of my truth.
The secret of your future
is the secret of your past,
for the tighter you grasp this mystery,
the more it changes its form.
The Embrace
The alchemy of attraction
has its own set of equations.
It brings distinct elements together
with the catalyst of desire
into a crucible of flesh.
What burns in this fire is
not destroyed,
but transformed
into a new, living,
breathing creation.
Spirit Dance
Riding winds
from the myriad corners
of the world
the spirits gather.
Each dressed in the colors
of their songs
they dance
in pools of light,
whirl and shimmer,
stop and start,
from dusk to dawn.
Then fly away.
Human, All Too Human
There is no superman,
no ubermensch.
There is only this flesh,
this bone, this muscle.
I stand here alone,
flexing my strength,
sensing my weakness;
trapped in my silence,
wanting to scream.
The Myth of Sisyphus
Naked, he climbs,
over and over,
the hill of his suffering,
rolling his burden of tasks
before him.
Each day a new journey.
He can never stop, never rest,
only pause, in silent contemplation,
as night falls on the
slowly turning ball.
The Judas Cradle
Do you see what awaits you, heretic?
The iron girdle, the ropes and pulley?
Do you see the cost of denying
our ever so merciful God?
The price you pay
for unbelief?
Day Dream
The light of summer
is a living thing,
breathing life into
trees, shrubs, soil.
Rising and falling
on the wind,
revealing and concealing
the texture of the day
in a blade of grass.
Out/Side/In
A wall of bone,
rock and nerves,
lies splayed before your eyes.
Go ahead,
find a foothold,
and start to climb.
First your left eye,
then your right,
slowly ascend.
In/Side/Out
A leaf is a shell,
is a seed, is an eye
looking at the world
from within a forest,
a body, a sea.
As above, so below;
as within, so without.
A mouth is a branch, is
a fish, is a bee, is a fossil.
As within, so without.
Bye-Bye, Baja
The rush westward
backed us up against the end
of the continent.
Tongues tied, we attempted
the calligraphy of a new language
that no one knows.
Three flames were lit against the silence,
illuminating what no one said.
Sutter's Mill
tick tack toe
do-si-do
mud and nugget
gold and bucket
The Secret of the Golden Flower
Breathe in,
breathe out.
Energy rises,
energy falls.
The body's heat
follows the breath,
lighting the fires
glowing within.
Macro/Micro
1.
The land recedes,
sloping down, rising up.
Light descending
on waves of hills.
2.
A bank of clouds,
reflected in
the ocean below,
rests on the horizon.
3.
The large made small,
the small, large.
Relative to scale,
perspectives shift.
Mojave
Shimmers and waves of light
rise and sink
through the haze of heat.
Each day another instant:
a new emptiness returning
along the endless
horizon.
Abyss Eden
A flaming dawn breaks
on the stunted tree
of forbidden knowledge.
Hanging from withered branches,
the mutant serpents
guard the birth
of a new wisdom:
An understanding
beyond good and evil,
outside the constraints of language,
becoming pure color,
painting a new world.
Mothership
Floating or flying,
this womb of loving grace
sets its offspring loose,
to float or fly away,
on the tides, or winds
of chance.
Prime Cuts
On special today:
Filleted minions.
Porterhouse stake.
Stripped bass.
Breast of toad.
Leg of scapegoat.
Nice, fresh, sacred cow,
cut to order
at your request.
Badlands
Outcroppings, ageless erosions,
stand in the sun and wind.
Tenacious shoots struggle upward\
through the layered soil.
Distant smoke
rises in the atomic sky,
fueled by oil
from deep under ground.
Time and Tide
rise and fall
the liquid sky
the airy sea
as years recede
from sands and
waves will rise
and fall in
time and tide
tide and time
and fall in
waves will rise
from sands and
as years recede
the airy sea
the liquid sky
rise and fall
in time and tide
tide and time