Nice, Grassy, a bit over-visual perhpas. If a poem is all visual I wonder if
it shouldn't be a painting... and what do you think about these conventions
that say you shouldn't use words such as magic, mysterious, etc in poems? I
think why shouldnt we use them, they are words, I don't see much differnce
between that argument and the one about words ending -ing, personally...
Sally ee
on 4/4/02 9:02 pm, grasshopper at [log in to unmask] wrote:
> Lepidoptera
>
> He paints butterflies and moths
> resting tremulously on flowers
> so delicate you are afraid to breathe
> lest a warm waft lifts them
> away from the paper
>
> his beloved brushes, chisel tipped
> or sucked to a chinese point
> arranged in a dark bronze jar
> like a bunch of smooth stems
> streamlined ikebana
>
> tubes and cakes of paint
> laid in careful spectra
> piled paper like scented sheets
> in a linen press
> aching to be touched
>
> he mixes alizarin, black,
> ochre and white
> precise as a pharmacist
> dilutes, inspects, dilutes
> then floods a new white sheet
>
> when it dries and shrinks
> it will be ready
> not quite white, washed
> with the whisper grey
> fainter than a gnat's shadow
>
> on this he draws the outline
> of wings, a peacock eye,
> antennae fine as shrews' hair
> the flower comes later
> born from the butterfly
> a reflection of its wings
>
> both hover on the page
> suddenly alive
> see the butterfly
> scenting the flower
> you know it is a trick
> but it is still magic
>
> in the corner is a still life
> five crushed red lager cans
> brash as whore's kisses
> bills, books, magazines,
> a mouldy bread baton
> conducting an trio
> of orphaned socks
>
> you wonder if it is
> installation art
>
> perhaps if you stirred it
> gently with a mahlstick
> you might unearth the chrysalis
> of his crumpled rainbow soul
>
> grasshopper
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