on 19/1/02 8:02 am, grasshopper at [log in to unmask]
wrote:

I like parts of this very much, grassy, especially the last section, from As
I forget to think. The Dickens allusion I find rather unsettling, especially
the word whiskered which doesnt seem to go with fruit at all (unless the
fruit is mouldy). I  like the lush descriptions and I prefer less of the
aesthetic argument, just a touch of it like you have in the last quatrain,
as a comment on the visual/sensual thing; the begnning is a  bit slow to me,
and if you are going to make this point about sides of your brain, then I
think that and the ending observations are about all the phiosophising you
can cram into this poem, which essentially offers bright colours and round
curves, like a still life.
Sally-ee

> Drawing from Life
>
> Two apples and a peach. The bruised pear
> I replaced in the slick Tesco bag,
> and the chequered tablecloth I folded
> neatly along its pattern.
> So the fruit
> sits on the polished wood, reflecting.
> I have pinned a new sheet of paper
> to my board with due tautness
> and determination. Now I look
> with proper eyes.
> See the colours and curves and the lines
> which do not exist. Let the point
> of the pencil trace out their relationships,
> balance them perfectly in the space
> allotted;
> considering, as I think, that one side
> of my brain says that this peach is simply
> a peach, like any other peach, categorises
> and dismisses peach,
> and the other side
> sees this peach with special grace
> so deep and unique that I could lose
> myself in peach for hours
> while somewhere
> else an urgent hand counts time
> like a Dickensian clock,upright
> and bewhiskered.
> As I forget to think,
> only feel the shapes and hues,
> the luscious greens and yellows
> blushing into scarlet and vermilion
> stripes like the tulips I held years ago,
> soot-black pollen on my fingers,
> taste of butter on my tongue,
> the gold and apricot velvet arcing
> against a dim blue plane of wall.
>
> These are only three fruit, says reason,
> set out on a board, but intuition
> rolls them out like little worlds
> and opens wide the gates of Eden.
>
> grasshopper