I like it, perhaps because it too seems so formal(ized)?
But the address seems different in the final stanza, Lawrence, a shift from 'one' to 'you' implied, but I'm not sure how or why. There's a stasis of the 'is' in the first 2, & I wonder if you can edit a bit of that out?
Doug
On Nov 13, 2013, at 5:09 AM, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Facets of this river are boxed away
>
> and rarely seen but as humdrum imagery.
>
> It is decoration that is wanted,
>
> released as what is seen as cool;
>
>
>
> and so one stands near the fountain, to stare
>
> over a field of pools, in profusion,
>
> quietly wondering why it has been set here,
>
> pleased nevertheless for certain calm.
>
>
>
> Yet, now look closer and regard them well:
>
> watch how lines are drawn momentarily
>
> by and into water itself, a mode of dance,
>
> constructing space and edges within it,
>
> without ever stacking what it collects
>
> to distort or divert the visible meaning.
>
Douglas Barbour
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Art is always the replacing of indifference by attention.
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