Here is violence absorbed,
a wildness, a ferocity,
a turbulence of stick,
ferocity of knife,
pigment wildly thrown:
a clash of disparate energies -
all somehow harvested
as from a tangled garden bed
where buds appear
and tiny leaves
and trailing things
like brambles drawing blood.
"Be still," it said
"and know here is a god."
The canvas knows.
"Be still," it says to me,
be as a tree
with its deep roots
and broad reach of its arms.
Take in the world,
take the world's mess,
Be still as me."
image from Wikipedia
The first line, couldn't get past it's wonderful apt-ness.
ReplyDeleteAloha from Waikiki;
Comfort Spiral
> < } } ( ° >
This is ridiculously beautiful. I love your poetry.
ReplyDeleteYes... the stillness hidden amidst the fury. Waiting.
ReplyDeleteA lot of imagination, a lot of silence.
ReplyDeleteHi Mr Dave,good poem,i like to ask that you wrote a line "and know here is a god"what does that mean.
ReplyDeleteFantastic imagery Dave! The desire to push its presence seemed likely if not for your insistence.
ReplyDeleteHank
I love this poem Dave. The God reference makes total sense to me... I see this canvas as having knowledge of every story ever told or written and displaying fragments of each all at the same time. not disjointed, but unified. It tells each viewer the story they need to hear.
ReplyDeletewow...
ReplyDeleteI like this Dave. I do embroideries which follow the Jackson Pollock line - and I really like the idea that your poem fits my embroideries very well.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I've ever seen anyone make more sense of a Pollock. The tree references are perfect as is the reference from the psalms. Somewhere in the midst of the tangle of life is that stillness. I really like this. Actually, I like Pollock too, because of texturse and colors. I like non-representational art.
ReplyDeleteI feel this very close to what I look for in poetry. It's solemn and determined.
ReplyDeleteTo be read and reread.
This is one of my recent favorites of yours. My favorite lines are:
ReplyDelete"Be still," it said
"and know here is a god."
The canvas knows.
The first stanza does for me as it could describe the effort and motivation that was put into the painting :-).
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ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful poetic radiography or dissection of Pollock as an artist, Dave.
ReplyDeleteI don't like this splatter, No. 5, 1948, at all, but I like the way you have described it and the words you could "hear" from the proud canvas.
This Pollock was sold for $ 140 million in 2006, one of the highest prices ever paid for a painting.
Using your own words, I consider it a clash of disparate energies and a world's mess.
- Be still.
No!, I would never obey this monster despite its high "value".
Pollock, that alcoholic American painter, didn't paint, he just dripped paint on a canvas on the floor so, more than a painter he was a kind of dripper or thrower
(pigment wildly thrown).
I don't like this technique called "action painting": it's just making fun of true art, in my humble opinion.
Pollock made his creations moving all around the canvas; he painted with his entire body, sometimes in a frenzied dance. No brushes, no easels, no palette:
a turbulence of stick,
ferocity of knife.
For me, your poem is an ironic view of modern madness about Art and life in general, where people adore ugliness and stupidity instead of appreciating beauty and merit, where we celebrate the triumph of false gods over the true God.
Thou shalt not adore their gods, nor serve them.
(Exodus 23:24-33)
Anyway, your words have created a great poetic painting about this violent, chaotic, delirious mass of paint where I can find no buds, no leaves, no brambles, believe me!(I have tried with a magnifying glass)
It reminds me of the cloth I use to clean my oil brushes :)
It's the insufferable delirium of a drunkard.
Give a child a canvas and some
paint and he would create something like this, but he would not paint or even imitate a Turner, a Reynolds, a Velazquez or a Dalí.
PD.-
Dave, I miss inverted commas before be as a tree:
"Be still," it says to me,
"be as a tree
........."
(Sorry for deleting my 2 previous comments: I had some problems with my puter. Thanks for your benevolence)
Mr King, a fine poem indeed, although i would never have associated Pollack with 'stillness', I will look again with fresh eyes.
ReplyDeleteI've posted a new Sunday Tree, with, as an experiement, a linky thing. Would you like to link your previous 'Tree' poem to it, or perhaps you would be inspired by one of the trees to write a new one?
Best wishes, Isabel
hi mr dave your poetry is very impressive
ReplyDeleteah...wonderful..the first lines mesmerizing..i think i should call you peotry king :) bravo...
ReplyDeleteInteresting, I have always wondered why people like Jackson Pollock and your poem shows me that there is both energy and stillness in his work. Still wouldn't have it on my wall, mind you! :)
ReplyDeleteCloudia
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for this comment.
december_roses
Hi, and a warm welcome to you, thank you for your very kind comment.
Christine
Hi! Good to have your visit and your comment. Thank you.
haricot
Welcome to the blog and thank you very much for the generous response.
Sunny
No hidden meaning, just what the words say.
kaykuala
Interesting observation. I thank you for it.
Carl
That is a wonderfully helpful - and I think fertile - conceit. I shall go away and have a good think along those lines. Thanks Carl.
Ruchi
Hi,Welcome and thank you for visiting my blog. Thank you also for commenting.
The Weaver of Grass
Thank you so much for a fascinating comment. Will you get to show these embroideries on your blog?
Victoria
Hi, Good to have you visiting and especially good to have your thought-provoking response. It is really encouraging to get such feedback.
Tommaso
Solemn and determined, a good summation of what poetry at its best can be. I am wowwed by the thought that you found it in my poem. Thank you for saying so.
Mary
It's good to get your comment. You choose the three lines I felt to be the key to the poem.
Windsmoke
Indeed, it was meant to srtand for that. Exactly.
Dulcina
Hi A very warm welcome to you and thank you so much for your wonderful contribution to the discussion. I understand where you are coming from, though I have a different perspective on the painting. As with poetry, what a viwer (or reader) gets from it may not always be what the artist put into it - or thought he was putting into it. I'm not sure if a child with a can of paint could ceate something like it; I know I couldn't - I've tried.
Isabel
Many many thanks for your kind compliment - and for your invitation, which I will have a think about.
Nimra
Thank you for your much-appreciated feedback and welcome to my blog. It is good to have you visiting.
Muhammad
Hi, thank you for stopping by and for your response. I regret to say I have not yet been crowned. Still hoping, of course.
Jenny
Fair enough. Thanks for the comment, though. Good to have it.
Very aptly expressed, I like your interpretation of his work, it's deep.
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