Venice at Dawn – Photo from Pinterest
sinews of city
in the hour of sunrise
find veneration
From my books City of Pawns and Riverthink
Art
All posts tagged Art
Stained Glass Window by The Vinery Glass Studio
stained glass gardens
humiliate real flowers
prismatic pieces
split rays of the sun
into factions of color
spears of morning who
penetrate petals
light bursting in blooms
upon patterns of
soldered seam joinery
lifting the life through
each intimate window
each mouth-blown
and delicate glazing
to place its artisanal
kisses on eyelids
who quiver awake
ever grateful for love
in the form of esthetic
affectionate gifts from
the generous capable
hands of a craftswoman
conqueror partner
whose heart captured
mine half a century
since and still now
more than ever her
tending and tenderness
making the all of my days
stained glass gardens
From my book Ephemera
“Pietà” by Michelangelo
marble preachers
deliver their sermons
wordlessly speaking
through sculpture to
lately diminishing masses
depicting dimensions
exemplars of fealty and faith
reverential esthetics
a hushed iconography
coaxing ambivalent souls
to the purpose of prayer
to that peaceable interlude
quiet with dialogue
man with his God
private personal words
amid liturgies scripted
and publically joined
catholic artforms who tend
to offend plainer
protestant ministries
argue commandments
interpreted even to point
of iconoclast wars
schisms east and west
old and new ruptures
along the same route
Michelangelo traced with
the consummate grace of
his hammers and chisels
straight into the rebirth
of reverence for creations
by creatures the Creator
has made sculpture either
of flesh or of stone likewise
settles my ancestral soul
From my book Ephemera
“The Burning Giraffe” by Salvador Dali
flights of deconstruct
reconstruct fancy
fantastical visions
dismembered familiar
atrocities masked of
their outrage composed
revolutions of images
straddling the gap
between dreams
and reality raising up
visual voices that clang
in the ear of the eye
prima facie absurdity
shot through with
uncontrolled rational
politics viewpoints
exempt from esthetical
colloquy lifting the work
off its page off its canvas
to float on provocative
currents of thought
unforgettable statements
the art of anarchic
surprise using juxtaposed
features of chaos as
message and medium
From my books Ephemera and Legacies (vol. 2)
The Krzywy Domek House in Sopot, Poland
poured from fantasy
melting with modernity
pretentious art
From my books Pieces of Wine and Riverthink
“Day of Glass” by Erich Heckel
sand and ash
plain ideas
made from
granular thought
come to bond
in the heat of
intelligent fire
transformed in
that singular
chalice of bone
conscious crucible
elements changed
intellectual alchemy
purges impurity
giving release from
the sins of obscurity
rendered transparent
no longer a solid
not yet quite a liquid
a slow-moving
pensive deliberate
shapelessness
seeking some nobly
provocative form
ineluctably cooled
into choices of
permanence
ethically clear
artful lenses or
vessels admitting
of light the full
spectrum of truth
able now to be
sharply discerned
and displayed
defined starkly and
wholly accessible
no more excuses or
errors of judgment
but truth must be
handled with care
revelation can startle
and clarity can blind
sand and ash
plain ideas
the mean friable
substance of
unrefined minds
though they undergo
wizardry burned
and then turned
into beautiful glass
brilliant specimens
smoothly well-reasoned
exquisite exhibits of
vitreous wisdom
are evermore fragile
yes those
even those
best and highest
expressions of
artisan minds
can be easily shattered
by the merest
oblivious flick from
a philistine boor
Portrait by Tim Mueller
pale blue lines
outline blotches
the shapes and
the shadows of
life by the numbers
faint color codes
cover the mass
produced canvas
designed to create
one more mass
produced portrait
with pigments that
daub and dress
mutual features
of character
common to crowds
save for moments
infrequently fresh
here and there
now and then
when a self-minded
painter flips over
the art board and
makes of its sheer
daunting blankness
a brave handed
bold colored vision
a one-of-a-kind
most remarkable life
From my book Ephemera
“Four Freedoms” by Norman Rockwell
with hands that
could illustrate
moments in time
with eyes that saw into
the soul of a nation
①
blessed with liberty
voices speak freely
the simple the wise
inveigh government
brooking no censorship
②
blessed with liberty
hearts worship freely
the simple the wise
pray their conscience
without interference
③
blessed with liberty
hands produce freely
the simple the wise
earn honest rewards
wealth built unobstructed
④
blessed with liberty
lives enjoyed freely
the simple the wise
secure in their dreams
unoppressed by grave threat
familiar vignettes
relatable scenes
American realism
right for the joy of
a Saturday evening
From my book Pieces of Wine
“Pietà” by Michelangelo
marble preachers
deliver their sermons
wordlessly speaking
through sculpture to
lately diminishing masses
depicting dimensions
exemplars of fealty and faith
reverential esthetics
a hushed iconography
coaxing ambivalent souls
to the purpose of prayer
to that peaceable interlude
quiet with dialogue
man with his God
private personal words
amid liturgies scripted
and publically joined
catholic artforms who tend
to offend plainer
protestant ministries
argue commandments
interpreted even to point
of iconoclast wars
schisms east and west
old and new ruptures
along the same route
Michelangelo traced with
the consummate grace of
his hammers and chisels
straight into the rebirth
of reverence for creations
by creatures the Creator
has made sculpture either
of flesh or of stone likewise
settles my ancestral soul
(originally posted January 2015)
“Sunrise, Le Havre” by Claude Monet
broken impasto
caught on candid natural light
more essence than edges
(originally posted April 2013)
Poesy plus Polemics 