For many years my poetry and art have engaged and inspired each other. Sometimes a drawing will inspire a poem ("ekphrasis"); at others the reverse--a poem will be the catalyst for a work of art (as far as I know, there's no technical term for this). These are expressions of two different sides of my being which nevertheless are deeply interconnected. Each is a distinct creative medium--one more imaginative and abstract, the other more sensory and concrete. Dancing together, they illuminate a holistic and multifaceted vision of reality. Following are two recent examples of this personal creative collaboration. In the first instance, the drawing inspired the poem. In the second, it was the poem which came first.
Night In The Badlands
NIGHT IN THE BADLANDS
nothing's here and it's everywhere an absence
to be seen and heard in the chasms the cliffs
that is if there was anyone to watch to listen
a pitiless moon stares down bleaching the rocks
they look eerily like ancient bones stacked in piles
and stars so many! bright close coldly burning
something vital to know that such a primal place
exists that it still goes on implacably without us
without any trace of us thought of us need of us
no one would try to build a Wal-Mart on this spot
nobody would shop here if he did come morning
only a solitary hawk rides the thermals high above
***
"Meanings Dart Away"
WAYS OF KNOWING
what's speakable diminishes year after year
until just a few small wordy islands remain
thrust up like summits of submerged mountains
here's a peak that praises the first green shoots
heralding spring their lean tight eager buds
intrepid daffodils already probing the chill air
another's transfixed by a mourning dove's cry
one long note two short intimate as waking
I can't decide where they leave off and I begin
not that my heart finds less and less to move it
rather what happens strikes deeper stranger
meanings dart away a swarm of luminous fish
I breathe with the ocean now not the land
with huge empty wordless heaving spaces
with night which can never explain all its stars
***
If you'd like to see many more examples of the work of writers who are also artists, I recommend THE WRITER'S BRUSH: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture by Writers, by Donald Friedman, 2007, Mid-List Press, ISBN 978-0-922811-76-2.
