Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Paumanok Reeds



A new series of paintings, Paumanok Reeds.

It was one of those evenings waking up knowing something in my sleep. I searched my old poems for reeds and they were there from the beginning. The first reeds were painted at a lagoon on the west coast of California in 1983. I found them again painting on Long Island in the 1990's.

I was surprised they had ceased in recent poetry.

They have resurfaced in a new poem from 2009 yet unnamed.

There is an idea, that Moses was born in the reads, (sic), it was the arthur, (sic), again-- author of the story, going back into the reeds dreaming the story of the hero.

I recently found in the W C Williams poem, Paterson a " Baby, new born! among the words"

Then these Dylan lyrics, "I was lying down in the reeds without any oxygen".

from Clouds, leaves, waves.







from Clouds, leaves, waves.



1
The rocks on the beach,
were like the reeds painted
at the lagoon, elemental.
A theme silhouetted
that we understood-- as
looking at Andromeda,
the swirl in Orion’s belt,
frogs croaked-- “in puddles
that bathed the stars."



2
tumbling through
Sierras of Spain--
a dry warm wind of inclusion,
swirling, whirling gyres of winding
reeds, generators of thought
and shells transmitted
through a projectors beam,
shadows of figures
on the tent’s walls

The old woman’s clothes
blown in patterns like shells
thrown through beams of light,
whirling in a wind that
rushes through reeds,
Swoosh--

the stain of purple paint,
peering into the layers
the striping wind in the mind,
equating thoughts thrown
on walls, gathering skirts
against the universe,
on the high hill of an older time.








3
trailing off into the woods
by the reeds a reflective pond,
a breeze ripples the surface
ongoing, text of time, the wind
increases

the sparrow alight--
a coming alive, the noticing sign.

The Indian said,
“where the bird stops, there the god is.”

a resultant flash!





4
Seeing order, in details,
valiant information, swallows swoosh--
through the reeds, breaking up
the light’s design into
diamonds reflecting, the sky, drifting...

worrying about the earth.




5
A dream of
the lagoon in the sun,
x's circling the reeds,
a magic realism,
thinking about St. Francis,
the birds he loved...
then, a rustling
a figure in a guise, the reeds,
the thoughts struggling, to be free
returning, then stepping into the fore.









6
Everything is broken,
the man in black turns--
washing his brushes, “I’m done.”
the reeds
blaze red, in silhouette.




7
symbols, flying
endless chain of rings
clouds, leaves, waves-- shells
gather, swirling in clouds, circling
through leaves, passage...
the journey
the wind of time
in reeds, gyres of...




8
Tell the story--
tell of the journey
the forms seen
the light in the reeds,
weaving birds, swallows
trace shapes of shells,
the leaves, and distance--

Stop!
A vertical gasp, creates a height--
to a horizontal pilgrimage
suffering to symbolic moment.









9
Achilles in the reeds,
and my soul betwixt
Crispin’s flaking diamonds.

Abstracting to height
toward Art, as Crispin heightened?
or subtraction from
Nature?





10
Winter’s far flung symbols,
in clouds of ongoing time
faster-faster-faster
more-more-more
ongoing, rushing-- reeds
swoosh-- stop, YES, this!

Meaning--
the rushing on, of
meaning less-- ness--





11
The sprawling of winter
pieces of this --grey.
A diamond scratching the sky,
two figures walking through reeds,
the wind picks up leaves,
shells dream designs, circling

a vase looming, beyond.
Clouds, low flat-bottomed
rush toward destinations,
evaporating, gyring stripes
to shape thoughts, ongoing
as texts in time.









12
A walk around the western Lagoon.

Entering there,
the reeds through the pines
design, a classic view of the bridge
into the distance, ice plant
providing a fairy path... Astride,
beholding the fanning eucalyptus.





13
At noon shining sunflowers
surrounded by broken shells--
reeds silhouetted behind,
in deeper space, water sparkling
diamonds, white and black,
harlequin like, break with surface

into a cubism of the day,
tumbling acrobat, of tantric
cosmology.




14
abstracted, changed, giving pleasure
between imagination and reality
light shining, as the wind blows
gently through reeds, revealing forms
in paintings.


drawing a vision
for the creation of the day.

“...it’s rush hour now, and the sun is
going down...”

far off-- Point Conception.










15
The tent on the beach,
stars above, black rocks
in the sand reflecting in pools,
trees in ragged
silhouette,
beyond, the reeds dreaming
in the lagoon.




16
A western scene,
breaking water, birds circle

the figure in the reeds,
leaving down a fairy trail.
An oriole in a palm, flys swooping
towards the beach, the dunes.
Saluting the ocean, then
looking down, a skull
on the tide, seaweed’s fingers





poised on the Bridge, a new reality
abstracted, changed, giving pleasure
between imagination and reality
light shining, as the wind blows
gently through reeds, revealing forms
in paintings.









17
“...no man shall see the end.”
the reeds, the rock like island
arches, as the Dipper arcs ‘round
blinking the finality,
through the silhouetted reeds.





18
Cavalier sun
bringer of new realities,
the tragedian recovers
sustaining a patrol through reeds.
The ideal moment
of reality imagined--
balanced, then falling.









19
sets up this still life, altar of flowers,
finds shells on the shore,
reads the poetry of life and death
in the sunset, red, passing


the reeds, the rock like island
arch, as the Dipper arcs ‘round
blinking the finality,
through the silhouetted reeds.





he “...was lying down in the reeds,
without any oxygen...”

(a babe born in words!)

from Road Movie





from Road Movie




a big buck deer, zig zagging
down the beach,
its antlers held high, looking
I guess, for a place
to hide itself, veering off

into some reeds and was gone
it’s hard to imagine again-- it was
very fast, something hidden
then exposed
then again, this place collapsing into itself




as the full moon rose behind,
the green reeds in the purple sky
the brownish red of the silk,
flows in a soft breeze
the flag of a disposition--




blank upon the sand, feeling
a still warm SUN
LIGHTS UP THE GOLDENROD
AGAINST THE VERONESE SKY
OF VICTORIOUS ANGEL

WING CLOUDS, THROUGH REEDS
BURNISHED GOLD--WHITE
THE GLARE!
and splash, neck-laced labia ringed
wave

slurp and gurgle, as
grackles black, in that yellow flare--









starry night
reeds, Milky Way
of black
bright imagination,
bubbly drift
and sleep




the bee buzzing blown
down the beach over the
tangled reeds,
white burnt etched light
of broken waves striped

and targeted,
seen and
gone
tilting over the wave,
gone.





wedding the west, to beloved
Snowman

skull and table,
the red table
reeds burning
sunflowers overturned

the Comedian enters,
stumbling through washboard of Nevada










fading colors through reeds
the sunflowers,
by their repetition, comic--
brown, now, tragic stripes
the bread and the wine--

toppled still-life
unrealized, blank
dark now
inner form,
emerges


turns to twilight,
depth and shade




lost in the reeds,
colder
sun going down
green
pop
against
oranging

sky before
last gasp




AMBIVALENCE, repeated
sneaking off through
the reeds
from here where it began
for me I go on




from All One, revolving and Back 2 the StudiO


from All One revolving




The lagoon, walk about

Snake song
Fairy path-- there!
Blue man in the reeds,
Against the sun’s setting
The Heron call--
another notch is tightened

Gears turn,
revolving the moon

Into the night
Big idea! flashing
Shield dreaming
Name-- born in thought
the reeds--
floating

Revolving zodiac
Mind turning










from Back 2 the StudiO




this emptying out
a breath,

passing leaf, a breath in--
the reeds, breathing out
here again, right here
world passing through
dipper down, turning round

cross hatch and over hatch
water from great height
crashing in comet form
distance, arriving
repeating, remembering

Thursday, March 5, 2009

SuN, HERO, Star.




1.

And the leaves come green
And the outer blaringS of day!
Yes, the Sun’s ray,
Multitudinous Diamonded RealitY!

Harlequin Height--
Sun blood in the eye!
Red reality, at pinnacle--
Tragic trajectory, coming
Down, that Famous sun

Tic- toc time, remembering
Something, the one eyed man--
“The slug horn blown”
Red sky, OLD sun!
He’d hung his life on,

Some Thing, Meaning or cycle of--
Thought--Not just Nuttin’--
No Being, or Ideal--
Well, then, just this sun, again!
A Figure, Terrible and Gay

He held the flower up,
Achilles stood in black
SUN Shield Shimmer
That was his dream.
Going back into,

He was off once more--
Of Davy Crocket POEM!
What was always nearly
At an end,
Hero of DAY, the JANGLING

CRYSTALLINE-- BEAUTY!
There! He said it-- Out Loud!
Others heard--
OH HEAR!, it darts
And stings.









What they called HERo
In his “as if--” world
Crispin made a Mark on the Wall,
Another, they added up
To something.

Hero Sun and suN smeared Villa
The red walls,
The bird flew across the floor
He remembered seeing a silhouette, black. There
High up in the distance.

Stream, tumbling
GREY leaves, jimble
And jump, scatter, as before
The clouds, pass--
Pass, sliding over the top

All the poems
Inner forms, repeated
Over and over
In HIS cartoon notebook
Shapes somersaulted

It started with the SUN!
It identified the HERO!
Smoke, drift Hero of wasting day
Lowering globe
Scattering slate

That weird invigorating tint of sky
Always arriving That,
Regalier in racoon hat and pajamas
"By the shores of gitchy goomy,
Flat footed HERO,

By the shining big sea water"
QuestinG! Her Majesty's Bounty!
Through the waves!, AHAB, Ha!
Thrusting-- forth!
Into Oranging--REALITY falling to tint









He balanced a flowered Sprig,
Lilac--The Forever rocking,
Incessant death scent, the rocking
Round Sun, Thou orb!
And death, whispering

What he knew he couldn’t say
It flew across the floor,
Earth whizzing, falling back and
Constant, The Shadow of,
Through, stars,The STARS.

Hurled to the ground,
The clouds puffing to thunderhead
Eternal height tinged, and
Turning to evening,
Slate and yellowing stripe, purple

Repeated, Black dome closing
All the parts
Like all the stars, describing below
The everything at once!
The head Of the Hero!

Coming round now
Chaotic fiction, shapes of Leviathan,
The out of any order--
The stars, were revolving,
THE STUDIO walls, it mirrored



No home, with no flowered couch,
But stars
No football game on Sundays,
Just shapes!
And a palette of color.

Consider this! THE DOG would WAIT
IN dark, bright stars
He wondered how to express this death
He saw it in the landscape
In that distance.









Arriving Sun,
The paintings revolving
The LAST JUDGEMENT
On the WALL,
Leaves and fragments

Clouds and ocean wave
He was finishing the StudiO!
The garden-- he thought
A last cycle, in the stars.
The moon coming up.

2.

“Create something
Of that broken scene”, he said
Remaking--
The Sunflower Altar.
The minotaur carted it away,

Identity with the Sun,
Shading into night-- Sea drift
THOU ORB ALOFT!
Sun smeared cycle,
Turning to icy self, This

No man, Between polarity
Opening on the new-- world
Dreamed in winter of city snow
Yes, and the Sun is setting
Color was ironic after all--

Fragmented circle, the images
Clattering, Revolving, climb-- fall back,
Into Night time, and shade
Comic sublime, some story.
Forever taking off

A flower in his teeth
Watching for cricket, underfoot!
We were all singing for freedom
Red and yellow--in mountain blue
Diamonded spangled blanket design









The mesa upended into an
Elevated mass of
Darkening shape,
There in the sunset
Purple swoosh--

Junco twit
Constant, thit-- thit
Here I am,
Here I am!
Jays, scrabble

Tic- tic- tic-
The Great HerO taking leave
We go on about this Yes, though
We scrawl a tragedian
Testament, The sky is not moved--

The story goes on,
Expanding beyond Simple edge
He made a change here and there
Giotto like Villa--
Wall and--

A World, The World
Earth a plaster cracking--
His arms outstretched
Greeting the birds
Falling, falling

Snow storm and Ice
Through repeated motif--
The great disappointment
Torn to pieces, ONE DAY THE KNIGHT
WILL AWAKEN

THAT MORNING
SLAYING DRAGONS
NO ONE TO BAR HIS WAY
HERO dismembered
Well, I’m making it all up.











Of those city WALLS--
Pulling him in
They were unforgiving-- They
Could kill a man
Same Star SPANGLED dream

Tower, off in the distance
Chanting the things!
Wandering afar
Wave breaking over--
The kitchen silence, the

Light streaming in
Trees yellow now along the river
Winding through,
Some story worth telling
In Season

Hoo, Hoo!
Stars, dust, dirt
The abstraction to ONE,
A big Orange square
Not wanting to leave

This Wilder place
“And he’s following a star--”
Writing it down
Each day
The bed beside the windows

Stars turning
The sky grew light and
He’d run to the other sidE
Of the house to watch
The Mountain lighten--

Waking up to see it all changed.
Reality receding
IT Dies-- changing
Bring back
With black line

Lasso and tie it down
To edge
An animal outside
Sniffing, sniffing, was gone
He woke to Cold and WinD

ShaPes in tHe BlacK.