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