PHOTO OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG WOMAN

Eyes. Always begin with the eyes.

Abstracted, hers gaze half-away

beyond the border lines.

Fixed in far-off monochrome,

this face had time to prepare,

yet is smooth with the sureness of youth.

Mane of hair, centre parted,

is a curtain not yet drawn back.

Not picture perfect. The slight wave

a question – like woods and flowers

on an upward path – where she sees

how earthbound feet might tread.

Face you could be sweet on –

before the muttering retreats

of hip replacement, varifocus

and whiny hearing aids.

When once – through blindfold of our dreams –

we would conjure worlds uncropped.

iv. 2018

WHAT THE EYE DOESN’T SEE

Before fake news and photoshop,

we used to say

the camera never lies.

Yet, in this bowl of night,

fish-eyes collect and amplify

the light beyond discernment’s reach.

 

More shades than green meet here

in ribbons, plumes and streaming spikes,

then fade, but flow again.

Their known particulars –

of solar wind, magnetic field and charge released –

expose our partial sight.

 

By boundless silence held,

as underlings, we name the stars.

And do not need to hear,

from yard-thick ice, some muffled creak

to understand

there’s a lake unseen, below.

  iii.2018

  many thanks to Bruno Keiser for the photo