So already, recently my husband Scott told me he'd dropped off his submission to Focus on Figures 2022, the North River Arts Society's annual juried figure show, which runs from April 9 to May 9. When I asked Scott if I'd ever seen the painting he chose to submit, he told me he was sure I had; if I looked for "Garden of Balls" on his website, I could see it again, he told me.
So I looked, thought, asked, looked again, put down some thoughts in words; and a few days later, wrote this poem entitled "For the Figure Show."
Why this
painting for this
show?
Go figure, you’d
say gently,
Then let the
question go.
Garden of
Balls
Why this
title for this work
Of thinned
oil on vellum
spread
That offers neither
plants nor
rows
Nor flowers
budding blooming
dead?
Garden of
Balls?
After brief reflection
Since you’d
judge the question fair,
You’d say
without feigning,
“I don’t
think too much
When I name
a painting.”
Garden of
Balls
Why not
Mother of Spheres
Since bald
heads stream
Between
spread thighs
As Mother
bears witness
Through
downcast eyes?
Garden of
Balls
Is this
First Mother Eve
Whose arms
are pinned back
While she wrestles
decree
Presses hard
with her foot
And labors to
be free?
Garden of
Balls
The choice
you made
As I started
dropping balls
That I
juggle in this life
One foot set in the silent
Garden of husband and wife.
______________________
Note:
On April 1, this poem ended with the following two lines:
What is the silent dance
Garden of husband and wife?
On April 2, the poem ended this way:
One foot in the silent garden