Friday, April 1, 2022

For the Figure Show

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."

Garden of Balls
 
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
Of husband and wife.

No comments:

Post a Comment